I think we do have the right to be high-functioning. I certainly hope we do because it makes sense if we buy all that other nonsense about everyone being born equal and whatnot, and it's part of what makes me not want to tolerate someone like Benji, because that is what he is saying, isn't it? We don't have that right because people think we are faking all this shit. And I guess that must mean I'm not faking it all that well either.
You think in extremes. I never said everyone was born equal, or that people are faking it. You're taking stuff personally, and you're misunderstanding my points. I was saying that we don't know enough about the alleged conditions (as in, the label, and not that the person doesn't have a problem) or the treatments.
But the same holds true for many natural treatments and conditions that are not understood. For example, it was not known until recently that St. John's Wort reduces the effect of the anticoagulant Coumarin, or that grapefruit juice could interfere with your allergy or pain medicine.
If we continue to use diabetes as an example, then we can say that before we knew about insulin and how blood sugar worked, the symptoms in some cases were considered to be fabricated/laziness or the individual was diagnosed with something that required treatment with, say, leeches, or further back in history, things like urine or human blood.
While it's true that we don't know everything about ADHD and about the medicines that treat it, we can alleviate pain with what we know. When you say we don't know enough, you say that the years of scientific testing are not valid, that something more is needed. "Enough" is arbitrary. If "we" is a body of experts then I am willing to hear what is their standard. We (meaning psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers) actually know a lot about the chemistry involved in ADHD and its treatments. A point for your side is the current introduction of brain plasticity into the mix. We certainly don't know "enough" about brain plasticity, which is why its use with ADHD is limited at this time. I am hoping for fast development of this alternative since I hate taking meds.
I dislike labels as much as the next person who's covered in them, but they are useful. They are useful to me (as a psychologist) as heuristics for constellations of conditions that otherwise might require too much decoding time. It gives me a place to start. We find each other and our remedies with labels. I agree that the labels are often misused, but that doesn't mean they don't have meaning for those for whom they are appropriate.