Celeb adhd/asd- helpful or hindrance

[mids2019]

If you Google celebs with autism or adhd you are faced with a plethora of contemporary or historical characters with confirmed or suspected asd/adhd including Einstein and Elon Musk .

Does it help having so many high profile people being neurodivergent or does it lead to a bit of apathy amongst the neurotypical public; 'x is autistic or has adhd so it's not really a problem as they are incredibly successful '

I suspect I have some traits of adhd/autism but feel I can't be more open as there seems to be an attitude from many 'well isn't everyone' and look on it as an excuse.

I don't think there's a straight binary answer to this - it's great in that it makes people realise that we're not defective or broken just because we're autistic, and it increases awareness.

On the other hand, it only increases awareness of the word; it doesn't seem to have increased the level of understanding of what it means. Worse, very few people seem to even want to understand. And yes, from what I've seen there's very much been an increase in the number of "Oh, we're all on the spectrum somewhere" people as a result of it.

Back to the positives, though, I do think it's resulted in a lot more people being diagnosed later in their lives, which means a lot more of us actually are getting the chance to understand - and forgive - ourselves, and realising that we're not just broken facsimiles of human beings.

I tend to get the “I’d never know you had that diagnosis/you don’t look Aspie” etc. THIS IS BECAUSE I CAMOUFLAGE it each and every day. Then, people ask “so, who’s the real you?/are you giving an “act?”

No. Not at all. I am as I am but, I cannot keep it up endlessly. I find it easier with those I don’t know that well or people I don’t need to “perform” for. It’s really really hard with people who just don’t “get me”.

I think celebs who are open about their own personal experiences can show that so called “normal” people, those you’d never think might have asd are indeed “normal” functioning people but… their barcode is slightly different.

don't you think though that we all mask out personalities to some extent neurotypical or neurodivergent? I do think diagonally of celebs maximal well that, yes, it does lead to a public cynicism that may be unhelpful.

Also don't you think we are prone to stereotyping scientists in particular when we possibly artificially assume all the greatest theoretical physicists in history 'had' to be neurodivergent?

My concern is some celebs using neurodivergence to make their character a little edgier or portray success being gained through struggle which a popular narrative.

Katie Price is the latest celeb to claim she has ADHD. She's blaming it on all her troubles

It's really hard because for example with ASD, it's a condition that varies on so many dimensions. Celebrities are by definition so successful that it could give a misleading impression of autism as something rarely disabling. There can be a toxic positivity aspect. So I do feel it could lead to apathy in the general public, and some people maybe labelling themselves a bit too lightly as well. I've just been diagnosed and the scariest part is that there just isn't a lot of help or knowledge following from it, if any. So however much celeb awareness there may be, the general situation of actual support remains not great.

Masking isn't about a change of personality, though, it's about pretending to be neurotypical - ie trying to cover up the fact that our social interactions and behaviour are markedly different - in order to avoid crippling social rejection, at the cost of our own ability to function outside of those interactions.

That's one of the things that I really, really wish the NT world would learn, so we don't have to do it any more.

Tbh I always thought she was. I vaguely remember seeing an interview with her years ago before i knew anything about ADHD and she put me in mind of a female relative

I look back, since being diagnosed and think that relative definitely had ADHD.

don't you think though that we all mask out personalities to some extent neurotypical or neurodivergent?

The thing with masking is it is so utterly exhausting.
Do NT’s come back from work each day and feel so tired that they could easily climb into bed and pass out for 2 hours before they have the energy to cook dinner or do anything

Never mind work! Even with my own family I’ve needed to really up my game to the point where I used to dread having them stay. My ex husband wouldn’t even allow my diagnosis and it’s effect on me, he just flatly refused to engage about my asd as a late diagnosed woman who spent her life feeling “othered”.