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If ADD/ADHD is a matter of willpower, then maybe that is true, but willpower is a neurological resource. Exercising willpower diminishes that resource, you can
by zeidrich 13y ago
If ADD/ADHD is a matter of willpower, then maybe that is true, but willpower is a neurological resource. Exercising willpower diminishes that resource, you can see that in studied conditions like decision fatigue.
If some people have too little of this resource to function in a normal capacity, why then should people argue against a drug that helps buoy this resource.
If doctors found a better way to treat the condition, neurogenesis or something, then fine, do that instead. But right now, we're in a position where some people, whether through genetics, traumatic stress, brain damage, or just diverse brain chemistry, don't function as well as others. We also have medication that can keep that "willpower" hanging around in your nucleus accumbens.
What bothers me is the pseudo-scientific idea of a mystical "Willpower" that just manifests itself in "good" or "strong" people, as though there's a moral component. It's like running a race with one leg, and being told "Stop using a prosthetic! Just use 2 legs! Everyone else is!"
- JohnBooty 13y agoAmen. It's funny how as a society we've come to accept certain mental issues as things rooted in brain chemistry and others are still "willpower" issues; issues of personal quality. I think that at this point, nearly everybody in the civilized world accepts dyslexia as a neurological thing and not a issue of "willpower" or low intelligence. It wasn't always that way, though - that's a pretty recent development. I hope we can see (and contribute to) ADHD getting there in our lifetimes.