What are the survival advantages of ADHD?

I've been doing a lot of reading recently about evolution and the origins of the human race.  One of the really fascinating things you find is how quickly the human race can change if it finds a trait or physical characteristic that provides a survival advantage.  For example, when humans migrated out of Africa they had the dark black skin that is common among Sub-Saharan African populations today.  The dark skin color gave them protection from the hot sun of the plains of Africa and so was advantageous to them.  Fast forward several thousand years and their descendants have made it to Northern Europe as the last ice age was ending.  The human body needs vitamin D, and one of the primary sources is sunlight. We evolved near the equator where sunlight and warm temperatures were the norm.  However, in a northern climate, the days can be quite short for long stretches of time.  Thus, a light skin color that more easily absorbed the suns rays became advantageous for the humans that settled in Northern Europe and it quickly became the norm.  There are countless examples of this ongoing process that have been documented by people who study the genetics surrounding human evolution.  It got me to thinking about ADHD and why some of the traits that we find so vexing could have developed and proven advantageous to our ancestors.  

1. Restlessness, Impulsivity, and Risk-Taking: In our current society, these characteristics can become a real trouble-maker for someone with ADHD.  We can spend too much, say the wrong thing, drive our teachers or parents crazy with our inability to sit still, and get ourselves into trouble by engaging in risky behavior.  But for an individual living in a hunter-gatherer society these would be extremely useful traits.  You would be the member of the tribe willing to strike out in unfamiliar territory in search of food.  You may be the one who has the most energy and drive to find your quarry.  Because you are willing to take risks you are seen as brave and dominant.  Finally, because you have an impulsive streak, you may be more adept at trying new hunting techniques or food types.  There may be many more examples but these are a few I thought of.

2. Easily Distractible: Today, being easily distracted is another area where we can struggle.  There is so much coming at us that people with ADHD can be easily overwhelmed by outside stimuli.  But a few thousand years ago this wasn't the case.  Being easily distractible could provide a big survival advantage.  Consider that there was very little stimuli other than your fellow tribe mates.  If you are out searching for game a sudden movement or noise could be an enemy or a meal.  If you are instantly and forcefully distracted by anything outside of the norm this could lead to you eating more and being eaten less!

3. Memory issues: One of the complaints I often hear about ADHD is that someone can remember seemingly unimportant details of long ago events in great detail, but forgets to pick up their dry cleaning or mail out the bills.  In a modern society this can seem to be a quirk or disadvantage, but looking at it from a survival standpoint it makes perfect sense.  Our ancestors would have found it very useful to be able to have tremendous recall about things like where a water supply was, where a dangerous predator made their lair, or where someone once met an untimely end.  Being able to focus solely on the most critical aspects of survival; and filter out less important things allowed those individuals to stay alive longer.  Back then the only interesting thing was finding food and staying safe.  Everything else was just gravy.

While this may be just complete guesswork on my part, I can see that aspects of ADHD could have been wonderful survival tools for our long ago ancestors.  Unfortunately our modern society presents different challenges that these traits are not as well equipped to handle.  One of the most valuable things anyone with ADHD can do is to learn about the condition and gain a better understanding of it.  Thinking about it in our ancestors' lives was a fun experiment and gave me a chance to see the drawbacks of ADHD as advantages.

Wait, did she really write that? My response to Marilyn Wedge's piece in the Huffington Post.

Every time I think that the stigma surrounding ADHD in kids and adults is fading away into understanding and acceptance I read an article by an "expert" or speak with some one and am floored by their ignorance.  Exhibit A today is a piece from the Huffington Post written by Marilyn Wedge.  She is listed as a family therapist and an author, and her piece was titled: "7 Natural Ways to Help Your Child's ADHD".  You can read the full article by following this link. 

I don't know much about this person, and I'm sure she means well.  However, she begins this article badly and gets worse as she goes.  Here are a few tidbits:

1. "Whether ADHD is actually a biological condition (there is no scientific evidence for this), or whether ADHD is a profitable social construction that allows Big Pharma to sell more drugs, is a topic that continues to be debated. (I added the italics).  
Ummm, What?  There are mountains of scientific evidence going back over 70 years.  To say that there is none is either willfully ignorant or dishonest.  Furthermore, I find the statement that ADHD is some concoction of the Pharmaceutical industry to dupe consumers insulting.  I'm a reasonably intelligent person, and I think I can make a sound judgement about my own mental health and well being.  Parents are not just morons who mindlessly do whatever their Doctors tell them to. Furthermore, Doctors and Psychiatrists don't just blindly medicate patients so they will go away.  I'm not sure who continues to debate these points other than Scientologists and Tea Party members who also don't believe in evolution.


