Moongoddess256 said:
I enjoy a tasty debate, otherwise I wouldn't respond. As long as we don't go about insulting each other. Obviously ADD people still have something there, but the disorder itself mostly affects that part of the brain. And the reason I was prescribed that drug was because of the tolerance I developed to ritalin. It was no longer effective on me. Now that I'm afraid of those drugs I've learned to appreciate the "disorder" I was diagnosed with as a gift. Through all those essays I did research for arguing against the usage of medication, I found that some of the alleles that ADD lies on are in fact some of the same alleles directly associated with creativity. It would make sense wouldn't it? To describe an ADD mind you could say that its like having alot of static... jumbled up thoughts and a drifting mind. Creativity... what is creativity? Would it not be something like an unlikely thought or collision of thoughts to create a new groundbreaking idea? If we were incapable of drifting thoughts and the like, would there be any creativity at all? It is also theorized that ADD evolved in the day of hunter-gatherer societies. The "distractability" and "hyperfocusing" would be useful in hunting. Imagine a hunter looking for his prey, and his "distractibility" leads him to notice a stick snapping in the forest and he uses his "hyperfocusing" to close in on the kill. I am very convinced that it is something that could be used to societies benefit if it were properly tapped into. ADD children do not perform well in school and boring jobs, this is true. But this is because these things adhere to a strict system that do not do things in a way that is making the most of different minds. |
I would agree that ADHD could have some beneficial effects. I don't know if I agree with you assessment of it being like static though. As far as I have seen it is better to think of an ADHD mind like a computer. The theory I have found most accurate says that an ADHD brain can only process a single thing at a time (which is how every computer works) where as your typical brain will take in multiple things at once. This has its benefits and side effects of course, and any job where random whatnot can happen would make the easily distracted (single track) brain a lot better because it won't habituate as quickly to whatever is happening. Not having first hand experience though I can hardly put my ideas over someone with first hand experience.
That is an interesting tidbit about the creativity though. I had not heard about that previously and does make me curious about a few things. I mostly deal with treatment rather than biology so random facts like that always intrigue me. I'll see if I can dg up some studies about the prevalence of ADHD amongst artists and the like. If not I might have to try and pitch the idea and see if there is any interest.
I feel I should clarify one point though. I am not for blindly medicating anyone diagnosed with ADHD. Most of the time I am talking about ADHD it is in the context that I help research which is with elementary school children mostly. So when I start talking about treating it I am almost exclusively talking about in young children who are having severe trouble in school. Outside of this scenario I am mostly ambivalent about it. Some of my favorite teachers, and smartest coworkers have ADHD and go unmedicated because thats just how they roll.
