this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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This is something that concerns me about the recent excessive self-diagnosing of ADHD I've been seeing people do in the US. I think our late capitalist system has us convinced that we need to be constantly focused and productive. Distraction is a disease. I worry that when our expectations of how a person should function begin to look unnatural and based on how humans function on something like Adderall, then we slowly begin to act like there's something wrong with just being a normal person that takes their time living a more naturally paced life.
Eh, the problem I have with that approach is that in my case, Adderall helps me do stuff like "get the trash out to the dumpster" and "make phone calls". Executive dysfunction is a bitch and a half for plenty of reasons that'd still be there even if we finally attained fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Literally choked on my water mid sip when I read this. Thank you. 🙏
As someone with diagnosed ADHD (and finally on medication), I cannot emphasize enough, how much this view/attitude hurts those who probably have ADHD but are influenced by this attitude (including myself, as I now finally get my shit together in a relatively consistent way without being distracted by literally everything, after being unmedicated for 20 years...).
I even know a few who very likely have ADHD that share this view and don't want to take medication.
Fine, everyone should obviously decide for themselves if they want to take medication (or any other drugs at that), but please don't spread this attitude, it harms those who probably have ADHD but don't get diagnosed and just think "that's (my behavior) probably normal".
Also it's not just "being productive" in a capitalist system, but rather to get your life together (not forgetting important stuff, executive dysfunction etc. i.e. function better in society (impulsive behavior can be a problem sometimes)).
The shortage AFAIK is pretty artificial and caused by the DEA. So I would rather "shit" on the failed War on Drugs than on those who self-diagnose on ADHD and take/"abuse" medication. Drug abuse is a different topic and omnipresent and a social blurred sense of reality with hard drugs like alcohol (it's actually a harder drug than stimulants like Adderall...).
IMHO everyone should decide themselves what they take if it doesn't harm others...
Non the less, if one suspects they have ADHD they should obviously talk to a (good) doctor to verify and check side-effects, probably different medication (for me e.g. Atomoxetine works better for executive dysfunction, and stimulants are good to keep the focus on one topic, while not being distracted (but doesn't fix executive dysfunction that well)).
I don't doubt that ADHD exists and that your experience is valid. But I also think we need to be really careful about our expectations. I know I don't have ADHD. I can focus plenty when I try. Social media has shortened my attention span and made me prone to proslcrastination, but it's definitely not something I am actively incapable of. Yet so many people have self-diagnosed me with ADHD.
I have at least one friend who in college landed a prescription for Adderall because he wanted to be able to get extra focus even though he knew he didn't have ADHD. Later on he went off of it and managed to become a lawyer and made it look easy. This is someone who never struggled with focus. I knew him since grade school. His use of the drug was clearly abusive.
I get angry at people like my friend because I know ADHD is real. And I know his abuse of Adderall only makes more people out there minimize the existenxe of real ADHD. But just as you're saying my rhetoric makes it difficult for people with ADHD, I think overdiagnosing hurts people without it. Like I said in my first comment, if I'm in a really competitive environment like a school and I'm going against people that are using a "performance enhancing drug" for focus, then our societal expectations for what I should be capable of are out of whack and I start to be expected to perform and focus like someone on Adderall.
There has to be a compromise between handing it out to everyone and refusing to give it to people who genuinely need it. I have no idea what that compromise looks like and I'm truly happy that people like you and another friend I have who genuinely has it are able to get their medication. But outside of the very real world of ADHD, I see it becoming a problem. My wife who has been able to write an entire PhD dissertation in a very normal amount of time and experiences far less distractability than most people I know regularly questions whether she has ADHD. It's that state of mind where everybody thinks they have it that I worry about. We don't need to all be on Adderall.
Well I think the issue is less Adderall/stimulants or overdiagnosing of ADHD (~5% of the whole popluation is not a small absolute number), but more the "cancerous" way our society has developed (with capitalism driving it). The modern way to live is certainly not helpful and I'm sure of it that it promotes symptoms of ADHD (like staring the whole day on a screen, doomscrolling etc.). For me it's really helpful to be active in nature, eating healthy, meditation etc. (these things will be helpful for most people I think, just to train the attention span and also help with executive function etc.).
I also don't think your friend is the issue, AFAIK it doesn't really help that much for people without ADHD, and well if he needs to do it, so whatever, if he's hurting other people because(?) of it though (also by just looking down on others), that's another story. IMHO liberating and actually really educating about drugs (including stimulants) will likely be helpful for normalizing different medical conditions and society in general, as the dangers of e.g. alcohol is often underestimated and too much socially accepted (like in a bar you're almost socially required/pressured to drink alcohol), while other drugs are dreaded (like LSD) but may even have a good effect on society.
ADHD among other psychiatric conditions (like autism, which is actually quite often comorbid with ADHD) is a spectrum, not everyone needs medication, it sometimes even doesn't help that much for people who have ADHD (as I've said it's a spectrum), but most of the time it's an effective helpful tool (e.g. actually keeping the good habits learned with psychotherapy is not easy without medication in my experience).
I think there should be way more education about what ADHD actually is (since it's so common), it's honestly shocking that even quite a few health professionals themselves have a wrong picture of ADHD (I was once diagnosed as a child, than after some time undiagnosed, but after researching quite a bit, I'm very sure that I also have undiagnosed autism (and these conditions in some ways cancel each other out), which is probably why I was undiagnosed, because I could focus at that time... but well executive dysfunction is another story...). Took another 20 years and COVID which made the symptoms worse that I finally got another look.
So regarding your wife, it's absolutely possible to write a PhD with ADHD in a normal amount of time, hyperfocus can be quite a good help with that (and obviously being intelligent). My symptoms are mostly anxiety and executive dysfunction, I can focus really well when the topic is of interest for me (hyperfocus), but otherwise oh boy (often the most simple boring things)... So I think reading into actual literature and checking out a good health professional will clear things up, also just to finally know what condition it is (if it is one at all).