2.  "From my point of view as a family therapist, the various behaviors that we group together and name "ADHD".....have a situational, not a biological, cause. Many parents, for example, find that although their child seems to have ADHD at school, when the child is home-schooled he doesn't have symptoms at all."
Oh, ok now I get it.  If your child exhibits ADHD in a public school setting just homeschool them.  I'm not sure what you do with them when they are ready to go to College.  In all seriousness though, to state that ADHD behaviors are situational again demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of how the condition manifests.  When I meet with my accountant to go over my taxes my mind wanders, I'm restless, I'm distracted by the slightest thing, and it takes a great effort to remain focused.  When I'm working with a client, or I'm coaching a game, I'm focused, relaxed, and dialed in.  If you have ADHD you react to situations the way you do because of your biology.  


3. "The parents who find their way to my office through the haze of psychiatric-pharmaceutical propaganda have read the research about the side effects of the speed medications used for ADHD, and they are looking for a saner alternative. These courageous souls are willing to take responsibility for making changes in their own homes to decrease their child's stress and improve the child's emotional health."
I think it's safe to say that this person has an agenda.  I'm surprised that the diabolical Psychiatric-Pharmacuetical forces that she seems to be so against haven't tried to somehow silence her.  Here's my biggest problem with the statement above: she is condemning those parents who decide to try medication to control their children's ADHD as lazy, irresponsible, and unwilling to "go the extra mile" to help their child.  Talk about stigma!  


I don't know Marilyn Wedge, PhD.  Based on the article she published that I have excerpted above I don't think I want to know her.  She doesn't believe that ADHD is a real neurobiological condition.  She clearly feels that the Medical community, the Psychiatric community and the Pharmaceutical industry are conspiring to unnecessarily medicate your children.  I will let you judge the rest of the article for yourself.  In my humble opinion the philosophy of Dr. Wedge, Family Therapist is wrong scientifically, and highly objectionable in its use of moral condemnation.  Let us hope that she is one of a dwindling number of old fashioned therapists that will eventually fade into the realm of history. 

Do I still struggle with my own ADHD? Yes I do!

I thought that I would write a brief piece about things that I still struggle with in regards to ADHD.  My reason for doing this is that I would like people to understand that everyone struggles with some aspect of ADHD no matter how long they've been managing it.  When I was first diagnosed I went through a euphoric period of time where I thought I had finally "figured it out" and a new golden age of organization and productivity was upon me.  After a couple of months I realized that this was not the case.  There is a deep desire within all of us to have clarity and firm boundaries in our lives.  We all have a fantasy that if we make X amount of money we will officially be successful, or that when we graduate from college we will officially be an adult.  Unfortunately life simply doesn't operate that way.  Managing ADHD is a daily task that will lead to improvement, but it will not make us who we are not.  Finding a way to manage daily life and coming to understand and accept our limitations is a critical step in treating ADHD.

Here are some areas I still wrestle with:

1. Transitions: I'm much better at moving from one activity to the next, but I still struggle with the transition from sleeping to wakefulness, from work to rest, from focus on my professional responsibilities to my family responsibilities.  I am able to make the transitions, but there is a brief period of uneasiness that used to cause me to procrastinate or avoid things.  Now that I understand it better I'm able to work through the uneasiness and move to a new activity or sphere of my life.
2. Organization: I am organized in the sense that I try to structure my day and I meet my appointments and obligations on time.  My personal spaces can go through periods of clutter and chaos followed by periods of neatness.
3. Task initiation: If I know how to do something, or I know where to begin doing something I can generally get started without any problem.  If I'm confronted with a task that I'm unfamiliar with or seems like there is no easy sense of where to begin I tend to struggle.
4. Interruptions: If I'm working on something like this blog post and I'm interrupted I can usually get back to where I was without too much trouble.  If I'm repeatedly interrupted my concentration dissolves and I find myself becoming irritable.

Will the above areas ever improve?  Sure, I think over time they will.  The key thing about these things is that I'm aware of them.  Now I know that I need help if a project requires a lot of organizational work.  I know to shut off my phone and close my email if I have a project to complete.  Being aware of our limitations and finding the right set of coping strategies is the key to living a better life with ADHD.  You can't change your brain and how it operates, but by becoming self aware you can begin the process of  making your environment and support structures more appropriate for who you are.