Damned if I know what it is, but according to the American Psychiatry Association:

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) and impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought). ADHD is considered a chronic and debilitating disorder and is known to impact the individual in many aspects of their life including academic and professional achievements, interpersonal relationships, and daily functioning (Harpin, 2005).

ADHD became a "thing" in the 1960s. I first heard about it in 1969 when I was working at Boston State Mental Hospital; there was an investigation going on into whether giving stimulants to hyperactive children would work. At the time there were a batch of theories about why some children were hyperactive: eating too much sugar, too many soft drinks with caffeine, food dyes, too much television, chaotic home life, bad schools, and so on. Paradoxically, some stimulants acted like sedatives in pre-pubescent children.

Some of us (young idealistic radical types) at the hospital thought that hyperactivity was a diagnosis of black boys who didn't behave in school. We also thought it unlikely that wealthy white suburban boys would be given these drugs. But, what did we know?

55 years later, ADHD has become part of the furniture. There is still doubt about it. I notice that quite a few older people I know (i.e., people in their 70s) are good at sitting still, but they display a marked level of inattention. Their attention is scattered and their ability to concentrate is limited, yet they don't seem to have dementia. Dementia, of course, would degrade one's attention, concentration, memory, and other cognitive processes.

I wonder if adult attention deficits are often the result of poor mental hygiene -- that is, they have not recently disciplined themselves to pay attention, concentrate, remember important facts, and so on.

I also wonder if attention deficits are often the result of depression.

Quite a few people think the problem with young boys is that they are in schools where there are far too few opportunities to engage in uninhibited movement. Apparently many schools do not have recess periods where children are let loose to play outside or in a gym.

Then there is variability of behavior: is hyperactivity designed to account for children who don't fit into th desired mold?

I did my 9th Grade AP Biology science fair project on this... you'll find that the cure was created before there was a diagnosis of ADHD. Ritalin was actually discovered by accident by a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Ciba Giegy or something like during the 1940's and I think it wasn't until the early 1970s that it was noted as effective for people who had "ADHD" some new diagnosis.

I personally feel like certain technologies with screens that provide boatloads of stimulation cause the brain to develop in a certain way such that sitting down and quieting the mind to a stage of silence becomes neigh impossible for a child who develops a need for the dopamine dump from being over stimulated.

So when the child is in an understimulated state, their nonquieted mind begins wandering, whats thi...wait what's tha... ooo John farted... wait, but that question I wanted to ask. You know how some philosophers say those who can't stand quiet is due to their inability to confront themselves. The child isn't so much aware of this of course. And the medications for ADHD aren't recommended for anyone under the age of 25 due to the negative side effects manifesting more, and altering the neuroplasticity of the child more drastically than an adult which affects them even after they choose to quit.

I was on those medications for a decade as a child. The only way for me to over come them and the other medications was to explosively force myself out of them.

I personally feel like certain technologies with screens that provide boatloads of stimulation cause the brain to develop in a certain way such that sitting down and quieting the mind to a stage of silence becomes neigh impossible for a child who develops a need for the dopamine dump from being over stimulated. — DifferentiatingEgg

My thoughts also. I have a six yo grandson and his teachers are strongly suggesting he’s assessed for the condition. And he surely shows symptoms of it. I’m sure chronic overstimulation is a major factor, as he’s an avid consumer of animated media on a large-screen TV. He can’t sit still and be quiet. In many other ways he’s well-adjusted and a normal kid. It’s the culture we live in. I’m also affected by it.

There is a position among the right that holds that ADHD is a bullshit diagnosis that translates into childish misbehavior, the cure for which is a kick in the pants. It criticizes the kids and the parents that created them.

The stories they tell are of overly energetic kids who would just rather be acting as the wild animals God intended, drugged into submission by some meth like substance.

The narrative takes a swing at psychology, progressive parenting approaches, and education administrators, so it fits well for the right.

How much of this narrative is actually true? I suspect that's what this thread will debate. I don't have ADHD, nor did my kids, so it's easy enough to deny it exists and pat myself on the back for being an old school, take no shit parent

It's probably like most things in a capitalist driven medical system. If you financially incentivize finding problems and cures for those problems, both will be found. Incentives do work.

It's only in hindsight that we might go back and academically evaluate and ask if the problem we found was real or created and whether the cure offered a real cure or just made a lot of money.

I don't wish to insult anyone who has struggled with ADHD or who found great relief in Adderall, so to them, the diagnosis and cure fit.

I do think it's likely over-diagnosed and over treated, though, with plenty of very real cases within. I know that's not an overly exciting position to take, where the problem is conceded, but so is some acknowledgement it's not all BS, but that's probably where this lands.

No doubt many children are spending far, far too much time looking at screens displaying content that was designed to engage and hold attention for purposes of commerce. So I'm happy to blame screens. However, when ADHD became a public / school health issue, there were only the big screens at movie theaters and the little screens at home.

In the late 1960s children already had access to sugar, caffeine, food dyes and other additives. Along with the bad stuff, poorer children did not have access to a high quality diet. It might be the case that highly processed food and lack of quality food plays a part. Unhealthy food is still plentiful and many children still do not have access to a quality diet.

Most of the suggested causes or contributors are environmental.

Are there aspects of home life, apart from diet and electronics, that might contribute to ADHD? Are there aspects of the classroom that might be causative?

Is it possible that ADHD is not new at all, but that long standing behaviors became incompatible with the way schools are operated?

I recall the issue being a fairly serious concern back in the 1970’s. it had nothing to do with technology although back then TV was sometimes blamed. My dad remembers books being blamed back in the 1930’s.

For sure. Kids are going to be kids, and overall those that simply don't sit down and stfu get labeled as trouble makers. Asking too many questions, and being a child in any sense of their creative imagination is more or less frowned upon.

I wonder whether ADHD is a disorder at all. Except in perhaps extreme cases, people with ADHD are perfectly functional and healthy in a general sense. It's society that problematizes them, because they don't fit society's straight-jacket. And then kids fall from being problematized into medication (medication for psychological problems I find a very prickly subject, especially for chidlren), and then a kid goes from just being overactive to being 'a patient'.

What if all that energy was put to good use instead?

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I wonder whether ADHD is a disorder at all. — Tzeentch

That's a good question, and one which could be asked about a number of disorders. Homosexuality, for instance, used to be a very serious problem (still is in some places). For a long time smoking was not considered a problem. Now it is. Cannabis used to be a big problem in many places. Now it's not.

"Time makes ancient good uncouth" the poet said. And the uncouth can become good.

I wonder whether ADHD is a disorder at all — Tzeentch

It is a learning disorder. I am dyslexic, and one of the risk factors is having ADHD. I have been diagnosed with either ADHD because of my dyslexia or just dyslexia. It was always confusing to me. Am I just dyslexic, or does this learning disability also make me have ADHD?

How the mind works is very complex. :chin:

It is a learning disorder. — javi2541997

In a school system that requires you to sit still for hours on end, I can certainly understand why it would be classified as such.

I doubt highly energetic individuals were problematized in older times, though, for obvious reasons. Isn't it a great quality to have?

Isn't it a great quality to have? — Tzeentch

Absolutely.

I have never thought that dyslexia and ADHD were disorders until they were labelled as such by assessment educational tests. Dyslexia never limited me from doing something with words and vocabulary. Folks say dyslexic kids are less able to learn second languages. Yet here I am talking with you in English.