Hacker News Reader

Comment by flakeoil | Hacker News Reader

The issue with your reasoning is that what you describe is not ADHD. It's not a decease. It's nothing wrong. It's normal. It's human.

It's pathetic to read about how people take drugs or want to take drugs because they have difficulties to focus on reading a book or focusing on a hobby or a boring job.

Sure there are people who really have issues and really have ADHD, but in those cases it's pretty obvious.

People want to take pills against obesity. People want to take pills to improve concentration. The easy path. Why not instead try regular exercise and >8h sleep per night? And no alcohol and drugs.

View on HN

Excuse me. Who are you to judge whether somebody else who’s seeing a therapist and getting prescriptions meds does or doesn’t have ADHD? Sure the tests used aren’t black and white, but the measuring stick of specific symptoms combined with “significant problems in at least three areas of life” does a reasonable job of selecting for actual patients. And we don’t prescribe meds to the self-diagnosed.

One thing you are right about is that, like many psychological conditions, ADHD is a matter of degrees. Everyone can potentially be anxious at times, or sad, or distracted. But if it gets to a point where it impairs functioning in so many things, it might actually be a somatic issue.

You are mistaken.

Knowingly starting taking mind-altering substances because you have a problem is NOT easy. That’s as simplistic as saying that “women who abort are just looking to have fun without consequences”. They usually do it because they are desperate and have exhausted all other options.

Here’s what went through my head when I put that first pill in my hand: “I might need to take this expensive drug every day for the rest of my life”, “I hope I don’t get nausea like with the previous one”, “How much will this change me? Will I still be me?”, “I am doing this for my family”.

I wish I could downvote.

Just because you can't see a disease doesn't remove it.

You don't tell a cancer patient to just get up and exercise.

For sure, if it really is ADHD, I'm all in for treatments if they work well for the patient.

It's just that so many here on HN and elsewhere think they need medicines because they have problems to focus at work or in school or while reading a book.

On a slightly different note, focus and concentration is maybe not the ideal state either. Maybe creativity (new ideas, new angles, new thoughts) will be affected which in turn reduces performance and results. As others have mentioned here is that when they take medicines they sometimes get stuck focusing on the wrong things. And even if the focus on the right thing, maybe they get stuck on the problem at hand because they do not get new influences.

Aren't persons with true ADHD often quite creative?

Saying somebody is creative because of their ADHD is like saying a person is charming because of their glasses. These things do not need to be related, they are charming and they happen to wear glasses. They are creative and happen to have ADHD.

Do not ascribe talents people have to their disabilities.

Besides, it's just a stereotype and doesn't hold for everyone with ADHD.

I could imagine someone who looked so much better while wearing glasses that "they're charming because of their glasses" is true.

Anyway, it seems much more likely that there would be a causative link between ADHD and creativity- e.g. some common underlying factor that boosts the explore tendency in explore/exploit along with openness to experience. A brain that naturally roams more could be expected to produce more novel syntheses.

There might be a relation, phasic vs tonic dopamine. But given the anecdotal nature of the ADHD-creativeness link, I’m not so sure. Would need to see some papers about if first.

Anyway, ADHD is comorbid with plenty of other disorders that are limiting on creativity such as anxiety, low self esteem, inhibited decision making, that it’s definitely not a given.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com