Comment by throwaway2990

>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.