Focus

[Amelia]

I stopped a while ago wondering why ADHD is so popular because every now and then there is an article saying doctors (and parents) don't bother but simple prescribe/buy medication against this so called disorder and the world is peachy again. Mostly this affects Kids since turning them down with mediaction is surely easier than spending time with them.

There are other reasons (modern lifestyle and eating habits tends to favor ADHD and it partly accounts for its prevalence) but generally agree, yeah. We do have a tendency nowodays to make a mental illness out of whatever is annoying at the moment.

And I'm no doctor but I don't think what Kirby describes is pathological. It looks quite common to me.

[skydyr]

I stopped a while ago wondering why ADHD is so popular because every now and then there is an article saying doctors (and parents) don't bother but simple prescribe/buy medication against this so called disorder and the world is peachy again. Mostly this affects Kids since turning them down with mediaction is surely easier than spending time with them.

There are other reasons (modern lifestyle and eating habits tends to favor ADHD and it partly accounts for its prevalence) but generally agree, yeah. We do have a tendency nowodays to make a mental illness out of whatever is annoying at the moment.

And I'm no doctor but I don't think what Kirby describes is pathological. It looks quite common to me.

Like most mental health issues, there is no on/off switch for it, but a range of people exist on a spectrum at which one end is ADHD and the other is not. If you look all the way at the ADHD side, these people clearly have issues that affect their ability to live and work normally, but as you move away from that, people still exhibit symptoms but they affect their work and life less and less. Whether someone is diagnosed with it or not can unfortunately be somewhat arbitrary, since there is no clear delimiter, and the trend unfortunately seems to be more and more inclusive, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who truly need help to live a relatively normal life.

The nature of this help is open to debate also, of course. I'm inclined to believe that many children and adults would be better served by cognitive behavioral therapy and learning coping mechanisms than by medicating, but again, this is not true for everyone.

[Amelia]

that doesn't mean that there aren't people who truly need help to live a relatively normal life.

I don't deny that. I'm familiar enough with ADHD and other conditions to know that medical help is needed for people who truly suffer from it. I just get a bit jumpy when people start advising medical advice as a way to deal with a mildly distracted personnality.

[jts]

I, on the contrary, think its a good thing. People in 2013 tend to agree that measles, asthma, and cleft palate are not signs of demonic possession or divine displeasure, and the afflicted no longer show any inclination to feign wellness; they go to a doctor and see if there isn't something that can be done help them. The more conditions for which this is true, the better.

[SoDesuNe]

I, on the contrary, think its a good thing. People in 2013 tend to agree that measles, asthma, and cleft palate are not signs of demonic possession or divine displeasure, and the afflicted no longer show any inclination to feign wellness; they go to a doctor and see if there isn't something that can be done help them. The more conditions for which this is true, the better.

Sure, but taking a pill and getting well again are too very different things. Let alone getting a pill and getting treatment.

[hyperpape]

I, on the contrary, think its a good thing. People in 2013 tend to agree that measles, asthma, and cleft palate are not signs of demonic possession or divine displeasure, and the afflicted no longer show any inclination to feign wellness; they go to a doctor and see if there isn't something that can be done help them. The more conditions for which this is true, the better.

Of the other hand, we're glad that people are no longer being sent to the doctor for (many) forms of non gender conforming behavior. There's a lot of subtle interplay between our ideas of what's good and our ideas of what needs psychological or psychiatric treatment.

As someone who shares similar concerns as Kirby, but was specifically rejected for diagnosis/treatment as having ADD 15 or so years ago, nothing he says raises my "hey, see a doctor" trigger, but just really sounds like an issue about self-control, so far as it's a problem at all. Tooveli is right that whether it's a problem in the first place depends on what you're talking about: work vs. hobbies vs. hobbies that you really want to achieve at.