Modern Society; Does it work for or against ADHD?
Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder; What is it and how does it impact us in today's society?
ADHD is becoming more vastly diagnosed as society progresses and I wonder if the number of people who are identifying as having ADHD is increasing, or if more people are suffering due to societal progression and inability to adjust. The term ADHD characterises people as having a disorder and a deficit in the brain, which suggests there is something wrong with people who work this way. ADHD to me is a difference in brain chemistry, one which struggles to compete in a capitalist regime.
If we look at the brain in general, many psychological theories split the brain into different parts. Some theories break it down into the chimp brain, the human brain working with an internal database. Other theories divide it into the ego, super ego, and the ID. Another dictates we have a child, an adult and a parent brain. Neuro-scientists have labelled the Limbic system, the reptilian and the neocortex as being the three brains, whereas psychotherapists refer to the unconscious, the subconscious and the conscious mind. Unitedly they all describe three parts working as one.
When referencing ADHD, the communication between certain areas of the brain are believed to be impacted and less effective than the average brain. More specifically and less academically pronounced; the prefrontal cortex is lagging. This part of the human brain manages many aspects of day to day life; to name a few this includes decision making, rational thought, time management, rewards and motivations. They say that the ADHD brain takes longer to mature, being around 3 years behind the ‘normal’ brain where the Neo-Cortex reaches its maximum thickness by the age of seven.
If we zone in on one of the theories mentioned; the chimp paradox. This suggests the human and chimp brain are always competing. The chimp brain reflects that of a naughty chimp, but if we digressed this further it would depict a brain which resembles a child. One with no responsibility, no sense of danger and no need for rational thought (as it has a parental figure). The adult would behave somewhere in the middle, and life is about finding that balance. However, a child's prefrontal cortex (rational thought) does not develop until after the age of seven.
This suggests that an ADHD brain is similar to that of a child's; forever running on emotion and living in the moment. This is often why ADHD diagnosis isn't carried out until after the age of 8.
So to go one step further, if the ADHD brain reflects that of a chimp, can we look at the effectiveness of the chimp brain in hunter-gatherer times. If we draw this comparison, I feel we are able to have a clearer understanding of what ADHD is and why people struggle so much in society.
If we look closely at ADHD, a child and the chimp-like brain, they act almost egotistically, running on emotion, like a child the chimp runs off its ego, it thinks only about itself, and its primitive drive is to survive. It is competitive, it wants nice, shiny things, and it wants them now. A child becomes fixated on the toy it wants in a shop, and there's no flexibility, no patience or ability to rationalise or wait, because its desire is so strong. An ADHD brain works like that, it becomes fixated on the thing it wants, and it will remove anything and anyone in its way, no questions asked and deal with the consequences later (which never comes). This means sometimes it will cut corners, or rush to get to the answer, the quickest solution for the fastest hit of dopamine (immediate gratification). In modern society we have too much of this, we have amazon prime, next day delivery, fast food on our doorsteps, the internet, social media, everything you want you can have it now, which only triggers an ADHD brain, it doesn't necessarily support it.
In hunter gather times this would be ideal, in 2023 its irrational, its unethical, immoral and it could be financially unavailable. However the ADHD brain will get what it wants and ask questions later. This habit is one that can often cause problems for the person, as it leads them to repeat mistakes, and is often unable to learn from others' mistakes, and so learns the hard way or goes the long way; similar to a child that has not yet matured.
It doesn't matter how many times you tell someone with ADHD ‘can you shut the cupboard door?’, or ‘that's not where that lives’, you may as well be speaking a foreign language, because to them that task is finished, the tidy up isn't necessary, the debrief isn't essential, the understanding isn't relevant and they are more likely to make the mistake twice, three times, rather than learn from it.
Furthermore, if you challenge an ADHD brain, it is interpreted as a source of rejection, they become defensive and feel unloved. Like a child, if you correct them they will feel they are ‘bad’ or a failure. Imagine how many times since being a baby you have experienced someone correcting, guiding or criticising the way you work. That's why a person with ADHD often presents with low self-esteem, is sensitive to rejection and can have an underlying fear of abandonment.
For the most part (positive symptoms only), the people I have encountered with ADHD are full of life, they are spontaneous, they are jealous, they are competitive, loyal, they have insane intuition, and the ability to hyper-focus, create a tunnel vision and block out distraction. They are impulsive, spontaneous, they seek out the dopamine, they can survive on little sleep, they act on urgency. People with ADHD live in the present moment, with no concern for time, which is what? A social construct How many of us would love to just be, to exist in the present moment and let go?
They run at 100 miles an hour then burn out and hibernate, is this not a reflection of tribal behaviour in years gone by? Does this not reflect the seasons, the shift from light to dark, working in correlation with the sun? These are insane survival techniques, which in hunter-gather times would have made you a leader of society, and now these same brains are being failed by school systems, labelled incorrectly, misdiagnosed, not effectively managed, and often leading to mental health issues and or addiction or suicide.
ADHD doesn't mean people have a deficit of attention, it actually means for the most part they struggle to apply blinkers for their attention, this can cause them to be easily distracted, and go on the search for dopamine (feel good hit). They struggle to finish tasks, stay focused, maintain motivation, and commit to long term goals. All of these attributes above need you to be able to choose where to apply your attention, which a person with ADHD can only do when it becomes urgent and hyper-focus. Whereas a non-ADHD person can do this easily. This means they can scan for threats, then hyper-focus with no distraction. Realistically, when would hunter gatherers need to commit to long term goals? When would they need to save to buy a house? When would they need to stay focused on a task for weeks or months at a time?
