I don’t think it’s radical to suggest that modern technology, society, diet, and culture are making people sick, both mentally and physically.

We know that people in history have had conditions like Autism. However even in the present day there are stark differences in prevalence in different regions of the world with modern healthcare systems (Japan, for example).

Diagnosis of anything mental is inherently cultural and will be seen through subjective lenses. I would be very surprised if autism rates were truly different across the world. If so, then that would provide a good basis to compare populations to get at the root.

Yes, I'm sure in some cultures they just tried to beat it out of you... :)

Given we might not have data from the past about the prevalence of ADHD, is it safe to assume we'll never know if mircoparticles and other things we introduce into the environment are the cause of these issues?

Arguably ADHD could have benefits for people in hunter-gatherer lifestyles: https://faculty.washington.edu/dtae/manuscripts/eisenberg%20...

I love this article - I knew someone very closely who had “severe ADHD” quotes because in certain things - such as tracking - they were intensely focused and effective. The more time outside they spent , the better they seemed. They eventually found a position with the game commission that overall seemed to work well for them.

They weren’t able to stay focused on nearly anything outside of nature, excluding things that brought them anxiety.

However , this is anecdotal. They were before that able to run a semi successful cleaning business for rental properties, with the main issue being paperwork related.

>they were intensely focused and effective

Oh, I feel this. I have ADHD and I can focus on ANYTHING, but I don't get to choose what to focus on. Some days, my body decides I get to focus on Jira - and then my Jira board gets ALL my attention. Some days, I learn a LOT about data governance or clearing out old emails.

The hardest part of ADHD is to STOP focusing on one thing so I can START focusing on the right thing.

ADHD, High Functioning Autism all have traits which can benefit the hunter-gather lifestyles of the past. Thing is today, some countries like the UK have adopted a stealth war on these traits in some individuals seen with things like transgender promotion or turning a blind eye to more physical forms of abuse often seen in schools. In some case's autistics have been locked up for decades under the guise of mental health reasons which is just prison without trial with forced psych med ingestion and if you dont comply because med staff know best and have the pieces of paper to authorise them, you cant challenge them otherwise you get bullying both mental and physical from NHS staff. Rare cases have been documented in the news, but its just the tip of the iceberg of stuff going on behind closed doors. Society, the legal system is generally complicit when looking at interpretations of law and how little light is shed on these matters.

I knew I had untapped potential!

We could always find a causal mechanism mediated by microparticals.