6 ms·

I hope this viewpoint becomes a bit more accepted. The human brain is so complex and we love to put ideas in little boxes, hence the term ADHD. In X number of d

I hope this viewpoint becomes a bit more accepted. The human brain is so complex and we love to put ideas in little boxes, hence the term ADHD. In X number of decades, there's a very good chance we will all look back and realize how dead wrong we were about ADHD, attention, and our extremely crude methods of "curing" it. It blows my mind that especially in American society we are so accepting of putting millions of people on amphetamines to solve attention disorders. Anyone who has gone through higher-ed in the past 10 years knows a huge number of students are on these meds, and even if they suffer some of attention disorder, they are likely at a large advantage after adding the drugs. I'd love to see the percentage of med school students on these drugs.

Apocryphon 4y ago
Surely there are other treatments for ADHD beyond the simple pharmaceutical cures, and it would be salutary to diagnose people so they can try those strategies and get the help they need.
- triggercut 4y ago
  There are. Heaps. And you try them all Talk therapy is incredibly important. People with ADHD can often suffer from rejection dysphoria and depending on how long until they realise, or how self aware they are, they end up internalising a lot of negative opinions and shame about themselves that needs to be unwound. There are a lot of issues around the pain of "never fitting in" or being understood. Some of these are a result of behaviours that aren't the social norm and so they become marginalised. Others are where differences in processing and learning information are labeled as "stupid" at a young age, when the child probably has a similar IQ to their peers. Neurofeedback can be used with good success to help "rewire" particular issues with emotion dysregulation for instance. It can be expensive and requires a lot of time to train the brain to a different mode of operation. Coaching, specifically around time-management and task-management. A lot of people with ADHD suffer from time-blindness. Their perception and relationship with time can be.... complicated. Calendars, specifically having a rigid system for what goes on them, regularly reviewing them, keeping them and a large easy to read clock visible at all times etc can really help. A good water bottle with a straw. No one really knows why but there are a lot of hypotheses. - One thing that never gets mentioned is the relationship between ADHD and food. Generally the nervous system does a pretty terrible job at letting an ADHD person know, when they are hungry, when they are thirsty, when they need the bathroom. Combined with time-blindness, maybe some stress induced hyper-focus because you're falling behind on whatever you need to do, ADHDers will suddenly realise they've missed lunch and binge eat simple food that doesn't require preparation. Preparing a meal would be akin to telling someone with a deadline to just go run a quick marathon first. It'll feel like one or the other, and in some cases, depending on energy levels it will be. - but back to the water bottle. Using the straw means you don't divert your gaze from what you are doing. Your brain doesn't have to judge how full it is and tilt the glass accordingly, if it's big you don't have to get up to refill it. Frictionless hydration.
  - t0bia_s 4y ago
    I think ADHD could be related to overconsumption of sugar.
    - GameOfFrowns 4y ago
      The question would be: Which one would be the cause and which one is the effect? I am diagnosed with ADHD and I consume unhealthy amounts of sugar in form of chocolate, gummy bears and ice cream. I wonder if... A) all that sugar creates a gut microbiome that facilitate ADHD symptoms or if B) the general impulsiveness and higher-than-usual glucose demand from the brain create the sugar cravings, or if C) it's some kind of feedback loop and bad habits get reinforced to the point of addiction
      - triggercut 4y ago
        Sugar helps fuel a nervous system that is lacking energy from constant stress and overwhelm. Chocolate will release serotonin but you need to binge quite a lot of it.
triggercut 4y ago
ADHD is a broad spectrum of developmental delay issues that present as different behaviours but can be observed in ECGs. There is no "cure". Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what they're talking about. There are only strategies for minimising the unwanted effects that cause disruption to your life. The large portion of people taking stimulant ADHD medication to "study" are not by and large getting the same effect as those with ADHD get. For someone with ADHD the medication balances attention dysregulation, that is curbing hyper-focus, and attention "drift" while on a task. It doesn't temporarily turn you into some superhuman memoriser or Ernest Hemingway. It's not some magical potion buff. For those using it to stay awake to cram more low quality hours of memorisation in, they most likely have good memories to begin with, that's how they got there in the first place, it doesn't enhance their abilities. The only advantage those with ADHD get is that they finally get to play on a level playing field. That's like saying those who wear glasses are at an unfair advantage in a "spot the difference" exam. Give me a break.
- algoatecorn 4y ago
  So we'll treat a broad spectrum of issues with amphetamines in order to level to playing field... got it. My point is that we don't really know what this disorder is, or its root causes. An ECG can reveal its presence in the same way an EKG can reveal certain arrhythmia. However, in the case of EKG, you can't truly determine the cause of arrhythmia; is it cardiomyopathy, fibrosis, stenosis, a combination, etc. Now imagine trying to make the same leap of faith with the brain which is infinitely more complex, less studied, and less understood. Follow that up with a draconian treatment such as amphetamine prescription. Yikes My prediction is that ADHD as a term will either be scrapped or used an umbrella as we learn more about the nuance and complexity of attention disorders. Making broad claims about what ADHD is and how medications can potentially treat it, at this point in time, is totally ridiculous. Are we really going to pretend that the millions of Americans prescribed these drugs are actually suffering from ADHD to the point that pharmacology is a necessary intervention?
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Diagnosing people with ADHD can still yield them treatment beyond medication. The existence of the opioid epidemic doesn't negate the very real pains and ailments that led to people getting overprescribed with painkillers, either.
grepLeigh 4y ago
I'm curious about this - what's informing your belief that ADHD is treated only with medication? When talking to people diagnosed with ADHD, the diagnosis was accompanied by a mix of behavioral therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and external support from teachers/friends/family. Drug-seeking behavior is something else altogether, which I agree is a net-negative on both society AND people with ADHD. Regulations around ADHD medication make the medication ironically very difficult to obtain for anyone with an executive function disorder. People without an executive function disorder have no problem jumping through the extra regulatory hoops.

