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> Everyone has "a little ADHD". I get what you’re saying but I want to push back hard on this. Everyone has some of the symptoms of ADHD at any given time. Bu

> Everyone has "a little ADHD". I get what you’re saying but I want to push back hard on this. Everyone has some of the symptoms of ADHD at any given time. But, ADHD isn’t more of the same symptoms. That’s how it’s diagnosed, but the underlying mechanism is a severely compromised ability to self-regulate which is categorically different from what people experience when they are out of mental energy. Edit: I've clarified what I mean in other comments in the thread. My issue is the use of the phrase without explaining why it is wrong.

colechristensen 4y ago
You're splitting hairs. Everyone has a little trouble regulating themselves, some people have a little more trouble, some people have enough trouble that it becomes a disorder.
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  That's the entire point I'm trying to make. "Everyone has X" is a categorically wrong understanding of what the underlying problem is. An equivalent is saying everyone has trouble walking sometimes when we're talking about someone who limps and needs a cane. The symptoms are not the disorder and don't come from the same mechanism that causes normal people to have difficultly paying attention sometimes.
  - sirsinsalot 4y ago
    Absolutely this. A normal range of feeling / experience isn't a "bit of a disorder" ... it is no disorder. Feeling like you need to wash dirt off your hands before eating isn't a "bit of OCD", that's normal. Worrying irrationally so much about clean hands that it ruins your life, leaving you crying from normal tasks like cooking ... every touch of a surface triggers fight/flight ... is a disorder. It isn't the mechanism that's important, but the impact and motivators. Same with ADHD. A bit of being inattentive or forgetful or whatever ... isn't a "bit" of the disorder that also contains some of those behaviours in extreme.
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    In many cases it is not a differing underlying cause but simply the same thing further out of balance. Psychiatry diagnoses are essentially never based on a mechanistic explanation and I challenge you to come up with an actual binary change present in those with adhd and those without besides the latter having somebody put that label on them.
cpach 4y ago
AFAICT, GP agree with you.
sascha_sl 4y ago
I think your reaction is understandable, since "Everyone is/has a little X" is commonly used to dismiss or minimize the severity of a condition the speaker doesn't understand. But I don't feel like that's the case here.
- kodah 4y ago
  > I think your reaction is understandable, since "Everyone is/has a little X" is commonly used to dismiss or minimize the severity of a condition the speaker doesn't understand. Personally when I hear people speak like this I assume they're trying to root someone in an empathetic perspective. I'm not sure I've ever heard it from someone who was arguing against the seriousness of the subject.
  - kayodelycaon 4y ago
    I grew up my entire life being told everyone has a little ADHD and I just needed to try harder to pay attention. I've still heard it as an adult. My issue was using the phrase in the first place without some explanation of just how wrong the idea is.
    - kodah 4y ago
      Ah, yeah, I guess if it's being said to you about you, that's different. In this case, OP is speaking to a wider audience, so I see that as different, but I appreciate your perspective.

colechristensen 4y ago

You're splitting hairs. Everyone has a little trouble regulating themselves, some people have a little more trouble, some people have enough trouble that it becomes a disorder.

kayodelycaon 4y ago
That's the entire point I'm trying to make. "Everyone has X" is a categorically wrong understanding of what the underlying problem is. An equivalent is saying everyone has trouble walking sometimes when we're talking about someone who limps and needs a cane. The symptoms are not the disorder and don't come from the same mechanism that causes normal people to have difficultly paying attention sometimes.
- sirsinsalot 4y ago
  Absolutely this. A normal range of feeling / experience isn't a "bit of a disorder" ... it is no disorder. Feeling like you need to wash dirt off your hands before eating isn't a "bit of OCD", that's normal. Worrying irrationally so much about clean hands that it ruins your life, leaving you crying from normal tasks like cooking ... every touch of a surface triggers fight/flight ... is a disorder. It isn't the mechanism that's important, but the impact and motivators. Same with ADHD. A bit of being inattentive or forgetful or whatever ... isn't a "bit" of the disorder that also contains some of those behaviours in extreme.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  In many cases it is not a differing underlying cause but simply the same thing further out of balance. Psychiatry diagnoses are essentially never based on a mechanistic explanation and I challenge you to come up with an actual binary change present in those with adhd and those without besides the latter having somebody put that label on them.

cpach 4y ago

AFAICT, GP agree with you.

sascha_sl 4y ago

I think your reaction is understandable, since "Everyone is/has a little X" is commonly used to dismiss or minimize the severity of a condition the speaker doesn't understand. But I don't feel like that's the case here.

kodah 4y ago
> I think your reaction is understandable, since "Everyone is/has a little X" is commonly used to dismiss or minimize the severity of a condition the speaker doesn't understand. Personally when I hear people speak like this I assume they're trying to root someone in an empathetic perspective. I'm not sure I've ever heard it from someone who was arguing against the seriousness of the subject.
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  I grew up my entire life being told everyone has a little ADHD and I just needed to try harder to pay attention. I've still heard it as an adult. My issue was using the phrase in the first place without some explanation of just how wrong the idea is.
  - kodah 4y ago
    Ah, yeah, I guess if it's being said to you about you, that's different. In this case, OP is speaking to a wider audience, so I see that as different, but I appreciate your perspective.