4 ms·

Can people stop a second with ADHD-as-a-disease? It’s the society that’s sick!! Prevalence in the US is 10% of the general population. Many of whom have active

by d--b 4y ago

Can people stop a second with ADHD-as-a-disease? It’s the society that’s sick!! Prevalence in the US is 10% of the general population. Many of whom have active social lives and high paying jobs. Those people play the game they have been told to play. Corporate bullshit, boring tasks, endless meetings, and then they complain to their doctors they don’t feel like it fits. Something’s afoot. and the doctors say: “right these people suffer, they have some kind of illness”. But did anyone pause and asked whether primates evolved to play the corporate bullshit game? Did anyone ask whether the hedonistic treadmill could cause people to not feel right? Did it ever occured to these doctors that following american dream could have some detrimental impact on one’s mental health? My opinion is that if you feel that you have ADHD, it may be that you’re the one who’s sane in a environment that isn’t! Quit your job and live a better life!

WheatMillington 4y ago
That's not a helpful post whatsoever. We don't get to individually choose the society we live amongst. It's not an option for most people to just quit and live their best life. So we do what we can to be happy and perform within the constraints we have.
- loa_in_ 4y ago
  That's not a helpful comment either. Society as is isn't based on laws of physics or any natural law. Constraints have changed over centuries and will have to again.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
fallingfrog 4y ago
I mean, you're not wrong, it's just that quitting your job isn't usually an option that is available. I always live with the sword of damocles over my head as it is- space out in the wrong meeting or forget something and I'll get my wish and be fired anyway. No need to rush it. My savings will last 2 or 3 months while I panic and look for a new job that I'll hate just as much. The escape hatch is getting really lucky and being able to make money doing what your passion is- extremely rare- or inherit a fuckton of money- equally rare. But believe me when I say I spend every day trying to figure out a way to do just that (make money on one of my passion projects). If I could live long enough, eventually I would succeed. It's just that I will probably get old and die before that happens, like most people with ADHD.
spicymaki 4y ago
> Can people stop a second with ADHD-as-a-disease? It’s the society that’s sick!! This is correct! ADHD may stem from a useful set of traits for past humans that were much more active, had to scout things, etc. The problem is we now have a regimented culture that rewards people who sit, perform boring repetitive tasks, and need to concentrate on uninteresting material for long periods of time. This is a well known to be an unhealthy lifestyle for humans. >Quit your job and live a better life! I am not sure that can work for everyone. Quit your job and then what?
Eumenes 4y ago
“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.” ― Theodore Kaczynski
- acuozzo 4y ago
  > Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. THX 1138
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    I prefer Equilibrium. Gun kata ftw
- astrange 4y ago
  Antidepressants don't "make you happy", alcohol does that. Antidepressants are intended to give you the ability to get out of bed in the morning. If depression was just caused by inhumane work environments, why do Americans have it and not Bangladeshi T-shirt makers?
  - Eumenes 4y ago
    Culture - I imagine traditional cultures aren't inhaling pharmaceuticals at the alarming rates like in America
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      You've completely elided the fact that ADHD can be treated through means besides medication. And that this discussion thread is not about depression. And that traditional cultures are affected by depression. https://psychcentral.com/depression/depression-in-indigenous-communities https://psychcentral.com/depression/depression-in-indigenous...
potta_coffee 4y ago
I have the same feeling; society is sick. But I cannot just quit my job and escape society. I have no idea how to make a living on my own outside of a company.
imesh 4y ago
Going through University and working in tech has been extremely hard for me. I'm terrible at it. Sure, I can come up with an algorithm, I can write code, but something about doing mental work is extremely laborious to me. I spend 30 minutes panicking before I can even open an email. This past year I took a break and went to work with my Arborist friend as a groundsman. Do I still have ADD? Probably? I can't tell. None of those ADD issues come up unless I'm working on a computer. The tree business has been going well and the work has expanded into all kinds of new opportunities. I don't think I'm going back. Especially if medication is necessary for me to succeed.
0x457 4y ago
hmm, hard disagree. Even if I had no obligations to society I would run myself into depression with my ADHD: it's damn hard to get constant new sources of dopamine.

by d--b 4y ago

WheatMillington 4y ago

That's not a helpful post whatsoever. We don't get to individually choose the society we live amongst. It's not an option for most people to just quit and live their best life. So we do what we can to be happy and perform within the constraints we have.

loa_in_ 4y ago
That's not a helpful comment either. Society as is isn't based on laws of physics or any natural law. Constraints have changed over centuries and will have to again.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

fallingfrog 4y ago

I mean, you're not wrong, it's just that quitting your job isn't usually an option that is available. I always live with the sword of damocles over my head as it is- space out in the wrong meeting or forget something and I'll get my wish and be fired anyway. No need to rush it. My savings will last 2 or 3 months while I panic and look for a new job that I'll hate just as much. The escape hatch is getting really lucky and being able to make money doing what your passion is- extremely rare- or inherit a fuckton of money- equally rare. But believe me when I say I spend every day trying to figure out a way to do just that (make money on one of my passion projects). If I could live long enough, eventually I would succeed. It's just that I will probably get old and die before that happens, like most people with ADHD.

spicymaki 4y ago

> Can people stop a second with ADHD-as-a-disease? It’s the society that’s sick!! This is correct! ADHD may stem from a useful set of traits for past humans that were much more active, had to scout things, etc. The problem is we now have a regimented culture that rewards people who sit, perform boring repetitive tasks, and need to concentrate on uninteresting material for long periods of time. This is a well known to be an unhealthy lifestyle for humans. >Quit your job and live a better life! I am not sure that can work for everyone. Quit your job and then what?

Eumenes 4y ago

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.” ― Theodore Kaczynski

acuozzo 4y ago
> Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. THX 1138
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  I prefer Equilibrium. Gun kata ftw
astrange 4y ago
Antidepressants don't "make you happy", alcohol does that. Antidepressants are intended to give you the ability to get out of bed in the morning. If depression was just caused by inhumane work environments, why do Americans have it and not Bangladeshi T-shirt makers?
- Eumenes 4y ago
  Culture - I imagine traditional cultures aren't inhaling pharmaceuticals at the alarming rates like in America
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    You've completely elided the fact that ADHD can be treated through means besides medication. And that this discussion thread is not about depression. And that traditional cultures are affected by depression. https://psychcentral.com/depression/depression-in-indigenous-communities https://psychcentral.com/depression/depression-in-indigenous...

potta_coffee 4y ago

I have the same feeling; society is sick. But I cannot just quit my job and escape society. I have no idea how to make a living on my own outside of a company.

imesh 4y ago

Going through University and working in tech has been extremely hard for me. I'm terrible at it. Sure, I can come up with an algorithm, I can write code, but something about doing mental work is extremely laborious to me. I spend 30 minutes panicking before I can even open an email. This past year I took a break and went to work with my Arborist friend as a groundsman. Do I still have ADD? Probably? I can't tell. None of those ADD issues come up unless I'm working on a computer. The tree business has been going well and the work has expanded into all kinds of new opportunities. I don't think I'm going back. Especially if medication is necessary for me to succeed.

0x457 4y ago

hmm, hard disagree. Even if I had no obligations to society I would run myself into depression with my ADHD: it's damn hard to get constant new sources of dopamine.