Overdiagnosis is not a problem, but misdiagnosis may be as people are driven into the private sector by long waits, and sadly, missed diagnoses remain common —Tamsin Ford
Experts are warning that far from being over-diagnosed, people with ADHD are waiting too long for assessment, support and treatment.
I have an ADHD diagnosis, and I do think this is 60% just being better at diagnosing it, but I do also believe ADHD is sort of on the rise.
There is an incredible book called Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté, which is the significant book on ADHD in the same way that The Body Keeps the Score is for trauma, which delves into the potential ADHD causes beyond it being hereditary.
Of course modern dopamine-consumerist culture is part of the problem, but it largely makes ADHD symptoms obvious, and various unmet attention needs in early childhood are significantly more linked to developing ADHD, not to fault the parent or other caregiver who may not have the availability or ability to provide that attention due to modern societal demands. It’s been some years since I read it but I really remember one part clearly; it’s basically impossible to test nature Vs nurture in separated-at-birth twins because the act of separating twins at birth spikes the likelihood of having ADHD so much.
But honestly I think the largest contributor to increased ADHD cases is not that we’re better at diagnosing it, it’s that modern society increasingly warrants its diagnoses. 12000 years ago ADHD traits weren’t a disorder, as much as having different physical strength or height to your peers isn’t. Modern capitalist society demands an efficiency of its workforce and ADHD is an inherently inefficient trait, and therefore suddenly warrants treatment.
Don’t get me wrong, medication is incredible, and has turned days I’ve barely been able to get out of bed into productive days, but that’s still valuing being productive.
Erase capitalism from this and it’s still “days I’ve barely been able to get out of bed to hunt/reinforce important relationships/create art”. Inability to focus, relentless forgetfulness, rejection sensitive dysphoria, much of the ADHD experience interferes with non-“productive” life just as much as a job and shit.
Are you under the impression that everyone was required to be functioning at 100% at all times in order to survive or be a meaningfully-contributing member of a society? Because that is so very very far from the truth. The actual labor involved in hunter gather societies amounts to a few hours a day for each individual on average, but that doesn’t mean every individual had something that needed to be done every day in order to be a valued member of their society. Most tasks didn’t happen every day, and those that did didn’t require all hands to do.
Even after the agricultural revolution, many months of the year were much slower, allowing recuperation to prepare for the labor intensive period, a schedule I’ve liked in the modern era similarly; 3-6 mth contracts followed by 6-9 mths of vibing and living off what I saved up during the working phase, supplemented by a variety of projects I find compelling to keep my spending very low or sometimes earn a bit of side money. I find it works very well to keep my adhd symptoms from being crippling during the active work phase, and I’ve been unmedicated. Then I take a month or so to ooze into the ground to recover from the burnout, and I become productive in my personal life again. It’s a decent compromise if money has to be involved, but it’s sometimes a financial struggle because we don’t value paying people properly right now, an entirely late-stage capitalism problem.
Beyond that, knowing a lot of things about a variety of specialties and being curious enough to learn, something ADHD people tend to excel at, makes for a variable worker who can be slotted in to fill different needs for others who were unable, or simply when the labor demanded more bodies. Jack of all trades were also incredibly valuable back before modern transportation, especially for smaller communities. Couldn’t really get an actual expert without months of travel if one didn’t just happen to be around. So they got to feel valuable, like they were actively contributing to the social fabric, because they were, and got to do things that were actively interesting them, and just stop doing those things if they stopped being interesting. Having that sort of self image as well as flexibility would be intensely motivating, at least for me, and help overcome a lot of the inertia and sensitivity.
I genuinely do think a lot of the dysfunction we face from adhd has to do with how we structure our modern societies to optimize for efficiency and shareholder value over the wellbeing of the people. I mean when even non-adhd people are facing extreme burnout and excessive levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, what chance do we really have without meds?