3 ms·

ADHD is so prevalent in the US, far more so than most (all?) other disabilities; I believe one of these must be true: - ADHD is severely over diagnosed - ADHD

ADHD is so prevalent in the US, far more so than most (all?) other disabilities; I believe one of these must be true: - ADHD is severely over diagnosed - ADHD is a trait that was adaptive in the past, and is only pathologically maladaptive in modern life - ADHD the trait is caused by some aspect of modern life (this seems least likely to me) (saying this as diagnosed, with the usual problems)

SimplyUnknown 3y ago
Not all of these are mutually exclusive, but there is also a fourth option: - ADHD was severely underdiagnosed in the past and got more accurately diagnosed in recent years
- frogulis 3y ago
  If I'm reading the parent comment correctly, I think they're saying that that the high rates currently being diagnosed require one of their three conditions to be true. That is, if ADHD is accurately diagnosed, and never had an evolutionary advantage, and isn't caused by some modern factor, then why would ADHD be so highly diagnosed today? Which is an interesting thought in my view
  - thfuran 3y ago
    It could share a root cause with something that was evolutionarily adaptive or simply not have been sufficiently maladaptive to be strongly selected against.
  - Clamchop 3y ago
    There are other conditions. There's at least a cultural component in that we haven't always embraced mental health care in the US as much as we do today. Many other parts of the world still don't. Whether over or underdiagnosed now, it was underdiagnosed in the past.
pwpw 3y ago
Entirely pet theories that may be untrue but worth considering: - Nicotine helps mitigate the negative symptoms of ADHD, but US society has seen a major drop in tobacco usage - Having access to a secretary greatly compensates for workplace related tasks that are difficult for those with ADHD. I have had a few conversations with people at my company much older than myself about how the number of secretaries has vastly shrunk. My boss’ secretary used to reach out to me about a meeting she had scheduled for us. Now my boss doesn’t have a secretary, and I have to schedule those meetings, update them, and communicate this with multiple parties while also having a full plate of my own dev work.

SimplyUnknown 3y ago

Not all of these are mutually exclusive, but there is also a fourth option: - ADHD was severely underdiagnosed in the past and got more accurately diagnosed in recent years

frogulis 3y ago
If I'm reading the parent comment correctly, I think they're saying that that the high rates currently being diagnosed require one of their three conditions to be true. That is, if ADHD is accurately diagnosed, and never had an evolutionary advantage, and isn't caused by some modern factor, then why would ADHD be so highly diagnosed today? Which is an interesting thought in my view
- thfuran 3y ago
  It could share a root cause with something that was evolutionarily adaptive or simply not have been sufficiently maladaptive to be strongly selected against.
- Clamchop 3y ago
  There are other conditions. There's at least a cultural component in that we haven't always embraced mental health care in the US as much as we do today. Many other parts of the world still don't. Whether over or underdiagnosed now, it was underdiagnosed in the past.

pwpw 3y ago

Entirely pet theories that may be untrue but worth considering: - Nicotine helps mitigate the negative symptoms of ADHD, but US society has seen a major drop in tobacco usage - Having access to a secretary greatly compensates for workplace related tasks that are difficult for those with ADHD. I have had a few conversations with people at my company much older than myself about how the number of secretaries has vastly shrunk. My boss’ secretary used to reach out to me about a meeting she had scheduled for us. Now my boss doesn’t have a secretary, and I have to schedule those meetings, update them, and communicate this with multiple parties while also having a full plate of my own dev work.