Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by carlisle_ 1556 days ago
> I blame Ritalin for this type of video, either someone took too much or needs to up their dosage.

Maybe I’m overly sensitive, but I’m really tired of ADHD ableist jokes like this one. With the controversy and struggles of medication for ADHD, implying that the only functional ADHD brain is a medicated one just frankly sucks.

3 comments

>Maybe I’m overly sensitive

Yes, I would suggest in this specific instance you are.

>but I’m really tired of ADHD ableist jokes like this one

Not once did I mention ADHD which is a medically recognized condition. However, the use of Ritalin in today's society is not limited to those that are prescribed Ritalin as a treatment for ADHD. There are many many people that use it recreationaly. Being around people using it as an upper gives me the impression that I'm stuck in molasses with their hyper-everything. It's exhausting.

> Not once did I mention ADHD which is a medically recognized condition.

"Needs to up their dosage" would imply someone who medically requires Ritalin to treat something, which could only be ADHD. Take that part out and the joke is otherwise fine/about what you're saying.

Perhaps. I will stipulate that for those with no knowledge of recreational drug use, this could be an interpretation.

However, anyone familiar with recreational drug use knows there's a common phrase of "know your dosage" right along "know your dealer". Yes, it's borrowed from else where, but it's still a thing. Do I need to eat half a bar, or take 2? I might suggest Wolf Of Wall Street as an example of knowing one's dosage.

That phrase is about knowing the maximum dosage beyond which the side-effects render the trip unpleasant; along with the threshold dosage below which you don't get any effects.

Taking "too little" Ritalin recreationally — i.e. not meeting the threshold dose — doesn't result in ADHD-like symptoms.

Unless, y'know, you have ADHD. In which case it's not "recreational usage", you're just self-medicating.

Dear lordy, you must be having an agenda here. Other people are injecting ADHD into this conversation.

People taking Ritalin when not prescribed to them by a doctor do not care about ADHD-like symptoms. They are using it purely as an upper. "To help them concentrate" or whatever they tell themselves. It's less "trashy" than meth, easier to find than coke. The affects are also different than these other drugs.

Little defensive there, huh.
Sure, feel free to go around the internet and accuse people of something, then make fun of them for being defensive when they explain how it's not what you thought. Especially after preceding your entire post with "I might be overly sensitive"
I don't even know how to respond to you. Saying "Little defensive there, huh" constitutes "mak[ing] fun of"? I'm not sure who's actually the sensitive one here.

Besides, pointing out ableism isn't an accusation. In fact, I don't accuse you of anything personally, I bemoan the joke. In the face of this, you retreat to a scenario where you are besieged every day by recreational Ritalin users in order defend your ego from maybe admitting your joke wasn't actually funny (or accurate).

there are people who have to sleep outside, you know
Did you reply to the wrong comment by chance?
no, i implied you're grandstanding about something insignificant because your compassion for humanity is superficial and conditioned on your ability to be noticed showing it off. if it was genuine you wouldn't have busted their balls for saying something that wasn't even mean, just crass in the way most of us are in real life.
This. Thank you.