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I "have" ADHD, although I don't believe in it conceptually and I don't take any drugs for it. I think if you poly-score people on impulse control, attention spa

I "have" ADHD, although I don't believe in it conceptually and I don't take any drugs for it. I think if you poly-score people on impulse control, attention span, time sensitivity, organic recall of pertinent time-sensitive information, etc. you'll find that if you arrange all the scores from best to worst everyone under the 40th percent mark "has ADHD". Below maybe the 10th percentile you'll find that without stimulants it's unlikely that the person will function well in a task-based time-sensitive environment with delayed feedback loops for task completion. Accepting the framing that ADHD does exist, it feels like brain damage. Every year growing up, in any group of kids I was among the most immature, the most off-task, the most distracted, and the most forgetful. I am plenty smart, move very quickly, and have accomplished plenty, but my entire life has been defined by being more bored, forgetful, and immature than nearly every single person I've been close to. My wife (performs very well on relevant metrics) says it's extremely noticeable and unusual from the outside. Over time I've learned to heavily lean on coping mechanisms (my phone rings about 35 times per day with timers I snooze tactically, I leave my keys in my bag any time I go places so I can't leave without the bag, etc.) No amount of character development schemes, punishments, shaming, positive skill practicing etc. has changed my natural proclivities in the slightest, although many days of good sleep and diet can sometimes produce a bit of a sustained flow state. Sometimes I wonder if I just lack some kind of ion in my blood. My coworkers sometimes tell me they feel like they have ADHD. Then I watch them listen to someone talk about a subject they find boring for 5 minutes without drifting off or fidgeting, and then remember off the top of their heads to respond to outstanding emails. Come on guys, if we're going to make up conditions we should at least reserve the label for people that it describes accurately.

