Comment by bbor
7 hours ago
You may have the Hyperactive-Impulsive presentation (or the Combined one), which is relatively rare among adults. I have the other one of the three (Inattentive), and I wouldn't say it raises my impulsivity, though I guess it's hard to know. The meds literally saved my life and career, but I also almost exclusively take them when working or in lowkey social situations so it's hard to say what they might do when, like, rock climbing or whitewater boating or something.
I suppose impulsivity in terms of working on what I should be working on instead of going into some rabbit hole is a type of impulsivity, and that's certainly decreased! I wouldn't call the former state "fun" though... more like "shameful", "irrational", and "distressing". Personally -- YMMV.
Anyway: yes that's plausible, as this review found pretty strong evidence of increased mortality from injury. Still, I'd personally say it's unlikely for two major reasons:
1. Presumably most injury deaths happen to adults, which are relatively quite unlikely to have the HI presentation.
2. There's just so many plausible causes of injuries, especially in a society with cars. The inclusion of "intentional injury" also introduces a factor that's no doubt strongly corellated with socioeconomic status (i.e. being murdered/manslaughtered), another very plausible cause.
I know that my rate of low speed car accidents has dropped dramatically off since I got on the meds.
Just an anecdote there, but I believe there's a study or two demonstrating a correlation between ADHD and car accidents - I imagine being inattentive in a car is likely to also increase your risk.
You misspelled crashes.
¿Que? You're objecting to accident vs. crash?
your understanding of ADHD is outdated. say what you said to ai to get informed.
I don't see a way to edit my post.
You are born with ADHD and it does not get better, so the "rare" in adults is not factual, some people just get better at managing it.
It's an ever present neurological condition but the presenting symptoms can change over time as the brain develops. It's not just learning to manage it because not all the symptoms can be self managed.
...ok. Well. Responding politely on the offchance that you mean well and were just in a bit of a rush:
1. You are not necessarily "born with" ADHD. That's certainly a very plausible explanation, but ADHD is a disorder defined solely for diagnostic reasons, using only collections of symptoms; unlike a typical physical disease, no internal mechanisms or underlying causes are posited, on purpose. So saying with confidence that you can never develop it during lifetime is just invalid, putting aside the more philosophical discussions of nature v. nurture and free will that would come up if that roadblock were ever cleared.
2. In the new DSM5-defined paradigm, the three "presentations" of ADHD are assumed to present at different times at different intensities through the typical sufferer's lifespan, with the prototypical progression being Hyperactive-Impulsive or Combined in childhood that leads into Inattentive in adulthood. This is far from absolute, or at least it's supposed to be -- sadly many US psychiatrists still insist on seeing evidence of hyperactivity in childhood before trying out an adult ADHD diagnosis, based mostly on outdated, partial advice from the DSM4.
3. As the flipside of #1, it can also go away without explanation or reason, i.e. go into "remission"; I don't care to gather data on common that is, but I can say with absolute certainty that it cannot be ruled out. That's just how DSM-defined mental health disorders work on a fundamental level.
4. Either way, none of that is relevant to the question of how prevelant it is overall, which is simply a matter of empirical measurement. Without looking it up, I feel confident that it's well below 50%, so objectively "rare" in some sense.
5. I feel like the "some people just get better at managing it" thing is some personal axe you're grinding about people who are virtuous enough to just grit their teeth through psychiatric disorders vs. those who use drugs to cheat. If not: sorry! If so: please don't do that.
Finally, the "edit" button is inline, it just disappears after some amount of time for some odd reason. HN UI never fails to confuse me, as well!