To think that the ADHD label is masking other things in society?

[comoatoupeira]

Disclaimer this is NOT about being skeptical ADHD is a thing, my brother is diagnosed with ADHD by a doctor as well as a close friend of mine.

Through my job I have been doing a lot of research about the impacts of tech and social media and so on on young people, and also on the elderly who are becoming the first generation of elderly people who are high technology users.

It has all been making me see so many parallels between behaviors associated with ADHD and behaviors that are becoming more and more difficult to control because of the attention-stealing environment we are in, and other aspects of society today like consumerism always available in your pocket, long working hours and both parents working, the difficulty of taking those restorative breaks that are what helps us focus and take a step back.

I'm just feeling like we are looking at some milder cases of ADHD too much as an isolated medical thing rather than a wider societal ill.

I feel like the same thing has happened with depression, framing it as some sort of imbalance that can be fixed by drugs, when it's so much about the societies we live in.

I feel uncomfortable about all of these labels being used especially by young people with mild cases of things, it seems to imprison them in a fixed identity or frame them as having something wrong with them, when none of us a perfect and we all have strengths and weaknesses, and life is about living with them and being open to change.

What do you think?

People in the West do not have family businesses to top up a family income like many other people from other countries have and then you involve the kids to help you, so they are occupied after school, learn the value of work and where money comes from. So time to hang around with so called friends and waste one's time in silly teenage chats and doing generally nothing is not always an option. This is how we were raised in my time with my brother.

My brother now, early 50s, a banking job, his wife in economics. Their son was given money from the age of 14 to go and buy himself designer track suits, go to the gym, allowed late, endless friends staying over for movie nights after midnight, so the whole family sleeps, only his mates and my nephew there. I cannot believe this is the parenting my brother does, when he had the opposite.

So to answer your idea - yes, it is masking the general lack of consideration to the serious things in life, to the old fashioned morals, to your duties to your family, to all that

I'm autistic (diagnosed) and probably have ADHD although I'm not really that bothered in finding out for sure. I also work in the field and have studied it to a high level so I'm not just talking from no experience here.

My feeling is that society is now very unkind to neurodiverse people in a way it wasn't even just a couple of hundred years ago. We are also at a stage where the current generation have seen the impacts of undiagnosed autism/ADHD (in this society) on their parents and grandparents' mental health and therefore seen potential intergenerational trauma. Between these two issues, and the increase in awareness and support for mental health, more people are recognising the need for diagnosis.

In short, I don't think there are necessarily more autistic or ADHD people than there were in generations past, but the way our society is set up puts us ND folk at a critical disadvantage in a way it didn't before. As a result, we are more likely to need a diagnosis to thrive in this world.

Are you serious? A couple of hundred years ago neurodivergent people were largely institutionalised and left to rot!

Some were and some weren't. It depended on how it presented. Some were indeed left in asylums or left destitute. Others led quiet lives pursuing their special interests with a lot of support around them. In some ways, yes, modern society is kinder to ND people but in many other ways - such as those mentioned in the OP - it is not. As I'm sure you know, there's a huge variety of people who are classed as ND and therefore some will fit your description in the past and others would not and may have actually thrived.

Myself and many of my younger relations were/are forced to go to Church. So we were used to sitting around, still and bored. (The "are" because I have some who still are made to go ensure they get and stay in a particular school or due to the school they go to.)

I only realised when I was babysitting two sets of my nephews/nieces how the ones who were forced to go to Church were quiet in situations were they were told to sit and wait for things. When I've volunteered to help with children's activities in community groups I noticed it is some of the kids who have ASD who are able to sit and wait quietly with nothing to do if they know exactly what they are waiting for. Some of their parents have been shocked by the fact their children are calm at the end. When all I've told their child if they wait here they can have a turn of an activity when x happens and then I will go them a balloon, I then make sure it happens.

As someone with an ADHD diagnosis since childhood I totally agree with you.

This is a fair point. There is always more to learn, from whatever position you're coming from. If you're in the camp that 'has' something, you're not ring fenced off from debate about it.

Everyone who has posted who says they have ADHD and they agree with me, then perhaps we should be more angry about why things are this way?

