Praise Me: Living With ADHD, Masking, and the Invisible Disability No One Understands

What if trying your hardest was still never enough?

What if your daily survival was labelled as laziness?

What if needing help made you feel ashamed instead of supported?

This poem isn’t about attention.

It’s about being misunderstood, over and over, for living with an invisible disability like ADHD.

It’s for the people who mask their exhaustion, question their worth, and hesitate to take the help they need because the world keeps telling them they’re just not trying hard enough.

If you're Googling things like…

"Why is ADHD so misunderstood?"

"Is ADHD a disability?"

"Why do I feel lazy with ADHD?"

"Do I need ADHD medication?"

"What does ADHD masking feel like?"

"Struggling with ADHD but no one sees it"

"High-functioning ADHD burnout"

"ADHD and medication shame"

…then maybe this one’s for you.

We don’t get praised for holding it together.

We get judged for needing help.

This is your poem.

Raw. Honest. Unapologetic.

Share it with someone who needs to feel seen.

Praise Me

But only if my disability fits the vision you approve of.

By SJHardyPoetry

We are mad

but not like you described it.

We are weird

but definitely not

how you implied it.

We are fed up

of a narrative of the “weirdo”

that forced us into masking.

We are mad

that it’s seen as a weakness

to seek and accept

something life-changing.

Find it crazy

that others would be

frowned upon

for not demanding something

to help with life’s changes.

Maybe I seem “weird” to you

when I finally can’t take it,

the glaringly obvious

and open dismissal

of how much

my disability

plagues me.

When the 100th post today

tells me I just need a planner

and to stop being so lazy.

When in reality

I work harder than

everyone who knows me

to pay attention,

to every unintentional

intrusive thought

that invades me.

Refusing to accept something

that might help change me

because society reminds me daily

that my disability

isn’t the kind of disability

where the world would

praise me

for taking a pill

designed to save me.