falcolas 2y ago
> I "have" ADHD, although I don't believe in it conceptually Congratulations on getting your Doctorate of Psychiatry. Glad you've single handedly debunked a century of study with your belief. On a more serious note, I'm glad your symptoms are addressable with coping mechanisms. A lot of folks can't. And your "40%" is actually closer to 5%, based on scientists who research and give talks on this mental disorder.
- ffsm8 2y ago
  I think they're just in a bubble, gotta remember that in tech the percentage is bound to be a lot higher Then for the general population. You're also taking that initial statement way too serious, the rest of the comment kinda contextualized it and essentially admitted that it does exist, but that it's more of a range then a binary. And that's in line with the medical science. I've actually never heard anyone describe it as a binary, but maybe that's just my bubble.
  - falcolas 2y ago
    Thanks to another prevalent symptom of ADHD - emotional disregulation - I very well could have overreacted. In my defense, the "It's not a real thing" and "you're just lazy" really get old after the 100th time hearing them this week. Control over concentration is only one symptom of ADHD, and there are discernible differences that make ADHD brains look different in CT and MRI scans. So it's a bit closer to binary than "everyone in the world is somewhere on the ADHD spectrum". Plus, the final word in the ADHD acronym is "Disorder" - so if it's not impairing your ability to live and participate in society, by definition you don't have ADHD.
    - quacked 2y ago
      I wouldn't say you overreacted. It's impossible to both convey and read tone over the internet, so there's no way for you to know that I don't mean to be insulting. I also like to write in a polarizing and cynical manner. Whatever negative label you've had applied to you as a result of ADHD, I likely have had the same applied to me. My choice to not use any stimulants is both indeed a privilege of my "symptoms" not reaching a point where I can't function in day-to-day life, but also an ideological choice, because I have hurt my own career, screwed up projects, and progressed much more slowly than I would have if I were on Adderall or Ritalin or whatever else they're prescribing now. The reason that I persist with the claim that "ADHD doesn't exist" is exactly what you said here: > If it's not impairing your ability to live and participate in society, by definition you don't have ADHD. The problem is not my brain, the problem is the arbitrary demands of society. This is not an emotional attempt to preserve my self-esteem--I like myself just fine and always have--but a pragmatic observation that diagnosing "disorders" with acronyms and developing "treatments" legitimizes the framing that the society that I'm chafing with as a result of having some cognitive deficits relative to the rest of the population is somehow more "real" or "official" or "objective" than I am. It's like if every day to get to work, you had to walk up huge stairs, and anyone under 5'6" had a tough time getting up the stairs, and then doctors came up with HDS (Height Deficiency Syndrome) and prescribed growth hormones and stilts. You get a bunch of people walking around on stilts telling each other they have HDS. Over time, you barely even need to be examined to get a stilt prescription, they just give you the HDS diagnosis soon as you look like you're not going to pass 5'6" by 18. Now you've got a society that is comfortable with the knowledge that short people have HDS and tall people don't, without thinking about the fact that whoever built the stairs could simply have made smaller stairs that other people could walk up more easily. I would really prefer that people start wondering en masse if, in the age of incredible technological abundance we currently enjoy, it's really necessary that every industry, even ones that don't require highly time-sensitive detail-oriented work, function with the rigor and precision of a munitions factory.
alfiedotwtf 2y ago
MRIs show study after study that ADHD is real. Its been shown that ADHD is either the inability or significant reduction of processing dopamine, or the inability or significant increase in dopamine production. That’s all there is to it. Tell a blind person to simple try harder in seeing, and that you don’t believe being blind is “a thing”.
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  > study after study that ADHD is real. Its been shown that ADHD is either the inability or significant reduction of processing dopamine, or the inability or significant increase in dopamine production. That’s all there is to it. Its not, though, because while the dopamine/norepinephrine chain seems to be the main issue in ADHD, serotonin also seems to be implicated, as low serotonin levels are associated with it and serotonin-targeting interventions also seem to help. But, yeah, your more general point is correct; ADHD is undeniably a real condition.
- TimTheTinker 2y ago
  At its core, ADHD's main mechanistic difference is undeniably an executive function deficit -- the frontal lobe not being activated enough to properly regulate functions of the rest of the brain or exert executive planning and follow-through. The "paradoxical" effects of ADHD stimulant-type medications is the most direct indicator that this is indeed the case: taking a CNS stimulant normally causes more arousal, agitation, and activity in NT individuals. But in ADHD individuals, CNS stimulants up-regulate frontal lobe activity, which manifests as a relaxant, since the frontal lobe is doing a better job of regulating and stabilizing the rest of the brain. Executive function also improves considerably. So the most objectively measurable symptom of ADHD is whether this paradoxical behavioral alteration occurs from taking a CNS stimulant. You can argue all you like about whether ADHD is within this or that percentile threshold -- but you can't argue with a proven, consistent, clinical result that points strongly to under-functioning of the frontal lobe in individuals with ADHD. I've experienced this myself. My quality of life is profoundly different after taking Ritalin. I feel more relaxed; the buzzing and noise in my head is significantly reduced. I stop feeling the profound urge to get distracted like Doug the dog from the movie Up: ... "squirrel!"

falcolas 2y ago

> I "have" ADHD, although I don't believe in it conceptually Congratulations on getting your Doctorate of Psychiatry. Glad you've single handedly debunked a century of study with your belief. On a more serious note, I'm glad your symptoms are addressable with coping mechanisms. A lot of folks can't. And your "40%" is actually closer to 5%, based on scientists who research and give talks on this mental disorder.

