Living in a "modern" society, complex, fast, competitive-driven, with 24hr news and fake-news feeds, etc etc etc.. who can really avoid this "problem"? I suspect so many "mental problems" are in reality others kind of problems, diguised as mental, and many solutions are a cure for symptoms but not a remedy for -real- true causes, clearly with enough of a stress or situation sure even the psiche will suffer.
Widening the point of wiew about the -mental- problem field the critique is not new : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry
Telling people who have ADHD they don't actually have ADHD and that they should just focus harder is not the best use of your time...
No, the usual retort is the argument that "everyone experiences this" is irrelevant.
It's the degree to which a person experiences it, and the impact it has to their life is what is relevant.
Same as how everyone forgets things sometimes, but not everybody has dementia.
Or how everyone oversleeps sometimes, but not everyone has narcolepsy.
Not to mention that "struggling to focus and procrastinating often" is just one aspect of ADHD. There are also sensory issues, stimming, over-fixations, memory issues, and several other things.
>Whoa, that's a lot of people! 1 in 20 people
Other mental and body issues have even bigger spread. Doesn't mean they don't exist. Check how many people are depressed (way more than 1 in 20), whether they take drugs for it or not.
>the authors state that “no biological marker is diagnostic for ADHD” and that “meta-analysis of all neuroimaging studies do not show differences between individuals with ADHD and control subjects”, thus “no form of neuroimaging can be used for diagnosis of ADHD”.
Yes. Several diseases are like that.
Not everything boils down to "you lack this protein in your system" or "your heart has a blocked artery" that can be seen trivially. Some diagnosis require observation and nuance, instead of a mechanical test, who would have thought?
Some issues occur because of developmental issues in brain connectivity and which brain "modules" overwork or underwork. Those aren't things that show up in blookwork or X-rays. That said, some of the results of that can be seen in brain scans of ADHD vs regular brains, even if we don't know the exact cause of ADHD.
In any case, for most diseases we first see the symptoms and learn to identify them, them later we might be able to find some way to aleviate them, then find some pathways and perhaps ways to cure them even if we don't understand the mechanisms entirely, and only after centuries or decades or research (if we're lucky), we might pinpoint the exact mechanisms. For many medical issues we have neither cures not understanding of causes - that's even for very frequent and impactful issues.
You seem like you gave the thing a few days worth of thought (not necessarily just a few days of actual calendar time, just a few days worth of though), and decided you have the right idea, and others are stupid or in it for profit.
I suggest you go live for a good while with someone who has ADHD and see if what they have is just them "struggling to focus and procrastinating often" they same way every Average Joe "experiences it sometimes", and whether they're just "addicted to their phone".
And others don't...https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/imaging-study-shows-dopa...
Every medicated person you ask tells you their brain just works differently from birth and doesn't produce enough dopamine so they need meds...but its not proven at all, and there is evidence its not the case.
> and only after centuries or decades or research (if we're lucky), we might pinpoint the exact mechanisms.
We might also create such a broad definition of a condition (that we just thought up), and then unnecessary put healthy people on meds and fuck up society.
Advocates always talk like there are no consequences to taking stimulants every day...but you read story after story. It just doesn't make sense, if its safe, then everyone can have it, if not, then...we just make up definitions of it and people who fit that pattern can have it?
> see if what they have is just them "struggling to focus and procrastinating often"
That's not the point. The definition of ADHD clearly defines them as struggling a lot more than the usual person.
ADHD is simply a grouping of behaviors. 126 different combinations in fact.
How does this make it a singular condition that we just throw meds at?
The whole industry just feels like an excuse to prescribe meds. Meds which help everyone.
With all that out of the way, I find it silly when someone making 100k a year or whatever in tech all of a sudden is following trends without knowing it and during the pandemic "finds out" they "can't focus" and therefore has ADHD. They need expensive Lisdexamfetamine to get that raise or acknowledgement at work... while I'm here struggling to function in my day to day life let alone take on the responsibilities of a job which the thought of absolutely destroys my brain.
If your executive function isn't impaired and you have no issue just "doing things" then I'll say you don't have ADHD to the point of requiring medication. You might, you very well might... but it's extremely hard as an observer to all of this to feel we share the same struggles.
People with ADHD focus on EVERYTHING. They don't procrastinate in that "oh I'll just put this off" care free kind of way. They do it in a "I'm overwhelmed and I can't, I just can't... oh shit I put it off for too long now I HAVE TO!" kinda way. You'll notice that a person who has been diagnosed with ADHD very early and has had therapy and been on and off medication (vacations) multiple times will be extremely aware of things and very self aware but they still under some extreme situations (personal and variable) they still can't "do" some things just because this disorder is a physiological difference.
Imagine having the motivation, the ability to simply do things, as a depressed person. Okay? But you aren't depressed. But everyone tells you that you are because that is how society sees your symptoms... but it's ADHD, it's your defective fuel tank. Some days, out of the blue, your tank is working because you found an angle that tricks your brain to do stuff. Other days you need to try what feels like 500x harder than other people to do simple stuff.
Yes, you could of covered this up and masked it your entire life. You might of had the ability to "suck it up" as it were. And then as soon as you had free time to introspect you have doubts to the amount of effort you had to expend to get where you are...
BTW, I can't stand articles that are like "how to use your ADHD as a super power". It's not, it's fucking not. I feel like most of those are written by people entranced by their new found medication hyperfocus and don't have the self awareness to know when they are just opening themselves up to exploitation. I refuse to be exploited just because I can get tons of deep work done all day without a break without realizing the passage of time. That is not a super power, that is literal mental disorder and time blindness. I want to be told I don't have to do that and to take care of myself to not burn myself out.
Recently I've seen so many people being prescribed around me. And they are high-functioning people.
And you have to question whether they actually need to jump on meds every day. Everyone is so happy to be able to take stimulants. I cannot imagine touching the stuff. I find myself observing a dip from simply caffeine which makes me want more when it will keep me up all night.
Plus you see people on their phones all day, completely addicted.
There are definitely real cases like yours, but as you mentioned, it's becoming way too hyped and you are not allowed to criticize the science. It's dangerous for society. Look where the opioid epidemic took us.