Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development, says author and retired physician Gabor Maté
Great article! Honestly I believe one of the aspects of the collapse we are undergoing is an attempted reduction of neurodivergence in humanity. The same process that is causing a loss of biodiversity and the loss of diversity in human languages in general I think is also violently selecting against neurodiversity in humans.
Of course you can’t quite stop all the neurodiverse kids being born yet (genetics is trying to get us there as fast as possible though!), but you can make their life living hell and force them to mask so much they become lost in layers of masking and trauma.
The thing is, ADHD is unintentionally one of the most political disabilities as it smashes the cornerstone of expressed willpower being the basis for judgement in most societies and leaves systems of selection rudderless without the sharp distinctions expressed willpower falsely hallucinates and accentuates. Further one of the major way social safety nets and the shared collective wealth of societies have been hollowed out is by offloading immense amounts of Executive Function requirements to people navigating systems and then aggressively pretending Executive Function isn’t a limited, exhaustible capacity.
People have had their basic understanding of focus lobotomized by tech narratives (the concept of “attention span” abstracted from context is meaningless for one) and we now collectively pretend it isn’t an act of labor to focus and use Executive Function. This forces ADHD squarely into a broader discussion of collapse and enshittification.
Great article! Honestly I believe one of the aspects of the collapse we are undergoing is an attempted reduction of neurodivergence in humanity. The same process that is causing a loss of biodiversity and the loss of diversity in human languages in general I think is also violently selecting against neurodiversity in humans.
Of course you can’t quite stop all the neurodiverse kids being born yet (genetics is trying to get us there as fast as possible though!), but you can make their life living hell and force them to mask so much they become lost in layers of masking and trauma.
The thing is, ADHD is unintentionally one of the most political disabilities as it smashes the cornerstone of expressed willpower being the basis for judgement in most societies and leaves systems of selection rudderless without the sharp distinctions expressed willpower falsely hallucinates and accentuates. Further one of the major way social safety nets and the shared collective wealth of societies have been hollowed out is by offloading immense amounts of Executive Function requirements to people navigating systems and then aggressively pretending Executive Function isn’t a limited, exhaustible capacity.
People have had their basic understanding of focus lobotomized by tech narratives (the concept of “attention span” abstracted from context is meaningless for one) and we now collectively pretend it isn’t an act of labor to focus and use Executive Function. This forces ADHD squarely into a broader discussion of collapse and enshittification.
Epic comment. I feel like there is stuff to unpack here - gonna bookmark this and spam you with more comments later if I can remember.