Why should I relieve you of the joys of self-directed learning?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivit...

What exactly is the point you're driving at, if any? Why are you asking these questions?

I have a question for you. For context, in case you haven't read it, we are discussing scientific paper reporting a large population study (almost 150,000 newly-diagnosed ADHD patients, aged 6–64 years old) which compared the outcomes of those who were medicated (~57%) and those who were unmedicated (~43%). Around 88% of the medicated cohort were prescribed methylphenidate (e.g. Concerta or Ritalin).

The conclusions of the study, copy-pasted from the abstract, were:

> Drug treatment for ADHD was associated with beneficial effects in reducing the risks of suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, transport accidents, and criminality but not accidental injuries when considering first event rate. The risk reductions were more pronounced for recurrent events, with reduced rates for all five outcomes. This target trial emulation study using national register data provides evidence that is representative of patients in routine clinical settings.

My question is this: if we assume ADHD does not exist, what is going on here?

Specifically, how do you explain so-called "ADHD" patients who were medicated having a statistically significant lower risk of suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, transport accidents, criminality, and recurrent accidental injuries than those who were not medicated?

Do you think non-"ADHD" individuals (i.e. who don't fit the current diagnostic criteria for this assumed fictional disorder) would also display a reduced risk of suicidality, accidents, etc. if they were to take methylphenidate on a daily basis?

> Specifically, how do you explain so-called "ADHD" patients who were medicated having a statistically significant lower risk of suicidal behaviours,

the medicine they took caused those effects.

Needing to fix ADHD is itself a cultural thing. Back 100 years ago, you didn’t need an 8 hour attention span to sit at a desk staring at a monitor while the AC dries your eyeballs until they feel like foil scratching on a blackboard

100 years ago people smoked like chimneys and were basically self-medicating with nicotine. The classic 'coffee and a cigarette' breakfast is the most ADHD-coded thing imaginable.

No instead you might sit at a desk writing by lamplight, having your eyes dried out by smoke, assailed by the smell of horse dung (among other things)

I really don't understand this idea that people with ADHD didn't suffer in the past or that the problems we face would magically disappear if society was just organized a bit differently. Would it alleviate a lot of the pressure? Certainly, but it wouldn't do away with the problems. It's the same with autism.

There are ways in which ADHD is a societal issue rather than an individual one, sure.

But they're not the whole of ADHD.

If I habitually lose track of time, get wrapped up in the game that I'm playing, and forget to meet up with my friends when we've agreed to because of it, I'm going to lose friends. That's not a societal problem, that's just how relationships work.

If I absentmindedly leave a half-eaten yogurt out on the counter, and my clutter blindness makes me forget it's there for a week, it's going to grow mold. That's not a cultural thing, that's just how mold works.

And so on.

>If I habitually lose track of time why have you decided this is unfixable?

> If I absentmindedly leave a half-eaten yogurt out on the counter, and my clutter blindness makes me forget sorry, what? clutter-blindness? is this a clinical testable condition, or just something invented for adhd?

100 or even 200 years ago there were industrial and bookkeeping jobs that would have been just as difficult for those with ADHD.