Though great strides have been made recently toward acceptance and understanding of ADD and ADHD, a lot of people still think they’re made up diagnoses for kids that were never taught how to just sit down and focus. As such, many with the disorders are reticent to come out, lest they be labeled lazy, incompetent, or even cheaters.
Which is why it’s so important that Olympian Simone Biles is openly speaking about having ADHD.
Yesterday, Russian hackers leaked a bunch of U.S. Olympian data, including Biles’s confidential medical files. One of the drugs listed in Biles’s file is a common prescription for ADHD, and Biles took to Twitter to talk about the disorder.
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) September 13, 2016
Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of nothing that I'm afraid to let people know.
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) September 13, 2016
Her tweets prompted a slew of supportive responses, many from people with ADHD who have known the fear and shame of speaking about the disorder.
https://twitter.com/eboldy/status/775817652166012928
My 13-year-old boy does too, and it has helped him immensely. Thank you for speaking about it! :-)
— Machane (@machane68) September 14, 2016
@Simone_Biles My struggling 10 year old daughter with ADHD will feel empowered today because of you. Thank you. #nostigma
— Stephanie Joy-Marko (@Markomama) September 14, 2016
Of course, some had their own suggestions of how she should be self-medicating.
Biles seems smart enough not to get her medical advice from Twitter, though.