Diluting the significance of words.

On the overuse of ADHD specific words and how that harms us.

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash

I try not to gatekeep words (I know it can sometimes come across that way), but I get so frustrated when people don’t use words correctly, especially when it is something that is specific to a group of people (in this case, neurodivergent people). Perhaps this is as a result of my inflexible, rule-driven, autistic brain: I can’t help but correct someone when they use a word inaccurately and this is probably why I don’t have many friends (i’m just kidding, it’s more likely my reclusiveness and reluctance to leave my house and dog).

An example of this I’ve noticed lately is the word hyperfocus. People talk about hyperfocus so flippantly these days it seems everyone has a hyperfixation (another term specific to neurodivergent folk). Hyperfocus is a specific term used to describe someone’s complete absorption in a task, often leading to the neglect of their needs (e.g. eating, going to the toilet, hydrating etc). Hyperfocus is generally seen in autistic and ADHD people but may also be present in other neurodivergence’s such as schizophrenia.

The reason it irritates me when words like hyperfocus, hyperfixation and burnout are used out of context (i.e. in a neurotypical landscape) is because it dilutes the validity and significance of these words. This overuse strips away their meaning and turns them into throwaway remarks. You may be thinking, Georgia, this is not a big deal, get over it, but I personally feel this misuse of words can be harmful to the groups that use those words to describe their experiences.

When a word is overused it loses its meaning causing a sort of social semantic satiation¹. You know when you repeat a word out loud loads of times, it stops sounding like a real word? That. This weird phenomenon causes a word to lose its intensity and therefore its original meaning. We have actually seen this happen with ADHD and words specifically associated with ADHD ‘symptoms’.

Due to the rise of ADHD diagnoses (a wave of people finally getting diagnosed and receiving the support and medication they need to function) the media have decided to vilify us. Articles denigrating and disparaging our disability, are telling the public ADHD is a trend and fashionable².