A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.By Richard A. FriedmanPrinted in the New York Times Oct. 31, 2014This recent article from the New York Times talks about possible reasons why ADHD is such a common diagnosis (affecting 11% of American children) and how important choosing the right career is to help reduce the impact ADHD has on one's life (and even using some of the symptoms to their advantage).A few interesting quotes from the article include:
- "...people with A.D.H.D are walking around with reward circuits that are less sensitive at baseline than those of the rest of us. Having a sluggish reward circuit makes normally interesting activities seem dull and would explain, in part, why people with A.D.H.D. find repetitive and routine tasks unrewarding and even painfully boring."
- “Consider that humans evolved over millions of years as nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not until we invented agriculture, about 10,000 years ago, that we settled down and started living more sedentary — and boring — lives. As hunters, we had to adapt to an ever-changing environment where the dangers were as unpredictable as our next meal. In such a context, having a rapidly shifting but intense attention span and a taste for novelty would have proved highly advantageous in locating and securing rewards — like a mate and a nice chunk of mastodon.”
There is a lot of good information in the article and it is definitely worth a read.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/a-natural-fix-for-adhd.html