The reason people with ADHD struggle to do this is because their prefrontal cortex presents differently. The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for decision making, rational thinking, planning ahead and emotions. They have lower levels of the hormone dopamine; this is the reward and motivation centre of the brain. The autonomic nervous system releases hits of dopamine making us feel accomplished and therefore motivated to repeat a behaviour to get a similar response, and in turn form a habit for long term goal setting.
With lower levels of dopamine, people with ADHD are on the hunt for dopamine, this means their brain will naturally be looking for any quick fixes which will help release dopamine so they feel good, for example, impulsive behaviour and risk taking because their rational mind and decision making models are slower to work. Traditionally speaking this would work well for hunter gathers, and leaders in tribes as they are able to give their attention to their external world, act on impulse, protect the tribe, take on new tasks being adaptable with their skills and interests, lead groups of people,
Another example of this would be that ADHD people have a fear of rejection, similar to a chimp who has to feel accepted by the “shrewdness” (a group of apes), for its own self esteem. Likewise a child, who sees its parental figure showing attention to another child, will immediately compete to win its parents affection. Traditionally this trait could be a leader in a group. A fear of rejection, when handled appropriately, could thrive to be the leader of the group, to stay on top. It keeps you hyper-vigilant, ready for attack, it increases intuition, heightens senses, makes you more aware. However in today's society, where we no longer live in small intimate groups, we are instead overwhelmed with the mass market, social media platforms, internet and influencers, competition from every corner can definitely make you more sensitive. It could make you jealous, paranoid, isolated, angry.
We live in a world controlled by how many likes we have on a photograph that's been filtered, cropped, edited and designed to attract other people. That puts the risk of rejection at an all time climax does it not?
Traditionally, you would be accepted into the group via an act of initiation, you would have your set role, very black and white and you would compete if necessary. Today the complexity of rejection and the overall levels of stress impeding on the brain is incomparable. We experience micro stresses from the moment we wake up, that we rarely regulate and come out of hyper-vigilance or regain homeostasis, and if we do it isn't long before we bounce back there.
What if ADHD is not a deficit of the brain, but it was the first brain? Where the ones that remain contain stronger DNA, where they arent as maladaptive or have less neuro-plasticity? It is society which has evolved, our requirements, our needs, our stress, our survival, have all changed to fit our capitalist society, run on time, stocks and social media, focused on the desirable opposed to the original brain working for survival, running on instinct and hormones.
As a child who runs off a chimp like brain, may present impulsive traits, labelled as curious, intelligent, interested in the world. As an adult they are reckless, irrational and crazy, they act without thinking, they have no sense of responsibility. Traditionally speaking an impulsive brain could seek out food when no one else could, it would think outside the box and probably save its family. Its impulsivity would be creative, prevent boredom, allow for new ideas for evolution to occur.
Someone who is impulsive wouldn't think twice about putting their life at risk to protect their family, to go and seek out food in danger. As you see the brain hasn't changed, instead the expectation put upon the brain has changed. And I don't just mean from childhood to adulthood, I mean in the last 30 years the stress and pressures of the society we live in has changed dramatically, no doubt in line with ADHD referrals and diagnosis.
Have you ever noticed if you give a person with ADHD a deadline, they will work more effectively on urgency? This is because they live in the moment, they're not planning ahead for the day, they don't recognise the complexity of time, it doesn't exist in their world.
If their desire is desperate they will seek it out. If they have 4 weeks to plan ahead, they will forget. They live in time not across it. Tomorrow never comes. The task doesn't get finished, and unless it's immediately imminent, it's not important. None of this would have mattered in years gone by, time isn't essential for survival. We were not competing for profit, we weren't struggling to pay a mortgage or get back in time for the football.
If we look at the human brain as being built for survival, and we narrow in on the first brain; the reptilian brain, which runs on sensation, intuition and instinct; this would be the brain of the gods back in hunter gather times. This echoes that of the ADHD brain.
Nowadays we rely more on the neocortex; the front part of the brain, where we have logic and reasoning, we have time to think, we have language and rationality. All the stuff the ADHD brain doesn't have so much of, similar to a child who’s prefrontal cortex is the last part of the brain to develop, therefore it runs on its Limbic system. This is the third part of the brain reliant upon emotions, imprinted memory and impulsivity. The neocortex is like the additional brain, the part of the brain evolved for a capitalist society, for technology and managing finances and mortgages, not so much when we needed to build a shelter or hunt animals for food. We didn't need language and understanding to find a mate, we could rely on our primitive brain to feed our innate desires, such as sexuality, hunger, thirst and territory. When we live in a time when these are the only things we need to stress about, why would we need the neocortex?
Maybe the reason ADHD is on the rise, and those diagnosed are finding it more and more difficult to manage throughout adulthood is because we're living in an unrealistic environment, with pressures that out run the ADHD brain, one that isn't as neuro-plastic, that can't adapt or be as flexible, that can't comprehend the stresses of a capitalist world, because it's a construct.
It feels like a square peg, round hole concept?
Are we as a society trying to manipulate the human brain to best serve a capitalist system? Did the ADHD brain triumph in evolutionary time, being so primal in the way it works, is this now outdated? As the society we live in has evolved and the capitalist system now has different demands of the human brain, to which the ADHD brain can't always serve.