I've been suffering from ADHD all my life but only got diagnosed when I was 30. I still haven't taken any meds yet but a diagnosis alone in my childhood probably would have helped with preventing neurosis originating from a school-time worth of derogatory remarks by teachers like "you are a lazy, lazy boy" and "please be quiet, you are inferior anyways". Drugging kids (especially at the very low age of 2-3, no problems advancing in school yet etc) surely must be a function of the pharmaceutical industry trying to make money with overtly fearful parents ("Will my child be able to compete?").
It's all wrong.
On the general "over-diagnosis" of ADHD, my problematic social-darwinist opinion: I believe that especially in the US there might really be more people with ADHD brains (in the end leaving your continent to settle on a new one is still perceived as something bold to do in 2014 - think of how much more risky this must have felt over the first couple of centuries after the discovery of America).
I can also think of many reasons why people are willing to take medication these days - all of them probably boil down to being profoundly desperate. I remember my grandfather who died last year at age 90, he clearly had all the traits of severe ADHD but he also had a secretary (cue "Mad Men" generation) and so didn't need to manage all the minutiae himself and was very successful at his job at a big company fully capitalizing his creative/impulsive side. This is a luxury most people with ADHD don't have any more as we are expected to do a lot more different, often detail oriented little jobs in-between - so to be able to do a somewhat acceptable job with those kinds of tasks it drives people towards drugs like Adderall, Ritalin etc (I'm constantly abusing caffeine myself, it doesn't help much but again I'm desperate). I can't tell you how devastating it feels when people who don't understand our different wiring shout at you to "simply just fucking do it" when you are really, really trying hard to do just that. It's terrible and drives a lot of people towards alcohol and heavy drug addictions. I've read somewhere that a very high percentage of the jail population actually has ADHD.
I believe that especially in the US there might really be
more people with ADHD brains (in the end leaving your
continent to settle on a new one is still perceived as
something bold to do in 2014 - think of how much more
risky this must have felt over the first couple of
centuries after the discovery of America)
I'd never thought of that before. Another possible reason for increased prevalence in the US is that we work more hours and have less vacation time than a lot of European countries, increasing the demands on our focus.
Also, just for solidarity's sake: I was also diagnosed in my 30s, and was called "lazy" (etc.) a lot when young. Bet we went through a lot of the same things.
To say that this social darwinist opinion is problematic is the under statement of the week on HN. How bold of a decision was immigration in light of the Irish Potato Famine or African Slave trade? Why was the decision to go to Australia less bold and less defining than deciding to go to America? It is also worth pointing out that America was discovered 10,000 years ago. Is that the discovery you were referring to?
The article and video were about over-diagnosis of ADHD (in children) in the US if I'm not mistaken. About the discovery of America etc - my bad, yes I was referring to the historically rather recent influx of European settlers after the Columbus "re-re-discovery" to be "exact".
A large percentage of Americans are not of European descent. In Georgia specifically, 30% of the population[^1] are most likely descendants of individuals that did not "boldly choose" to cross the Atlantic and come to America.
It's all wrong.
On the general "over-diagnosis" of ADHD, my problematic social-darwinist opinion: I believe that especially in the US there might really be more people with ADHD brains (in the end leaving your continent to settle on a new one is still perceived as something bold to do in 2014 - think of how much more risky this must have felt over the first couple of centuries after the discovery of America).
I can also think of many reasons why people are willing to take medication these days - all of them probably boil down to being profoundly desperate. I remember my grandfather who died last year at age 90, he clearly had all the traits of severe ADHD but he also had a secretary (cue "Mad Men" generation) and so didn't need to manage all the minutiae himself and was very successful at his job at a big company fully capitalizing his creative/impulsive side. This is a luxury most people with ADHD don't have any more as we are expected to do a lot more different, often detail oriented little jobs in-between - so to be able to do a somewhat acceptable job with those kinds of tasks it drives people towards drugs like Adderall, Ritalin etc (I'm constantly abusing caffeine myself, it doesn't help much but again I'm desperate). I can't tell you how devastating it feels when people who don't understand our different wiring shout at you to "simply just fucking do it" when you are really, really trying hard to do just that. It's terrible and drives a lot of people towards alcohol and heavy drug addictions. I've read somewhere that a very high percentage of the jail population actually has ADHD.