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Ever since I heard someone describe ADD as your "fight or flight response going haywire", I've realized that a lot of people in my life with true ADD have exper
by INTPenis 3y ago
Ever since I heard someone describe ADD as your "fight or flight response going haywire", I've realized that a lot of people in my life with true ADD have experienced trauma in their childhood.
But I'm no doctor, just making observations and trying to understand the world.
- esafak 3y agoAnybody got references for this?
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoI am fairly certain that for many people, adhd is their brain being on constant alert / hyper-vigilance due to instability and trauma growing up, and needing to become very sensitive to people's behaviours to anticipate bad responses. Yes, I am speaking from experience.
- saltcured 3y agoIsn't this what the PTSD label is for? Or is the implication that this another "spectrum" where we've historically had some discrete labels?
- INTPenis 3y agoI guess the implication is that ADD is what PTSD in children could evolve into.
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoNot necessarily; i was thinking more about hyper-vigilance. It doesn’t necessarily have all the issues of PTSD.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- scohesc 3y agoI agree with your statement - I know it's anecdotal, etc. etc. but it seems to have some credibility to it given my upbringing and my experiences. You don't learn executive functioning skills when the opposite is modeled by your parents. You also don't learn them from other people in your community when you're focused on trying to survive day to day and constantly dread going home to an environment where you're not respected. Every day is a struggle but I feel I'm starting to come around and realize that I can change myself for the better. I hope everyone else experiencing the same can come to this realization too.
- Arch485 3y agoAlso not a doctor, but from the arm chair research I've done (I have ADHD), in the case of having trauma in childhood it's more likely that those people have PTSD (not ADHD). Certain types of PTSD have overlapping symptoms with ADHD and are commonly misdiagnosed.
- _yb2s 3y agoAlso, people imagine PTSD comes specifically from war, starvation, physical injury, etc. but it actually comes from emotional trauma. Emotional trauma to children can be just as bad from a high conflict or high stress household, even if the family is financially secure. Having rich parents that fight constantly and emotionally neglect their children is probably emotionally worse than being a homeless war refugee with kind and loving parents... I suspect PTSD is widespread among kids in the middle and upper class, but people categorically deny the possibility of it, and these kids may instead be diagnosed with something else. The book "Simplicity Parenting" by Kim John Payne was really interesting, because he was actually a psychologist that worked with children in war refugee camps, and later worked with middle class American children from stressful households, and found many of them to be experiencing similar issues, with similar symptoms.
- novok 3y agoWith ADHD, there are issues that bring up similar symptoms, but is not ADHD. A person can be 'distracted' if they are sleep deprived, anxious, have PTSD or are depressed, and part of diagnosing it is ruling out those other conditions. Giving a 'normal' anxious person stimulants can be a bad combo for example, where it will amp their anxiety up a shit ton instead. Also there are different forms of ADHD. An inattentive ADHD type person could be said to have the opposite problem of their 'fight or flight response going haywire' for example. They can often be quite relaxed, maybe a bit too relaxed.