1. ADHD always existed, is a problem that needs solving for someone to participate in society, and everyone went untreated. Diagnosis has improved.
2. ADHD has increased because of environmental changes such as pollution, food, chemicals, screens, how we raise children, or some other factor.
3. ADHD is a description of a group of people who have different preferences and corporate interests have identified it as a profitable problem and have become dependent on it to hit their revenue targets, so they tell themselves and customers that their kids will not be successful in life without their drugs.
4. Schools and society operate differently now and so opportunities that fit well for people who thrive in more physically active settings have been diminished (more time indoors, less free roaming outside, less physical jobs, etc).
5. A combination of several items above when brought together caused real or perceived increase in ADHD.
I also posted this reference below but I doubt it will be seen so:
Williams, Jonathan, and Eric Taylor. "The evolution of hyperactivity, impulsivity and cognitive diversity." Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3.8 (2006): 399-413.
That is a good question, and I'm not sure why your question is rarely asked. The answer for ADHD is that modern society is forcing almost everyone to study endlessly, which is rather ridiculous from an evolutionary point of view. The amount and style of school we have in also rather unnatural for some people, too.
The reason why this system exists is because it is the most effective system, most effective in the sense that it as outcompeted other systems where the pressure for survival was how useful in furthering our industrial age.
In small tribes, people with "ADHD" would likely have easily found a place and no one would really find it unusual if some children weren't good at studying abstract concepts for 6 hours a day...because most wouldn't need to do that.
The fact that ADHD is classified as a disorder is because children with ADHD are simply less effective at serving our highly industralized system, which incidentally is not making us happier, but only more efficient at giving people differential advantages through economic growth, which in turn is making us sicker.
People with ADHD might have a harder time concentrating and sitting still, but it is our society which has the real disease.
The reason the question is rarely asked is because past generations did not do perfectly fine without the medications used today.
One sympton of children with ADHD are they have a tendency to be far more impulsive and make far more risky decisions, with some correspondingly awful consequences. That was happening before the disorder was discovered, only at the time no-one knew why the behaviour was occurring.
The first use of medication to treat ADHD was in 1937. Before that, children with ADHD had severe problems interacting with their families that were very difficult to treat.
What was interesting to me about that paper is that Sir Alexander Crichton noted that people who were born with it generally grew out of it. The authors note that this belief was generally held into the 1990s, followed with a note that recent studies show 50% growing out of it.
I do wonder if the nature of our modern lives- less physical activity, fewer working hours, with more 'mind' or white-collar jobs- has made us as a society less resilient to attention disorders like ADD or ADHD.
It's possible that, given the lack of extensive recorded research into it at the time, we don't know that these kids who were observed as having grown out of it were properly accounted for. A poor sample could easily make 50% seem like "most" after all.
Even so, it is worth wondering if non-pharmacological therapeutic treatment might be worth emphasizing more heavily. I don't know what it's like for kids in college now, but I recall meds like Adderall prescriptions being surprisingly common, and that it was being abused was something of an open secret.
I have no doubts that ADHD existed before, but there's no way the sudden influx of people with it was just 'always there but hidden'. Pretty much all my friends have diagnosed ADHD. Something is going on. In large part, likely the internet destroying our attention spans.
I only have had these problems since I was about 22, before that I concentrated great.
We should also ask the question: why do people need penicillin, anesthetics, and disinfectant so much today, when past generations did fine without them?
For antibiotics, it is at least partly due to the psychology of numbers. If you live in a village of 1000 and 1 person dies every year, then it's doing pretty well. But on a planet of 8 billion, 8 million people dying without penicillin sounds like a tragedy...
Individual people who need penicillin are doing better today, but as a whole past generations did as well as today, at least in the fact that they survived and produced us. In other words, we are doing BETTER when it comes to average individual comfort but the same in terms of surviving.
because my (born 1991) parents' (born early 1960s) generation, at least (probably other generations too) was raised to unquestioningly believe in the infinite miracles of the pharmaceutical industry such that any time there was any sort of "problem" with any of their children, they reached out to someone with a degree in something that would permit them to write a prescription for something, anything. they put me on all kinds of various antidepressants and amphetamines, trying to figure out the big mystery behind why the computer dork kid finds high school boring and feels sad all the time because he doesn't fit in because he's a computer dork. they put me on all kinds of shit that messed with my head in various ways—thank God I didn't kill myself—and I'm still on Adderall to this day. at some point I'll wean myself off of it but in the meantime I'm dependent on it and withdrawal is hell. I'm going to raise my children differently. we'll still get antibiotics when they catch a cold or whatever, but this "oh there's a magic pill that can solve your specific problem for you, we just need to try a dozen different ones, throwing shit at the wall until you either kill yourself or feel better" mindset is incomprehensibly insane to me.
