[ssf] Attention deficit - disorder?

[Mr Jase Malgod]

A good article below about the realities of how ADHD is simply a result of 
the information age being imposed upon people who are simply not designed to 
cope with it. Whilst I do not agree with the articles conclusion that 
medication is a solution (those who do not participate in the information 
age are at present excluded from both wealth and power, so the pressure to 
take such medication is high - granted in a future equal society things may 
be different but that is a way off) I couldn't agree more with the idea that 
there should be changes to the new social order to accomodate those who do 
not and will not "acheive" as defined by present governments and wider 
society... 

Attention Surplus? Re-examining a Disorder
By PAUL STEINBERG, M.D.
Published: March 7, 2006 

The recent recommendation that Ritalin and other medications for 
attention-deficit disorder carry the most serious allowable warning will 
certainly slow the explosive growth in the use of those drugs. 

That was the intention of some members of the Food and Drug Administration 
advisory committee that called for the packaging alert, known as a black-box 
warning. 

But the recommendation and concerns about growth in the use of these drugs 
may force us to think about the disorder, known as A.D.H.D., in new and 
different ways, from an evolutionary and contextual standpoint. 

Every generation likes to believe that it is witnessing the most dramatic 
epoch in history. In the case of the current Western world, that belief may 
indeed be accurate, particularly in light of the striking changes of the 
last 30 years. 

As the business writer and consultant Peter Drucker pointed out, most people 
in the United States, Japan and parts of Europe are "knowledge workers." We 
live in an information age, in a knowledge-based economy. 

For those of us who have "attention-surplus disorder" — a term coined by Dr. 
Ned Hallowell, a psychiatrist in Boston who has A.D.H.D. — this 
knowledge-based economy has been a godsend. We thrive. 

But attention disorder cases, up to 5 to 15 percent of the population, are 
at a distinct disadvantage. What once conferred certain advantages in a 
hunter-gatherer era, in an agrarian age or even in an industrial age is now 
a potentially horrific character flaw, making people feel stupid or lazy and 
irresponsible, when in fact neither description is apt. 

The term attention-deficit disorder turns out to be a misnomer. Most people 
who have it actually have remarkably good attention spans as long as they 
are doing activities that they enjoy or find stimulating. As Martha B. 
Denckla of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore has noted, we should 
probably be calling the condition something like "intention-inhibition 
disorder," because it is a condition in which one's best intentions — say, 
reading 50 pages in a dense textbook or writing a 10-page paper in a timely 
fashion — go awry. 

Essentially, A.D.H.D. is a problem dealing with the menial work of daily 
life, the tedium involved in many school situations and 9-to-5 jobs. 

Another hallmark, impulsivity, or its more positive variant, spontaneity, 
appears to be a vestige from lower animals forced to survive in the wild. 
Wild animals cannot survive without an extraordinary ability to react. If 
predators lurk, they need to act quickly. 

This vestige underscores the fact that human genetic variability, the fact 
that we are not all simply clones of one another, has allowed us to survive 
as a species for 150,000 years in a variety of contexts and environments. 

In essence, attention-deficit disorder is context driven. In many situations 
of hands-on activities or activities that reward spontaneity, A.D.H.D. is 
not a disorder. 

Ultimately, if studies show convincing evidence that children and adults 
have been harmed by medications for attention disorder, cardiologists will 
have every obligation to tell us to halt their use. 

But a more fundamental societal accommodation would be highly beneficial — 
to recognize that each child and adult learns and performs better in certain 
contexts than others. 

As Arthur Levine, president of the Teachers College at Columbia University, 
has noted, future teachers will be able to individualize and customize the 
education of students. 

Some children and young adults with attention disorder may need more 
hands-on learning. Some may perform more effectively using computers and 
games rather than books. Some may do better with field work and wilderness 
programs. 

If it is indeed a context-driven disorder, let's change the contexts in 
schools to accommodate the needs of children who have it, not just support 
and accommodate the needs of children with attention-surplus disorder. 

For those with attention disorder who wish to be full participants in a 
knowledge-based world, medications equalize their opportunities. The drugs 
should and can be used only as needed in the context of dealing with the 
tedium of school or the drab paperwork of some jobs. 

Cardiologists, biostatisticians and consumer advocates may clamor, 
appropriately or inappropriately, to reduce the use of the medications. But 
unless we go back to the caveman world, some people will find the drugs 
increasingly necessary to succeed as knowledge workers in a drastically 
transformed modern world.