Apocryphon 4y ago

Surely there are other treatments for ADHD beyond the simple pharmaceutical cures, and it would be salutary to diagnose people so they can try those strategies and get the help they need.

triggercut 4y ago
There are. Heaps. And you try them all Talk therapy is incredibly important. People with ADHD can often suffer from rejection dysphoria and depending on how long until they realise, or how self aware they are, they end up internalising a lot of negative opinions and shame about themselves that needs to be unwound. There are a lot of issues around the pain of "never fitting in" or being understood. Some of these are a result of behaviours that aren't the social norm and so they become marginalised. Others are where differences in processing and learning information are labeled as "stupid" at a young age, when the child probably has a similar IQ to their peers. Neurofeedback can be used with good success to help "rewire" particular issues with emotion dysregulation for instance. It can be expensive and requires a lot of time to train the brain to a different mode of operation. Coaching, specifically around time-management and task-management. A lot of people with ADHD suffer from time-blindness. Their perception and relationship with time can be.... complicated. Calendars, specifically having a rigid system for what goes on them, regularly reviewing them, keeping them and a large easy to read clock visible at all times etc can really help. A good water bottle with a straw. No one really knows why but there are a lot of hypotheses. - One thing that never gets mentioned is the relationship between ADHD and food. Generally the nervous system does a pretty terrible job at letting an ADHD person know, when they are hungry, when they are thirsty, when they need the bathroom. Combined with time-blindness, maybe some stress induced hyper-focus because you're falling behind on whatever you need to do, ADHDers will suddenly realise they've missed lunch and binge eat simple food that doesn't require preparation. Preparing a meal would be akin to telling someone with a deadline to just go run a quick marathon first. It'll feel like one or the other, and in some cases, depending on energy levels it will be. - but back to the water bottle. Using the straw means you don't divert your gaze from what you are doing. Your brain doesn't have to judge how full it is and tilt the glass accordingly, if it's big you don't have to get up to refill it. Frictionless hydration.
- t0bia_s 4y ago
  I think ADHD could be related to overconsumption of sugar.
  - GameOfFrowns 4y ago
    The question would be: Which one would be the cause and which one is the effect? I am diagnosed with ADHD and I consume unhealthy amounts of sugar in form of chocolate, gummy bears and ice cream. I wonder if... A) all that sugar creates a gut microbiome that facilitate ADHD symptoms or if B) the general impulsiveness and higher-than-usual glucose demand from the brain create the sugar cravings, or if C) it's some kind of feedback loop and bad habits get reinforced to the point of addiction
    - triggercut 4y ago
      Sugar helps fuel a nervous system that is lacking energy from constant stress and overwhelm. Chocolate will release serotonin but you need to binge quite a lot of it.

triggercut 4y ago

ADHD is a broad spectrum of developmental delay issues that present as different behaviours but can be observed in ECGs. There is no "cure". Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what they're talking about. There are only strategies for minimising the unwanted effects that cause disruption to your life. The large portion of people taking stimulant ADHD medication to "study" are not by and large getting the same effect as those with ADHD get. For someone with ADHD the medication balances attention dysregulation, that is curbing hyper-focus, and attention "drift" while on a task. It doesn't temporarily turn you into some superhuman memoriser or Ernest Hemingway. It's not some magical potion buff. For those using it to stay awake to cram more low quality hours of memorisation in, they most likely have good memories to begin with, that's how they got there in the first place, it doesn't enhance their abilities. The only advantage those with ADHD get is that they finally get to play on a level playing field. That's like saying those who wear glasses are at an unfair advantage in a "spot the difference" exam. Give me a break.

algoatecorn 4y ago
So we'll treat a broad spectrum of issues with amphetamines in order to level to playing field... got it. My point is that we don't really know what this disorder is, or its root causes. An ECG can reveal its presence in the same way an EKG can reveal certain arrhythmia. However, in the case of EKG, you can't truly determine the cause of arrhythmia; is it cardiomyopathy, fibrosis, stenosis, a combination, etc. Now imagine trying to make the same leap of faith with the brain which is infinitely more complex, less studied, and less understood. Follow that up with a draconian treatment such as amphetamine prescription. Yikes My prediction is that ADHD as a term will either be scrapped or used an umbrella as we learn more about the nuance and complexity of attention disorders. Making broad claims about what ADHD is and how medications can potentially treat it, at this point in time, is totally ridiculous. Are we really going to pretend that the millions of Americans prescribed these drugs are actually suffering from ADHD to the point that pharmacology is a necessary intervention?
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Diagnosing people with ADHD can still yield them treatment beyond medication. The existence of the opioid epidemic doesn't negate the very real pains and ailments that led to people getting overprescribed with painkillers, either.

grepLeigh 4y ago

I'm curious about this - what's informing your belief that ADHD is treated only with medication? When talking to people diagnosed with ADHD, the diagnosis was accompanied by a mix of behavioral therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and external support from teachers/friends/family. Drug-seeking behavior is something else altogether, which I agree is a net-negative on both society AND people with ADHD. Regulations around ADHD medication make the medication ironically very difficult to obtain for anyone with an executive function disorder. People without an executive function disorder have no problem jumping through the extra regulatory hoops.