4 ms·

I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive subtype) and I’m not sure how well understood the professionals have of this thing. While I had problems focusing on

I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive subtype) and I’m not sure how well understood the professionals have of this thing. While I had problems focusing on uninteresting things (school, SAT tests, even my own code when I didn’t 100% believe in it), I’ve mostly managed to remove this problem by only working on interesting things (dropping out of college, starting a company, being the shot caller, etc). But then if this is the solution can we really call it a disorder?

thomastjeffery 5y ago
It's a spectrum like autism. I am farther along that spectrum than you, and can't even get myself to get through (or started on) projects that I'm excited about most of the time. And that's what makes it a disorder. The threshold may be vague, but it's not something we can just rule out as inconvenient but manageable under ideal circumstances.
- chrischen 5y ago
  Well they gave me pills and I'm a little worried about how liberally they hand out ADHD medicine because I know people who have become addicted or dependent on it to function. The psychologist neither put me on a spectrum (it was just a binary diagnosis) nor did anything more than the IQ test + questionnaire combo for the diagnosis. I also know people who went and paid the money to get the diagnosis just to get the drugs so they could study harder (maybe they were actually on the spectrum too but it didn't seem like it). I don't doubt you when you say you have it worse and that it's a disorder, but I don't think the professionals have their shit together for this either. If I had taken the drugs I'd probably be stuck leading a normal life, addicted to Adderal, or worse not on medication and failing to achieve any goals. In either case for me personally the doctors didn't have the answer.
  - thomastjeffery 5y ago
    I could find you a dozen stories of people with severe ADHD who were denied medication, and a dozen more who had to jump through ridiculous hoops to fill their prescriptions. Taking a prescribed dosage with the intent to improve your life very rarely leads to addiction. Medication is only one half of the solution. The other half is cognitive behavioral therapy. Using both together has been shown by peer reviewed studies to be very effective for most patients.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
seba_dos1 5y ago
> But then if this is the solution can we really call it a disorder? What's called a "disorder" is in the eye of the beholder. Disorders are defined relative to the norm, based on whether they cause difficulties to the person or not. I'm lucky to be interested and skilled in IT where there's a huge over-representation of ADHD and ASD people I can get along with, where my needs are mostly already accommodated for; but I'm well aware that should I choose a different field of work to pursue a career in I'd very likely have a very bad time. So, imagine a world where the proportions are inverted. There would be majority of people we currently call neurodivergent and some minority of people we currently call neurotypical. In such world, it would be that minority that would struggle with jobs, schools, shopping centers, governmental offices that aren't accommodated to how they process and react to the world around. It would be them who have a "disorder". In a world that doesn't ask me to do things I have difficulty with, I'd have no "disorder" at all. Some of us are lucky enough to have arranged their lifes in a way that minimizes these situations, but others did not have such luck.

thomastjeffery 5y ago

It's a spectrum like autism. I am farther along that spectrum than you, and can't even get myself to get through (or started on) projects that I'm excited about most of the time. And that's what makes it a disorder. The threshold may be vague, but it's not something we can just rule out as inconvenient but manageable under ideal circumstances.

chrischen 5y ago
Well they gave me pills and I'm a little worried about how liberally they hand out ADHD medicine because I know people who have become addicted or dependent on it to function. The psychologist neither put me on a spectrum (it was just a binary diagnosis) nor did anything more than the IQ test + questionnaire combo for the diagnosis. I also know people who went and paid the money to get the diagnosis just to get the drugs so they could study harder (maybe they were actually on the spectrum too but it didn't seem like it). I don't doubt you when you say you have it worse and that it's a disorder, but I don't think the professionals have their shit together for this either. If I had taken the drugs I'd probably be stuck leading a normal life, addicted to Adderal, or worse not on medication and failing to achieve any goals. In either case for me personally the doctors didn't have the answer.
- thomastjeffery 5y ago
  I could find you a dozen stories of people with severe ADHD who were denied medication, and a dozen more who had to jump through ridiculous hoops to fill their prescriptions. Taking a prescribed dosage with the intent to improve your life very rarely leads to addiction. Medication is only one half of the solution. The other half is cognitive behavioral therapy. Using both together has been shown by peer reviewed studies to be very effective for most patients.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

seba_dos1 5y ago

> But then if this is the solution can we really call it a disorder? What's called a "disorder" is in the eye of the beholder. Disorders are defined relative to the norm, based on whether they cause difficulties to the person or not. I'm lucky to be interested and skilled in IT where there's a huge over-representation of ADHD and ASD people I can get along with, where my needs are mostly already accommodated for; but I'm well aware that should I choose a different field of work to pursue a career in I'd very likely have a very bad time. So, imagine a world where the proportions are inverted. There would be majority of people we currently call neurodivergent and some minority of people we currently call neurotypical. In such world, it would be that minority that would struggle with jobs, schools, shopping centers, governmental offices that aren't accommodated to how they process and react to the world around. It would be them who have a "disorder". In a world that doesn't ask me to do things I have difficulty with, I'd have no "disorder" at all. Some of us are lucky enough to have arranged their lifes in a way that minimizes these situations, but others did not have such luck.