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Comment by breezybottom | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like it's just telling you what you want to hear. ADHD is when you can't focus, or when you focus too much. Really meaningful label then.

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As odd as it sounds this is correct. Hyper focus is a huge problem with ADHD. You forget to eat and get worse sleep because you're so focused on 1 problem.

This often means that you pay attention to nothing else around you or what's actually important which is where the deficit is.

Sounds like you're just defining ADHD to mean whatever you want it to mean. Thankfully we didn't have TikTok to diagnose hyperfocusers like Einstein with a brain disease, or we never would have got general relativity.

I highly suggest you read about the subject. This isn't the fringe science you're implying. It's a big reason I was diagnosed by my doctor. And it's often treated quite well by taking ADHD medications.

  “While the estimated 8 million adults in the USA affected by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might find it nearly impossible to sit still in a lecture hall or excruciatingly challenging to focus on writing a term paper, these same individuals might find themselves spending hours at a time composing a new song, tinkering with their car, writing computer code, or watching television (Kessler et al., 2006). The term “hyperfocus” (HF) has been used to characterize this state of heightened, focused attention that individuals with ADHD frequently report (Brown, 2005; Conner, 1994; Ozel-Kizil et al., 2016).”[1]

[1]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30267329/ Other reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30267329/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12438511/

Yes, the medicalization of normal human experiences is lamentable. But grant money doesn't appear without diseases for pharma to treat.

Strange take. If it's normal to spend 12 hours not eating staring at a screen trying to solve 1 problem and completely oblivious to the outside world then I guess I don't know many normal people.

We'd still be living in caves if there weren't people like that.

Having a label for a recognized and observable human condition does not condemn it. And it also doesn’t mean that we ought to medicate anyone with a label.

What it means is some people are able to potentially improve their lives by recognizing a pattern of behavior and educating themselves about strategies (including medication) that might help.

At the same time if it significantly hinders you in everyday life it's nice to have a way to break free of it. I can't take most ADHD medications due to unrelated issues and it's such a shame after hearing / witnessing first hand how much it can genuinely change a person's life for the better.

I would absolutely consider medication but 2 of my 3 siblings were meth heads likely in part trying to address the same thing in a path that ought to be legal and cleaner, but that's a different conversation.

Anyway, not touching ADHD drugs given how easily I can convince myself 2+ drinks is a fantastic idea. So, TLDR 100% not going here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/09/extract

The Cleveland clinic is telling me what I want to hear? Righto squire.

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