Look at the criteria that are used to call a child ADHD. They talk out of turn, they don’t sit still, they wiggle around too much in their seats, they are impulsive, disorderly, and so on. It’s a bunch of behaviours that are seen in just about every child at some stage of their life. This is by design; they have taken kind of irritating, bothersome, disruptive behaviours in children and have kind of cobbled them together and called it a disease.
They get a lot of parents to buy it because a lot of parents are now busy with their job in the workforce and there’s no longer a full-time parent in the home, and so, “Here’s why Johnny or Janey is such an irritant to me, they’ve got ADHD.” It takes the pressure entirely off the parent for not being a presence and for not being there full-time to mould the behaviour of the child, and they’re calling these behaviours a disease and saying we’ve got a pill for it. That’s very seductive. That’s a far more appealing analysis than, “Gee, you’re divorced, there’s no one in the home to discipline the child real time,” and so on.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,14:21
I'm pretty sure ADHD is a real thing. Some kids probably do have a clear problem due to chemical imbalances in the brain. But I bet it's a tiny tiny percentage of kids being diagnosed with it. Most of them just have bad parents or are future criminals.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,14:25
This is a FARK headline, and I was just over there trolling when I saw that some people were TAKING ADHD VERY SERIOUSLY.
I thought this was pretty funny:
Random guy: How about an adult that can't focus on a single assignment for more than 30 minutes without seeing if Fark has new headlines, or checking his text messages, or spacing out trying to figure out why the word 'towel' means towel, or listening to a random bit of conversation that does not concern him, hey, did I put the laundry in the drier?
GORDON: They weren't raised properly and are now best suited for jobs like ditch digging where intense mental focus isn't required? People on FARK are fond of the old trope "50% of people are below average," but no one ever thinks it applies to them.
The inability to concentrate is a sign that maybe you weren't cut out for intellectually intensive white collar jobs. Sorry.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,14:56
Focus is not the same as brilliance. Â Some of the world's most intense geniuses were very easily distracted. Â But most weren't.
Technically by your definition I probably shouldn't have a white collar brain job. But my advantage is the one hour a day I actually focus and really work I get as much work done as most of my colleagues who work all day long get done in a whole week. So in the end I'm a good employee doing seven times as much as most everyone else. But you wouldn't know it if you watched me all day.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,14:59
(TPRJones @ May 18 2011,17:56)
QUOTE
Focus is not the same as brilliance. Â Some of the world's most intense geniuses were very easily distracted. Â But most weren't.
Eh, not everybody gets to run around being brilliant and doing their own thing like Einstein. Most people need to fit within the constructs of how the typical white collar job works, with cubicles and long hours spent looking at a computer screen. If you can't do it, you can't do it. Good luck medicating yourself to the point where you can pretend.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,16:44
(TPRJones @ May 18 2011,17:21)
QUOTE
I'm pretty sure ADHD is a real thing. Â Some kids probably do have a clear problem due to chemical imbalances in the brain. Â But I bet it's a tiny tiny percentage of kids being diagnosed with it. Â Most of them just have bad parents or are future criminals.
Agreed.
As for the lack of concentration, I'm pretty easily distracted most of the time, but I just see that as "I'm so intellectually advanced, that I need more stimulation."
Most people need to fit within the constructs of how the typical white collar job works, with cubicles and long hours spent looking at a computer screen.
Fuck that, I quote Office Space...
QUOTE
Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.
I'm going to treat employment/jobs/careers as a game from this point on. The goal is to make as much cash as I can doing the least amount of work.
As for easily distracted, shit... I've had people stare at me straight in the eyes and talk to me for five minutes about whatever subject. Even if there's only them and myself in the room, if my brain isn't paying attention to them ... I mean, I hear sounds that could be words but I'm not inclined to listen carefully enough to find out what they are or how they fit together.
-------------- Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
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Posted on: May 19 2011,18:36
Pretty much everything TPR has said to this point could have been posted by me.
I think ADHD is misdiagnosed, but does exist in FAR smaller numbers.
Although I'm not really a one hour work person, but more of a wave rider. I'll get into a zone of knocking work out, and then remember something non-work related and focus on that (like this forum). Later, when things have to be done before I go home (or some other deadline like that), I'll get back into the zone until whatever needs to be done is done. Then it's back to surfing, games, etc.
