My parents moved to California from New England in the summer between my fourth and fifth grades. My school back east was about two years ahead of the Calif one, at least in academics. As such, I didn’t “pay attention to what the majority of people expects others to pay attention to” for the next two years of school. Does that mean I had ADHD? I still got straight “A"s on my report cards, except for “social skills” so I guess that qualified me for the “disability.” In other words, I think the diagnosis of ADHD is a simplistic appraisal of a wide variety of possible behaviors, many of which may not be damaging or indicate any defect.
My parents moved to California from New England in the summer between my fourth and fifth grades. My school back east was about two years ahead of the Calif one, at least in academics. As such, I didn’t “pay attention to what the majority of people expects others to pay attention to” for the next two years of school. Does that mean I had ADHD?
Of course not. I once had a pain in my chest and it wasn’t a heart attack, I had gas. Same symptom, different cause, different outcome.
Precisely, George. An incompetent doctor could have diagnosed you with a cardiac problem and wanted to do by-pass surgery. Similarly, except that it was in the days before school psychologists or even awareness of the syndrome, I could have been misdiagnosed with ADHD. The question is, how any kids have similar behaviors but for very different reasons, so are labeled as having ADHD?
Precisely, George. An incompetent doctor could have diagnosed you with a cardiac problem and wanted to do by-pass surgery. Similarly, except that it was in the days before school psychologists or even awareness of the syndrome, I could have been misdiagnosed with ADHD. The question is, how any kids have similar behaviors but for very different reasons, so are labeled as having ADHD?
There are a lot of indications that the brain of ADHD’rs tick differently, but it is a question of measure, not that you have it, or you don’t have it at all. For some people (children and adults!) it is so strong that they are handicapped in modern society. For them it can cause real trouble. So what do we do? Change society? Or take Ritalin?
Here you see that without ethics we cannot decide the question. Science alone cannot say what we must do. Even if the kind of brain functioning of ADHD’ers would be clear, in contrast with people who are functioning well in modern society, the question what to do is not answered. If society becomes more modern, maybe 50% of all people are diagnosed with ADHD. What then? Abortion on all children whose genetic footprint will cause them to have ADHD?
Just to be sure, AD(H)D is more than just “paying attention to what the majority of people expects others to pay attention to”. But the phrase makes clear that the ‘syndrome’ is not just a medical condition, but has a cultural component too.
I agree with everything you said here, GdB. I don’t know how to best deal with this problem. I am sure we will not try to change our society, but will probably try to change the individuals who don’t fit the norm. We can see similar problems with, for example, dyslexia or even sleeping. Is it fair for the majority of adults to start work at nine o’clock and the majority of kids to start schools even earlier? We don’t all follow the same sleeping pattern and some (lots) people are simply not early risers.
Unfortunately, we are not all the same, and those who think that evolution in humans has slowed down or even stopped, should think about it more carefully.
Unfortunately, we are not all the same, and those who think that evolution in humans has slowed down or even stopped, should think about it more carefully.
You mean AD(H)D’ers will die out? Maybe you are right, however I think the cultural evolution might be faster than the biological. One of my sons has ADD too… Well, have to wait for his ‘offspring’, before I can tell ‘ye.
No, what I meant was that different pressures still exist. Who knows, maybe the reason why Europeans are having so few children could be a result of the—as you correctly identify it—fast changes in cultural evolution.
I’ll give you another example: I forgot the exact number now, but fathers who have children in their late forties have, I believe, 75% higher chance to have autistic children when compared with young fathers who have their kids in their early twenties. Due to the cultural pressures of today, where getting a decant job without a degree is nearly impossible, more parents have their kids later in their life. The problem here is, however, that men are not born with their sperm (as opposed to women who have all their eggs at the moment they are born) and the longer they wait to father a kid, the higher the chances of mutation in their sperm.
I don’t believe the diagnosis. We have absentee parents (both working), poor education and poor nutrition. Children need attention. If they don’t get attention and proper guidance, they grow wayward. Let’s go back to home cooked meals, physical education at all grade levels in an adhd schools, and strict adherence to a formal education.
Kids also need fresh air. Let’s plant more pine trees in the schoolyards. I too likez to play psychologist.
That link wasn’t there earlier. Oh well, just another spam.
New tactic they have. They post a message with no links in order to get “approved” then later edit the message to add an advertisement link and hope administrators will not notice the change. They are sneaky.
While our moderators and administrator are vigilant to delete spam, we also have quite a few very sharp members who flag it quickly so it can be deleted.
