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why call it ADHD? a surprisingly neuro-affirming reclamation — Blog Edition

Created by Gill Hestad, MSW, RCSW / Divergent North

As a neuro-affirming therapist, it may seem odd I still refer to ADHDers by the ADHD acronym.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD for short) is a diagnostic term that comes heavy with clinical, cultural, and historical baggage.

It's a label shaped by systems that saw movement as misbehaviour, interest as inconsistency, emotion as excess.

...And yet, I’ve chosen to keep the acronym. Not because the description fits but because those four letters have become something else entirely.

ADHD has become:
a cultural artifact,
a search term,
a shared signal.

For many of us, they were the first words that made our experience legible.

It offers context, connection, and a way to make meaning out of an often isolating lived experience.

Stripped of its superfluous grammar, ADHD becomes a symbol.
It invites reclamation.
It carries critique.
It refuses to disappear.

Flawed as it is, the name persists, and that persistence gives us a chance to rewrite what it stands for.

So I use it.

Not to uphold its pathologizing roots, but to subvert them.

“ADHD” carries clinical baggage, but the acronym now functions as a symbol, search term, and shared signal.
Keeping the term isn’t about upholding pathology; it’s about reclamation and critique.
The name’s persistence gives us space to rewrite what it stands for together.