ffsm8 2y ago
I think they're just in a bubble, gotta remember that in tech the percentage is bound to be a lot higher Then for the general population. You're also taking that initial statement way too serious, the rest of the comment kinda contextualized it and essentially admitted that it does exist, but that it's more of a range then a binary. And that's in line with the medical science. I've actually never heard anyone describe it as a binary, but maybe that's just my bubble.
- falcolas 2y ago
  Thanks to another prevalent symptom of ADHD - emotional disregulation - I very well could have overreacted. In my defense, the "It's not a real thing" and "you're just lazy" really get old after the 100th time hearing them this week. Control over concentration is only one symptom of ADHD, and there are discernible differences that make ADHD brains look different in CT and MRI scans. So it's a bit closer to binary than "everyone in the world is somewhere on the ADHD spectrum". Plus, the final word in the ADHD acronym is "Disorder" - so if it's not impairing your ability to live and participate in society, by definition you don't have ADHD.
  - quacked 2y ago
    I wouldn't say you overreacted. It's impossible to both convey and read tone over the internet, so there's no way for you to know that I don't mean to be insulting. I also like to write in a polarizing and cynical manner. Whatever negative label you've had applied to you as a result of ADHD, I likely have had the same applied to me. My choice to not use any stimulants is both indeed a privilege of my "symptoms" not reaching a point where I can't function in day-to-day life, but also an ideological choice, because I have hurt my own career, screwed up projects, and progressed much more slowly than I would have if I were on Adderall or Ritalin or whatever else they're prescribing now. The reason that I persist with the claim that "ADHD doesn't exist" is exactly what you said here: > If it's not impairing your ability to live and participate in society, by definition you don't have ADHD. The problem is not my brain, the problem is the arbitrary demands of society. This is not an emotional attempt to preserve my self-esteem--I like myself just fine and always have--but a pragmatic observation that diagnosing "disorders" with acronyms and developing "treatments" legitimizes the framing that the society that I'm chafing with as a result of having some cognitive deficits relative to the rest of the population is somehow more "real" or "official" or "objective" than I am. It's like if every day to get to work, you had to walk up huge stairs, and anyone under 5'6" had a tough time getting up the stairs, and then doctors came up with HDS (Height Deficiency Syndrome) and prescribed growth hormones and stilts. You get a bunch of people walking around on stilts telling each other they have HDS. Over time, you barely even need to be examined to get a stilt prescription, they just give you the HDS diagnosis soon as you look like you're not going to pass 5'6" by 18. Now you've got a society that is comfortable with the knowledge that short people have HDS and tall people don't, without thinking about the fact that whoever built the stairs could simply have made smaller stairs that other people could walk up more easily. I would really prefer that people start wondering en masse if, in the age of incredible technological abundance we currently enjoy, it's really necessary that every industry, even ones that don't require highly time-sensitive detail-oriented work, function with the rigor and precision of a munitions factory.

alfiedotwtf 2y ago

MRIs show study after study that ADHD is real. Its been shown that ADHD is either the inability or significant reduction of processing dopamine, or the inability or significant increase in dopamine production. That’s all there is to it. Tell a blind person to simple try harder in seeing, and that you don’t believe being blind is “a thing”.

dragonwriter 2y ago
> study after study that ADHD is real. Its been shown that ADHD is either the inability or significant reduction of processing dopamine, or the inability or significant increase in dopamine production. That’s all there is to it. Its not, though, because while the dopamine/norepinephrine chain seems to be the main issue in ADHD, serotonin also seems to be implicated, as low serotonin levels are associated with it and serotonin-targeting interventions also seem to help. But, yeah, your more general point is correct; ADHD is undeniably a real condition.
TimTheTinker 2y ago
At its core, ADHD's main mechanistic difference is undeniably an executive function deficit -- the frontal lobe not being activated enough to properly regulate functions of the rest of the brain or exert executive planning and follow-through. The "paradoxical" effects of ADHD stimulant-type medications is the most direct indicator that this is indeed the case: taking a CNS stimulant normally causes more arousal, agitation, and activity in NT individuals. But in ADHD individuals, CNS stimulants up-regulate frontal lobe activity, which manifests as a relaxant, since the frontal lobe is doing a better job of regulating and stabilizing the rest of the brain. Executive function also improves considerably. So the most objectively measurable symptom of ADHD is whether this paradoxical behavioral alteration occurs from taking a CNS stimulant. You can argue all you like about whether ADHD is within this or that percentile threshold -- but you can't argue with a proven, consistent, clinical result that points strongly to under-functioning of the frontal lobe in individuals with ADHD. I've experienced this myself. My quality of life is profoundly different after taking Ritalin. I feel more relaxed; the buzzing and noise in my head is significantly reduced. I stop feeling the profound urge to get distracted like Doug the dog from the movie Up: ... "squirrel!"