"throwing shit at a wall" is kind of unavoidable because everybody responds differently and using educated guesses and iterating is a sensible approach.
Virtually every medication has risks/issues, so responsible use requires understanding those risks and be prepared to change course as conditions warrent it.
That said, medication should be one facet of many (behavioral modification, diet, exercise, meditation, etc). We're also all ultimately responsible for our own health so passively consuming pills without taking ownership is not license to blame your parents, "the system" or anything else.
SomethingNew2|2 years ago
1. ADHD always existed, is a problem that needs solving for someone to participate in society, and everyone went untreated. Diagnosis has improved.
2. ADHD has increased because of environmental changes such as pollution, food, chemicals, screens, how we raise children, or some other factor.
3. ADHD is a description of a group of people who have different preferences and corporate interests have identified it as a profitable problem and have become dependent on it to hit their revenue targets, so they tell themselves and customers that their kids will not be successful in life without their drugs.
4. Schools and society operate differently now and so opportunities that fit well for people who thrive in more physically active settings have been diminished (more time indoors, less free roaming outside, less physical jobs, etc).
5. A combination of several items above when brought together caused real or perceived increase in ADHD.
6. Something else?
vouaobrasil|2 years ago
Williams, Jonathan, and Eric Taylor. "The evolution of hyperactivity, impulsivity and cognitive diversity." Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3.8 (2006): 399-413.
photochemsyn|2 years ago
vouaobrasil|2 years ago
The reason why this system exists is because it is the most effective system, most effective in the sense that it as outcompeted other systems where the pressure for survival was how useful in furthering our industrial age.
In small tribes, people with "ADHD" would likely have easily found a place and no one would really find it unusual if some children weren't good at studying abstract concepts for 6 hours a day...because most wouldn't need to do that.
The fact that ADHD is classified as a disorder is because children with ADHD are simply less effective at serving our highly industralized system, which incidentally is not making us happier, but only more efficient at giving people differential advantages through economic growth, which in turn is making us sicker.
People with ADHD might have a harder time concentrating and sitting still, but it is our society which has the real disease.
chris_wot|2 years ago
One sympton of children with ADHD are they have a tendency to be far more impulsive and make far more risky decisions, with some correspondingly awful consequences. That was happening before the disorder was discovered, only at the time no-one knew why the behaviour was occurring.
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
dharmab|2 years ago
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3000907/
zdragnar|2 years ago
I do wonder if the nature of our modern lives- less physical activity, fewer working hours, with more 'mind' or white-collar jobs- has made us as a society less resilient to attention disorders like ADD or ADHD.
It's possible that, given the lack of extensive recorded research into it at the time, we don't know that these kids who were observed as having grown out of it were properly accounted for. A poor sample could easily make 50% seem like "most" after all.
Even so, it is worth wondering if non-pharmacological therapeutic treatment might be worth emphasizing more heavily. I don't know what it's like for kids in college now, but I recall meds like Adderall prescriptions being surprisingly common, and that it was being abused was something of an open secret.
ClassyJacket|2 years ago
I only have had these problems since I was about 22, before that I concentrated great.
pgreenwood|2 years ago
vouaobrasil|2 years ago
Individual people who need penicillin are doing better today, but as a whole past generations did as well as today, at least in the fact that they survived and produced us. In other words, we are doing BETTER when it comes to average individual comfort but the same in terms of surviving.
chris_wot|2 years ago
Lorin|2 years ago
mkl95|2 years ago
always2slow|2 years ago
99_00|2 years ago
fh973|2 years ago
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
chris_wot|2 years ago
adamrezich|2 years ago
pstuart|2 years ago
Virtually every medication has risks/issues, so responsible use requires understanding those risks and be prepared to change course as conditions warrent it.
That said, medication should be one facet of many (behavioral modification, diet, exercise, meditation, etc). We're also all ultimately responsible for our own health so passively consuming pills without taking ownership is not license to blame your parents, "the system" or anything else.