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How would you distinguish between ADHD vs modern distractability? Especially if someone showed no ADHD symptoms before smartphones Everyone has some distracta

• kqr 4y ago
  When it makes you effectively mentally handicapped (you literally need environmental adjustments in order to function) in at least two areas of life (work, relationships, household), it's clinical.
  • robocat 4y ago
    I would paraphrase the question as: is the ADHD a problem with brain chemistry§, or is it with the contextual environment? A common worldview is to split biological from environmental - an analogue to nature vs nurture. I do agree with your definition of clinical. There are a lot of signals, even such as the article itself and the works it references, pointing towards the problem being our modern internet device environment. This article https://medium.com/@bradwray/ive-had-enough-of-teaching-2bae1a660832 https://medium.com/@bradwray/ive-had-enough-of-teaching-2bae... is written by a teacher who is quitting teaching because most students won’t engage at school due to their devices (so probably clinical by your definition - “work” impacted and I’m guessing household too). § yeah, “brain chemistry” is conceptually unsound, but I couldn’t think of a better physical metaphor.
• user_7832 4y ago
  To add on to the other answer, for folks with ADHD symptoms it was likely there before smartphones too - you/they just didn't realize it (like I didn't myself). A doctor however is far more capable of this judgement. Another simple test - after a week long (say) tech detox, do they (permanently) improve, or are the benefits very little (tending to perhaps even being distracted during that week)?