To me it seems that if it’s not „treatable“ the same way ADHD is, I’m not sure if it’s useful to categorize it as such. On the other hand, I’m happy if kids with this disorder can get a diagnosis and treatment that actually helps them sometime in the future due to this research.
But yes, once they have a better understanding of what that difference means, the next step might well be to split the ADHD diagnosis into two separate disorders, or even that, like cancer, ADHD is actually a whole range of separate but related conditions.
Do you think there's anything that differentiates what we might call "general task dread" that perhaps anyone experiences to a certain degree from a more broad executive function disorder? Or is it that dreading leading to task paralysis is one of many symptoms of an executive function disorder?
Perhaps a bit rhetorical, but how often does this task dread occur? Does it also ever occur for things you want to do, not just obligated to do?
For me, I experience this issue for many tasks everyday. Then again, I have never had a normal executive functioning, so I cannot claim to know what it is like for normies.
I’ll also add that ADHD is more than just executive dysfunction too.
For me, transferring a load of laundry from the washer to dryer is not an atomic operation. It can be interrupted by almost anything. Oh, I forgot to send that message. Oh, I forgot to check for the parcel. Oh, I need to go to the store today still. And I will walk away and forget to come back and finish. Food prep is the same. I might stop with a carrot half-peeled and go do something else, something that absolutely could wait five seconds for the rest of the carrot.
In other words, kids want to be kids and they're being put in cages and drugged so they follow their training schedule better.
CBT teaches you to evaluate how to shape the environments your living in so that you can benefit the most from your resources and weaknesses and suffer the least from your weaknesses. For some people, this can include taking stimulants, and this is where I do not condone your parent comment's undertone. Nevertheless, it's been proven over and over again that the rigid system that we call schools does not welcome neuro-atypical students and that we could do a lot more to help those who do not react well to stimulants, who do not want to use them (for whatever individual reason), or simply haven't been diagnosed yet! Allowing for movement instead of forcing to suppress it is a very good example for what could be done. One shouldn't make the mistake to think that this alone would be enough for every single child with ADHD, though. But for some, it could be enough.
I know plenty about myself and that label.
I eventually discovered that the adrenaline response from extreme stress ('if I don't get this fucking thing done by 7:30am I'm fired' kind of thing) allows me to lock in and do the thing.
The ADHD manager has one extra responsibility. Make the thing due 1 week earlier.
So suddenly the task seems totally overwhelming, when I could just… not do it. So I find a time later I can attempt it and after a few times it is no longer novel and I forget about it.
If anything is hyper-active, it’s the executive function part of my brain that is driven to plan out every tiny, hypothetical detail before I can start.
What’s missing is the reward and internal incentives for doing things when there are other things that do feel good to do (that aren’t what I need to do).
Perhaps this Brave New World, as opposed to the more agrarian one our species had been accustomed to, pushes many of us over that threshold.
The meltdowns stopped, but I still have issues spiralling into thoughts of failure and being a horrible person when I feel like I’ve disappointed family or friends.
Guanfacine has helped though. Tried a bunch of medications and this is the only one that seems to have made an impact.
Glad I wasn't just a weird, overly sensitive kid.
As if questionnaires and slot-machine prescription medicine treatments are accurate. I don't want to generalize for lack of statistical data, but reports of psychiatrists 'just phoning it in' while providing little actual patient engagement are widespread.
Again and again and again. Psychiatry is an epistemic mess.
Psychiatrists are touristic guides of the Paris catacombs that orient themselves with a map of the subway.
And a bit of nature, a bit of nurture.
It’s a real double edged sword for me.
On one hand relationships and “boring” tasks feel insurmountable. When I say boring I don’t even mean boring in the traditional sense, I just mean “not novel” - so even something like playing my favourite ever video game gets extremely difficult once the novelty is gone.
On the other hand, as a software developer, working on novel concepts or exploring novel concepts or ideas is basically like crack-cocaine, I literally can’t stop or put them down.
Double edged sword is struggling with most basic tasks, but excelling at the peripheries.
...
> For children with this extreme form of ADHD, standard behavioral strategies may fall short. DelBello said that widely used approaches such as positive reinforcement — like giving prizes or other trinkets, or extra recess for good behavior — do not always have the intended effect.
I'm a former foster parent who adopted kids from foster care. Two of them were diagnosed with RAD[1]. This "extreme form" of ADHD aligns with both my personal experience of RAD and a subset of the symptoms described by clinicians. Attachment issues in general are either commonly comorbid with, or misdiagnosed as ADHD and ODD[2] (the latter of which also somewhat matches the symptoms from TFA).
I don't really have a point here, just an observation I wanted to make.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_attachment_disorder
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppositional_defiant_disorder
phantompeace•2d ago
Bender•2d ago
[1] - https://archive.is/3a4VZ