It's a political issue, surely, as much as (or more than) a medical one.

Well, I try. My dc1 is older and completely capable of acting appropriately but dc2 is 6 and I don't think their behaviour is beyond the realms of normal. He's just loud, active, can't sit still and plays up/is silly. I have friends with DC the same age who already pathologise their DC behaviour, things like not being able to sit still when watching TV. I hope he won't still be behaving like it when he's 8/9. He is disciplined and I certainly don't ignore his behaviour. But he does stand out now as every other child around us is sitting in silence. At one time 2 children may have ever started chatting, imagine that! Both me and my siblings were similar. High energy kids certainly.

I feel angry about it. I also feel angry about the glamorisation of it and other conditions. Every time someone calls it a superpower I want to scream.

I feel angry that if you struggle to fit into a 9-5 sedentary society you're considered ill or defective in some way.

Me too.

Society is horrible these days.

'The chemical imbalance theory is far from proven. There is no solid evidence to support it and it’s largely regarded as a myth.'

I always wondered about this - I was diagnosed with depression and given medication but I did not have any tests for a chemical imbalance. Is there such a test?
I felt worse on the AD and came off them.

I think generally in last decade parental expectations on behavior have lowered while other expectations like academic ones have risen.

Most 6 year old can sit still with reminders without phones or could when my teens were young- I think many parents now think that's too much for them.

So I agree with @Reugny post above clear expectations explained to children and practised like church mean kids can and do behave at younger ages than is considered normal to increasing numbers of parents.

I also think with less walking and more driving and parents with less time generally perhaps less physical activity outside occurs as part of normal day for many children.

I know many posters think that wider society is getting less tolerant of children and childhood more generally - and in some aspects I'd agree like teens being out and about - but my parents found it very hard in late 70s and 80s to go places with kids - even cafes - as so many places were unwelcoming of children - we didn't have that problem with our kids and generally many more places are child friendly these days.

That doesn't mean I haven't encountered odd child hating individual out in the world who hates children talking but I'd dispute they were any more common in most places in UK than in past.

As my DC didn't have smart phones in childhood hard to see how over stimulation from smart phones caused their ADHD behaviors visible at those ages.

There absolutely was but children were ignored, told to shut up or simply dismissed and that includes children who spoke out about sex abuse.

💯

No test.

It's just guess work whether a particular AD will work for you.

There are medical conditions and medical conditions aren't labels.

However I know where you are coming from.

Young people often "label" themselves with anxiety or social anxiety etc. these aren't medically diagnosed.

What they actually been is they are anxious in a new situation - perfectly normal.

They find large groups of people overwhelming - perfectly normal.

No one wants to develop skills nowadays to manage their feelings. They do want them "labelled" (and there of course are true situations where it's medical).

It seems to be because they think by saying "I have anxiety" it's some pass to not have to try, learn skills or comply.

It's like a get out of jail free card.

The sad thing about it is those who are diagnosed with medical conditions whereby life is challenging day on day really actually what to try and have skills to manage that. They seem to have the total opposite reaction towards it.

ADHD clearly exists but its symptoms often overlap with a number of other things, and I think that often people are misdiagnosed with ADHD when the real cause of symptoms is early trauma and/or attachment disorder.

i don’t know much about the process of getting an adhd diagnoses, but am I correct in thinking that there is no actual neurological tests carried out? Ie there are no scans taken of the brain? Surely then there could be some societal factors leading to increased diagnoses even though there is a legitimate difference in the wiring of ND/NT brains.

That is exactly what I’m trying to say! Coupled with the environmental and social factors

No, there are no neurological tests, but nor are there neurological tests for mental illness, migraine etc.

I think you've raised an important aspect of how & why ADHD is such a growing problem, and my son also has ADHD!

You're getting a hard time from people who don't seem to be reading what you're saying. It's not that their posts are wrong, but they seem to be having an argument with you when it's pretty clear you're not dismissing ADHD.

Is it? I thought that had been pretty much debunked.

Define often? And also the symptoms.

I think this is a dangerous assumption to make. The two can co exist.