Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Shame and stigma
Talking a lot is on the diagnostic list. It sits with the impulsive symptoms, which makes it part of the condition rather than proof that you are self absorbed.
That reframe is worth having, because most people who do this have been told off for it for years and have drawn an unkind conclusion about themselves. It also changes what to try. Telling yourself off in the moment rarely works, while treatment that helps impulsivity in general, and small cues agreed in advance with a friend, tend to do more.
Qur’an and Sunnah
The blind, the lame, and the sick will not be blamed (Quran 48:17). Blame is lifted from what a condition does, and that principle does not stop at the conditions other people can see.
لَّيۡسَ عَلَى ٱلۡأَعۡمَىٰ حَرَجࣱ وَلَا عَلَى ٱلۡأَعۡرَجِ حَرَجࣱ وَلَا عَلَى ٱلۡمَرِيضِ حَرَجࣱۗ وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ يُدۡخِلۡهُ جَنَّٰتࣲ تَجۡرِي مِن تَحۡتِهَا ٱلۡأَنۡهَٰرُۖ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ يُعَذِّبۡهُ عَذَابًا أَلِيمࣰ ا
the blind, the lame, and the sick will not be blamed.’ God will admit anyone who obeys Him and His Messenger to Gardens graced with flowing streams; He will painfully punish anyone who turns away
Qur’an 48:17read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review and meta-analysis of a large body of work set out how internalised stigma relates to psychosocial and psychiatric outcomes for people living with mental illness. It concerns the beliefs people hold about themselves, not this particular symptom. The bearing is indirect but real: what you conclude about your own character is linked to how you get on.
Livingston JD, Boyd JE. (2010). Correlates and consequences of internalized stigma for people living with mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. Social science & medicine (1982) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Naming the behaviour as a symptom moves it off your character and onto something with known handles.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
The disbelief that hurts most rarely comes from strangers. It comes from a parent, a sibling or a cousin who calls the whole thing an excuse.
The rawness around rejection usually has a history. Ask an adult where it started and you tend to land on a childhood of being asked why they could not manage what everyone else managed.
If your version of this is fog, slowness and drifting off rather than restlessness, you are not a half case. Researchers are still arguing about whether that pattern is a subtype or something of its own.