3 ms·

I'm ADHD and I don't buy that "would have made great cavemen, natural movers and shakers" rubbish for a minute. Dude above who was worried he wouldn't have elec

by flir 3y ago

I'm ADHD and I don't buy that "would have made great cavemen, natural movers and shakers" rubbish for a minute. Dude above who was worried he wouldn't have electricity when his g/f came over because he just couldn't handle paying the bill on time? Much closer to the mark. When I got together with my now-wife, she sorted out a water bill I'd been paying on my old place for months because I hadn't gotten around to telling them I'd moved. My psychiatrist recommended Gabor Maté for what it's worth, but I prefer a really reductionist "it's all about dopamine" model. It might be simplistic, but it has the advantage of being concrete.

lolinder 3y ago
> I'm ADHD and I don't buy that "would have made great cavemen, natural movers and shakers" rubbish for a minute. Dude above who was worried he wouldn't have electricity when his g/f came over because he just couldn't handle paying the bill on time? Much closer to the mark. When I got together with my now-wife, she sorted out a water bill I'd been paying on my old place for months because I hadn't gotten around to telling them I'd moved. As a preface, just so you don't think I don't understand what you're talking about—my dad struggled to hold down a job for most of my childhood and finally got diagnosed with ADHD and started medication after he turned 50. I'm intimately familiar with the impairments that ADHD can cause and the real harm that is possible. That, said, what you're describing is exactly the kind of modern overhead that I'm talking about—the modern world imposes a million little things to keep track of that ultimately shouldn't be required, which leaves us chronically falling behind on menial tasks. That leads to anxiety and depression that makes things even worse. In the present reality, medication may be an appropriate patch to quickly restore sanity to people who need it, but I'm unconvinced that we should treat medicating a full 5% of the population for ADHD as a reasonable end goal. There are huge social movements for making accommodations for a portion of the population much smaller than that. There's no reason we can't make substantial changes to accommodate ADHD, especially given that said accommodations would really benefit everyone.
- flir 3y ago
  I get it, because I was diagnosed very late. The sense of opportunities missed is a killer, I feel for him. It's only lucking into a skillset like ours and a wonderful mother, and then wife that let me pull off a reasonable facsimile of adulting for as long as I did - and it was more like "basic functioning" than "thriving". I've got no problem with the OXO Good Grips argument ("accommodations help everyone"). The only thing I'll take issue with is laying the blame at the feet of the modern world, because I know I'd be just as much of a flake if I lived in a village of 75 people and grew turnips for a living.

by flir 3y ago

lolinder 3y ago

> I'm ADHD and I don't buy that "would have made great cavemen, natural movers and shakers" rubbish for a minute. Dude above who was worried he wouldn't have electricity when his g/f came over because he just couldn't handle paying the bill on time? Much closer to the mark. When I got together with my now-wife, she sorted out a water bill I'd been paying on my old place for months because I hadn't gotten around to telling them I'd moved. As a preface, just so you don't think I don't understand what you're talking about—my dad struggled to hold down a job for most of my childhood and finally got diagnosed with ADHD and started medication after he turned 50. I'm intimately familiar with the impairments that ADHD can cause and the real harm that is possible. That, said, what you're describing is exactly the kind of modern overhead that I'm talking about—the modern world imposes a million little things to keep track of that ultimately shouldn't be required, which leaves us chronically falling behind on menial tasks. That leads to anxiety and depression that makes things even worse. In the present reality, medication may be an appropriate patch to quickly restore sanity to people who need it, but I'm unconvinced that we should treat medicating a full 5% of the population for ADHD as a reasonable end goal. There are huge social movements for making accommodations for a portion of the population much smaller than that. There's no reason we can't make substantial changes to accommodate ADHD, especially given that said accommodations would really benefit everyone.

flir 3y ago
I get it, because I was diagnosed very late. The sense of opportunities missed is a killer, I feel for him. It's only lucking into a skillset like ours and a wonderful mother, and then wife that let me pull off a reasonable facsimile of adulting for as long as I did - and it was more like "basic functioning" than "thriving". I've got no problem with the OXO Good Grips argument ("accommodations help everyone"). The only thing I'll take issue with is laying the blame at the feet of the modern world, because I know I'd be just as much of a flake if I lived in a village of 75 people and grew turnips for a living.