Let me go down a side trail of this discussion -
One complicating factors is ADHD has been seen as a cluster of symptoms. Because of that it, it was often a convientent label for behaviors that looked like ADHD but have other roots that can be and should be treated differently. In other words, some times ADHD is the root cause and sometimes it is a symptom of a hyperalert/hpervigilant nervous system. Giving that kid an ADHD stimulant medication probably isn’t going to go very well.
Childhood trauma/ PTSD can look a great deal like ADHD. If the ADHD is treated but the underlying trauma not addressed, everyone is going to be frustrated. Folks like Bessel van der Kolk, Bruce Perry, Dan Siegle and Karyn Purvis have done great research on brain development, brain functioning and how to mitigate the impact of trauma. They have helped professionals learn more to help with diffirential diagnosis.
Getting kids the right help from the right people is in everyone’s best interest.
While I have the floor, can we please get medical providers to add a section on the intake paperwork that allows a person to check “Adopted” or “Limited family medical history”?
Imagine an international adoptee trying to fill out the family medical history paperwork required by most doctor visits. Adoptive parents have to prepare children with limited family history, how to share that information with medical professionals who usually aren’t adoption competent in knowing how to ask follow up questions with respectful language. Rant over.
There is definitely a lot of trial and error and takes persistence. My wife went through literally all of the ADHD meds they will prescribe to adults with little symptom improvement, while dealing with various side effects (e.g. pretty drastic weight loss), before finally being diagnosed with anxiety and depression. When she went on Luvox and Wellbutrin she said it was like the sun finally broke through the clouds.
The mis-diagnosis or mis-treatment around ADHD is a significant problem. Depression and anxiety are common co-morbitities with ADHD but can, of course, exist without ADHD being the cause. Like the treatment for having lost a toe is different if it is caused by diabetes or a wood chipper.
Also, there’s a massive disparity between the rate of accurate diagnosis of ADHD between men and women, in that boys are far more likely to get pinged as ADHD early in life than girls. If that sounds misogynistic, it’s because it is.
Yeah, I’ve struggled with ADHD since before they came up with the current terminology. They said I was hyperactive, acted out, and couldn’t focus on one thing for very long without becoming distracted. No one ever mentioned ADHD until I well into my 30s.
I know what I went through and at times it was the polar opposite of pleasant. But every individual is different in how they handle stimuli and how the disorder affects them. I’m always cautious to relate my experience to someone else, knowing the variables innumerable.
In my 40s I was told I was borderline Asperger’s. In a weird way that was a relief because it seemed to be an explanation of my behavioral history, that ADHD only alluded to.
I feel extremely fortunate to have found a career path early in my teen years that was conducive to my ND. Being a musician allows you to set a good chunk of your own hours (practice). Most of the important times to be “on point” are at night (concerts) so my wacked out sleeping patterns work. Creativity in bursts are where all the magic happens and the fact that once a “downbeat” starts the music, you stay engaged in a way I’m unable to do in any other part of my life for hours at a time with no lapse in concentration. I attribute that to the fact that the entirety of music is a creative process and engaging to me at every point.
Even the teaching aspect of music follows a similar path. No lesson with a student is ever the same. There’s very little monotony.
It’s also helpful that a very large majority of my colleagues and peers are ND as well. Music tends to snatch us up early on. So I really do believe that finding the correct career path is essential for ND’s and I totally get the “square peg in a round hole” analogy. Parents knowing this early on and encouraging the creative side of their ND children can be essential for them.
Limey, your comments have led to one of the more interesting discussions on this thread and is the point of adhd awareness month. You’re all good.
This is one of the guys who “wrote the book” on the modern understanding of ADHD. “Time myopia” is such a great way of describing the procrastination element of the disorder.
As I have to keep telling people - including myself - ADHD procrastination is not laziness. It’s knowing that you’re being stalked by a thing, being stressed that you’re being stalked by a thing, and unable to make yourself turn around to confront the thing.
Fun Fact: In 1775 in Germany, a doctor wrote a paper in which he discussed a disorder involving a “deficit of attention”. And poof go the cell phone/vaccine/WiFi theories.
I don’t think it has a huge impact on the underwriting, but it’s been a question on life insurance applications for a long time now. Probably has more to do with common comorbidities than the ADHD directly, but it’s still something the folks who gamble on lifespan have been taking into account.
Now that I have a hard time believing, at least comparing each factor in isolation.
As Sphinx’ article points out, sample sizes and historically poor rates of diagnosis are probably skewing the data in that the currently diagnosed will have a higher proportion of severe cases compared to what is the likely full population of ADHDers.
However, multiple studies have found that - on average - those known to have ADHD live shorter lives than everyone else. What I have not seen is a breakdown on how those lives ended; it’s not like ADHD itself kills people directly (but then, neither does smoking).
ADHDers are more prone to accidents; everyday tasks like driving can become deadly if you cannot control your mind’s focus (and freeways are festooned with things designed to take your attention away from driving). There will be a number of lives shortened due to impulsivity; don’t ever hold the beer of someone with ADHD. Other lives will be shortened at the hand of the ADHDer themselves, due to the high proportion who suffer with depression and anxiety which is frequently associated with the condition.
So, while the average amount by which life is shortened by ADHD will likely fall as rates of diagnosis improve and the known population of ADHDers gets diluted with less severe cases, it’s not going to fall to zero.
