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The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

nytimes.com

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Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#101

Post by 1457389 »

prutschman wrote: post #74
Shinkei wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an honest post, thanks for sharing. I am confused by something though. I have only (to my knowledge) known one person that got a perfect score on the SAT. The reason is that it requires both reasoning as well as 'stamp collecting'--(i.e. book knowledge). If you didn't bother to learn all the obscure vocabulary words used on the SAT that most high schoolers don't know--(extol, capricious, etc.)--then you must'…

I also got 1600. I read a lot. In high school (many years ago) I made a game of starting my math homework when the teacher started collecting it, and usually finished in time. I got very used to skimming by. I did graduate from university, but it was by the skin of my teeth. Other than that, OP's experience was very similar to my own. Depression played a huge role in all of this. (I'm doing fairly well now, but it wa…

Is there a name for people who go through this kind of life trajectory? I want to know if there is some kind of consensus on how to snap out of it.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#102

Post by eli_gottlieb »

maratd wrote: post #26
duaneb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a brilliant idea—help a person by framing their issues as personal and moral failures. That's sure to be a positive catalyst for change. EDIT: For some reason I can't respond to the comment below. My point was, it's easy to frame problems with terms like "weak", "irresponsible", and "lazy". It's hard to actually attempt to communicate, identify a problem in a way that you can talk about the same thing, and fin…

> Here's a brilliant idea—help a person by framing their issues as personal and moral failures. That's sure to be a positive catalyst for change. You're being sarcastic, but it actually IS. We live in a culture where everything is a disorder. How convenient, that all of your failures can be blamed on something you don't control. Here's an idea. Everything you don't take responsibility for. Everything you don't see as…

>Everything you don't take responsibility for. Everything you don't see as your own failing ... you have no control over and are destined to suffer under its yoke for the rest of your life. And no drug or doctor will fix it for you.

It thus follows that the responsible way to bake an apple pie is to take over the universe.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#103

Post by 1457389 »

dschiptsov wrote: post #86

How come that children in, say India have survived without any medication or even diagnostic of A.D.H.D?) The answer is, probably, in that the environment and conditioning has a much more to do with these dynamics than medication, so in a less stressed and more friendly environment (which Hindu/Buddhist communities traditionally have) such "disorders" are "self-corrected" by some natural behavioral "therapy", and, pe…

This does not reflect my experience growing up. Have a google of Taare Zameen Par, a movie about what an autistic child in Indian society goes through. I believe it is on Netflix.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#104

Post by 1457389 »

dschiptsov wrote: post #86

How come that children in, say India have survived without any medication or even diagnostic of A.D.H.D?) The answer is, probably, in that the environment and conditioning has a much more to do with these dynamics than medication, so in a less stressed and more friendly environment (which Hindu/Buddhist communities traditionally have) such "disorders" are "self-corrected" by some natural behavioral "therapy", and, pe…

This does not reflect my experience growing up. Have a google of Taare Zameen Par, a movie about what an autistic child in Indian society goes through. I believe it is on Netflix.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#105

Post by jitl »

UK-AL wrote: post #51
lfuller wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really a common viewpoint in the developer community? I'm a programmer, and I do it because I find what I do to be exciting. I, in fact, truly enjoy "skimming 1,000 lines of log output" to finally find a bug I've been scouting for, or spending hours solving a particularly difficult problem. If I found coding naturally boring and mind numbing I certainly wouldn't have chosen it as my career. Perhaps you should…

Different developers are good at different things. Some developers like looking at the big picture structure of program, other like minute detail(Bug hunting) for example. People with ADHD can't focus on detail before they zone out. They need be in either intense(Lots of pressure, like sales), or big picture and creative positions.

Your second paragraph is incorrect. Many people with ADHD exhibit both attention deficits and contrasting hyper-focus behaviors. When I'm wrestling with a nasty bug in some software I find fascinating I can pick over little details in my differential for 6 hours without taking a break or eating.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#106

Post by dschiptsov »

1457389 wrote: post #103
dschiptsov wrote: post #86

How come that children in, say India have survived without any medication or even diagnostic of A.D.H.D?) The answer is, probably, in that the environment and conditioning has a much more to do with these dynamics than medication, so in a less stressed and more friendly environment (which Hindu/Buddhist communities traditionally have) such "disorders" are "self-corrected" by some natural behavioral "therapy", and, pe…

This does not reflect my experience growing up. Have a google of Taare Zameen Par, a movie about what an autistic child in Indian society goes through. I believe it is on Netflix.

I need no movies to know what autism is.)

About movies, is Asperger-like behavior of De Niro's character Travis in Taxi Driver is explicitly described in the screenplay or was a side-effect of a good acting?) And that Jean Reno as Leon, you know.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#107

Post by atlantic »

tibbon wrote: post #19

As a person with ADHD, that article was too long to hold my attention (no, I'm not making a joke here). Also, as a person with ADHD who takes Adderall I don't see what the big fuss about it as a drug/medicine is. It works. I don't (personally) note any side effects, and don't see any reason that I'd stop taking it. Before taking Adderall I was essentially self-medicating my ADHD with copious amounts of coffee on a da…

> Also, as a person with ADHD who takes Adderall I don't see what the big fuss about it as a drug/medicine is.

If you, as a responsible adult, consent to taking this medication on a regular basis, then fair enough. The big fuss is that this is being imposed on a whole generation of children, essentially as a form of behavioural control. It's really the revival of the old Victorian "little children should be seen, not heard" mindset, under the guise of medical treatment. Children misbehave at school for a variety of reasons. Instead of dealing with the often institutional causes of this problem, we lay the blame at the children's door and try to medicate them into docility.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#108

Post by goldenkey »

ThrowAway9392 wrote: post #67

(Using a throw away account because of the stigma) For those who are curious if ADHD is real? I can tell you, from my personal experience, it is. I grew up with it all my life. It is hell. Then I randomly decided to try Paleo (cutting out gluten, sugar, grain and caffeine). And my ADHD is gone. I can focus, my mental fog is lifted, my lethargy is gone, I have the ability to enjoy normal activities. * My personal Proo…

I wouldn't necessarily say the "processed" nutrients did it. How does fruit affect you? The change in sugar-content of your diet indicates that you are most likely pre-diabetic, hyperglycemic tendencies, hence sugar makes you tired.

A healthy diet can do wonders.

Re: The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder

#110

Post by MichaelGG »

pedalpete wrote: post #47
negativity wrote: post #10

I don't suffer from ADD/ADHD but I grew up during the 90's, when lots of kids in school, around me, were being put on all kinds of prescription medication, but most prevalent were the ADD/ADHD prescriptions. Of the roughly 20 names I can remember, who I know for a fact were prescribed ADD/ADHD medications, AND who I knew growing up both before the medication and after, there was only one guy that obviously had proble…

Amphetamine is not a bad word, much like Nuclear, Fat or Hacker. It's all in how and what it is used for. I have no idea how much Ampetamine is in Crystal Meth or other illegal substances (Google wasn't very helpful with this, I'm sure as always, somebody here on HN knows), but just because something has Amphetamine does not automatically make it a bad thing.

Methamphetamine is sold legally in the US under the name Desoxyn. I've read comments indicating that in double-blind trials, methamphetamine is not distinguishable from other amphetamines (apart from dosage).
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