After choosing a name for this Substack, I discovered the neurodiverse community has a love-hate relationship with the “Hey look, a squirrel!” saying the title is based on.
After digging into it, I completely understand, but have also decided to keep the name Hey look a Squirtle – for reasons I will explain soon.
In the meantime, let’s address the squirrel in the room.
After exhaustive research (okay, reading a bunch of Reddit threads) I understand the objection to the squirrel trope is that it minimises the complexity of ADHD and boils it down to just being easily distracted.
I absolutely understand the danger of trivialising a condition by over-simplifying it and making it seem ‘quirky’. I’ve even written about this myself in relation to obsessive compulsive disorder.
Changing the way we talk about OCD (annakirtlanwrites.nz)
To meme or not to meme
At the risk of coming across as a big ol hypocrite, this one feels a bit different than people wearing t-shirts with ‘Obsessive Coffee Disorder’ on them. I think this is because being distractible can be a pretty big part of the ADHD experience (not for everyone though) which can have an impact – positive and negative – on our lives.
‘Hey look a squirrel’ could be seen as boiling down ADHD to just distractibility, but I feel like people are a lot more aware of the other elements now – probably because of all the fems and thems playing catch up and saying loudly and publicly “so THIS is ADHD!”
There is nothing, I mean nothing, quirky, fun, or positive about OCD. If you can get it to the point where you can use some of the fixation and pattern chasing in a useful way without it completely taking over, you have beaten it into submission and you have done a lot of brutal work to get there. I’m proud of you – but I’m sure you won’t want to put it on a t-shirt.
“There are strengths in being the person who spots the squirrels”
There are many similar pains and challenges with ADHD, but I also see positives. There are strengths in being the person who can spot the squirrels – the trick is helping people to understand what happens once we do.
What noticing the squirrel is really like
If you live in a country where squirrels live too, noticing one is probably no big deal. If you have ADHD of course you are going to notice the squirrel – you notice everything. If the squirrel is just doing normal squirrel things, you will probably only notice it for a split second, before jumping back to what was originally holding your attention.
If the squirrel looks stuck, or injured, or is tap dancing while smoking a pipe, the next split second will be taken up with “does it need rescuing? How do I grab it without getting rabies? Where is the nearest wildlife vet?” or “who taught that squirrel to tap dance? I’d better film this or no one will believe me! Does that pipe have tobacco in it? Tobacco probably isn’t good for squirrels. Should I call animal welfare?”
“Tobacco probably isn’t good for squirrels. Should I call animal welfare?”
If you live in New Zealand and notice a squirrel, those split seconds would go something like “hey look, a squirrel! But we don’t have squirrels here. It must have escaped from somewhere. Better go and round it up before it shags a stoat and messes up our eco system.” Probably followed by frantically googling ‘how to catch a squirrel’, ‘treating squirrel bites’ and ‘local stoat colonies’. Within 15 minutes of “hey look, a squirrel!” you will have caught the squirrel, restored balance to nature and be in the process of booking a tetanus shot. That’s how fast we work.
Celebrating the squirrel-spotters
We notice the squirrel because we notice everything – but the squirrel isn’t going to derail the day unless it does something really unsquirrellike. Yes we can get distracted, but we come back again just as quickly.
Having a squirrel-spotter on your team – be it work, social activities, or monitoring the local Facebook page – can be a real asset.
When it comes to risk-analysis we are in our element. Not only have we spotted the risk, but we’ve already leapt ahead to every potential scenario and started planning how to deal with them if they arise.
Looking after your squirrel-spotters
Our extra spidey-senses mean we find things others can struggle with easy – making rapid connections, picking up new systems and ideas, spotting details others miss. But they can also mean the opposite. Things that many people find simple, can be really hard for us.
Squirrel-spotters will pick up the problem and fix it before it becomes a crisis, but may need a million different organisational tools to get them out of the house. Their spidey-senses are spidey-sensitive and easily overwhelmed. Noticing everything and being on top of it all can mean they run out of gas at the end of the day.
“…hydrate, have a little snacky-snack, look at some cat pictures on the internet.”
Squirrel-spotters should be appreciated and also accommodated. They are doing more background braining than you realise. Sometimes they need to be reminded to look after themselves – to hydrate, have a little snacky-snack, look at some cat pictures on the internet or have a bit of alone time.
If you have a squirrel-spotter in your life, you are a lucky person. Squirrel-spotting isn’t a weakness, or a joke at someone’s expense, it’s a super power – and that is why I am keeping my own version of it as a title for this bl…. hey look, a Squirtle!
PostScript - I reserve the right to change my mind
In saying all that, the last thing I want to do is harm. I’m hoping the content of this blog, and the fact I’m taking the piss a bit with the whole Squirtle thing, will send the message I want, but if I’m wrong - please tell me. I changed my mind about the way I talked about OCD after initially feeling comforted as a teen when a psych said most people had behaviours that were “a little bit OCD”. At the time it made me feel like less of a ‘freak’, but using it that way now absolutely minimizes the pain it can cause.
I’m still very early in the AuDHD journey and if you can’t adapt an opinion with more knowledge, you shouldn’t be having one. Learn hard or go home I say.
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