Comment by idlewords
2 years ago
ADHD is medicalizing a set of mental habits that many smart people form early in life partly out of boredom, and partly because they can get away with it. The criteria for diagnosing it in adults are impossibly vague and ad-hoc, and I have yet to meet anyone who went through the evaluation process who wasn't diagnosed with it.
By all means have at it if you enjoy legal access to terrific stimulants (they really do help you focus!), but maybe take the idea that you've suffered under the burden of lifelong illness with a grain of salt. ADHD is our generation's neurasthenia.
I strongly disagree and think you should consider watching the following:
ADHD: Essential Ideas for Parents - Dr. Russell Barkley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSfCdBBqNXY
That's a super interesting presentation. Thanks for sharing it!
May we know where you got your Psychology, Psychiatry or Neuroscience degree?
At Appeal to Authority University
That's why we have universities, so that people can get legitimate claim to authority and familiarity with the subject and its nuances based on years of study and research.
Imperfect? Sure. But it sure beats the "trust me bro" university.
I get tired of hearing everyone claim they have ADHD. Or are sensitive to gluten. Or get sick from msg. Not realising the people who do actually suffer from these things are so few. But now it’s mainstream and cool.
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_c...
Thing is, everyone can self-diagnose as Something Is Up, but thanks to the health care system being broken, nobody actually gets checked out, nobody is told "there is nothing wrong with you", or "you keep chugging energy drinks so your bowels are fucked, you don't have gluten allergy", or "you get 300 notifications per day and respond to all of them, you don't have ADHD".
At the same time, when you let that influence you it may contribute to make the situation worse for those actually affected. What you're describing is probably a net positive for those actually affected. More awareness and less stigma.
Basically you have ADHD/ADD if your symptoms are maladaptive to the modern environment. The modern world is increasingly being able to focus and produce.
And yet it isn't. Schools over here are less sitting in rows facing the teacher and Pay Attention, and more sitting in groups, get a laptop out, "fun" project activities. Modern workplaces - in our industry - are all about a deluge of distractions, meetings, tickets, incoming or always-on calls, side activities, incoming merge requests, Slack messages in half a dozen spaces that all need to be read or you might miss out, on top of a lot of people being open for private communications and distractions like making appointments, chatting with the home front, etc.
So no, I don't know where you live or work, but I don't agree that the modern world wants you to focus and produce.
>ADHD is medicalizing a set of mental habits that many smart people form early in life partly out of boredom, and partly because they can get away with it.
Spoken like a bona fide "bro" with no professional qualifications on the matter, not familiar with the research (except perhaps cherry-picked outlier stuff to reincorce their preconceived notion), and no personal experience of the devastating effects it has on the individual on all aspects of life (the very opposite of "getting away with it": professional and academic failure, social isolation, and other such outcomes, from the kindergadern -e.g. the "weird" stimming kid everybody bullies- to the grave).
But they sure do know some people claim to have it on TikTok when they don't, so the condition surely must not exist.
Considering doctors hand out Ritalin like skittles then you have to be pretty stupid to truly believe 75% of the population magically developed adhd over the last 70 years.
>Considering doctors hand out Ritalin like skittles
That's the "kids these days" myth. The reality is that to get diagnosed with ADHD and get to get medication is for many a long process, for most neglected until too late despite obvious signs.
>you have to be pretty stupid to truly believe 75% of the population magically developed adhd over the last 70 years.
Or you know, aside from the fact of more awareness (so people who would just be left to sink or swim on their own in the last 70 years, or merely considered "weirdos" and "failures" are now diagnosed), the world has also severely changed over the last 70 years, and aspects of it (many more rigid time-sensitive responsibilities, many more desk jobs, muct more emphasis on information processing and retention, infinitely more distractions, much more sensory overloading environments, and so on) make it more evident when one has it, and make the impact more severe.
And there can also be environmental and genetic factors involved (autism for example, a common commorbidity, did grow among other factors because more educated people with background/tendency for autism inter-marrying with more of their kind - with university, information, and tech jobs, and so on, as selection mechanisms). Such factors are under active study.
It's also nowhere near "75% of the population". At best around 4-8%, if that.
But I do agree with the "pretty stupid" part.
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