Where was Inattentive ADD 100 years ago? Why we are having the problem just recently?

[aystro]

I am just getting the feeling that all the recent technologies that came in the last 50 years have awoken this mental brain capacity. I don't remember Hitler taking Adderall to concentrate better on his mass killing.

[Etcetera]

Because it was already there.
Society changed. Because society changed, life became harder on those with the already excisting neurobiological difference.

If it had not excisted 100 years ago, ADD would not be both genetic and spread out across the globe.

[selita]

Hitler started taking methamphetamine in 1942. It was also heavily used by the Wehrmacht. The Allies used tens of millions of amphetamine tablets to win the war.

NICE people with ADD have been daydreaming a better world since prehistory. And forgetting where they put things. It was described by Alexander Crichton in 1798, and in fiction, biography, and poetry far earlier.

[Lunacie]

Things like ADHD have always existed. They just had different labels before; crazy, lazy, scatterbrained, wooly-headed, stupid, etc.

[Barliman]

Look around- do your homework. Alexander Crieghton wrote a very good description of it in 1798- in Scotland.

It has been known much longer in other societies under other names- in India we are apparently called Old Souls. That descriptive tag is quite an old one, but it fits ADD behaviour very well. Interestingly it points to a positive long term prognosis, at least in some cases.

[peripatetic]

Originally Posted by aystro

I am just getting the feeling that all the recent technologies that came in the last 50 years have awoken this mental brain capacity. I don't remember Hitler taking Adderall to concentrate better on his mass killing.

you're playing the hitler card? seriously? i have to give you credit for not going with the standard guilt by association fallacy...oddly. usually it's in the form of "hitler liked/did ___, so ___ causes one to commit atrocities; don't take part in ____." yours is more that hitler was able to commit genocide without stimulant medication so adhd is caused by recent technology, which is a different fallacy.

what do you think hitler's non usage of adderall has to do with recent technology creating adhd? can you explain?

[Barliman]

Originally Posted by peripatetic

you're playing the hitler card? seriously? i have to give you credit for not going with the standard guilt by association fallacy...oddly. usually it's in the form of "hitler liked/did ___, so ___ causes one to commit atrocities; don't take part in ____." yours is more that hitler was able to commit genocide without stimulant medication so adhd is caused by recent technology, which is a different fallacy.

what do you think hitler's non usage of adderall has to do with recent technology creating adhd? can you explain?

Actually this poster is quite confused- I don't quite know what he thinks he is proving here- but the serious questions here all should be about the author rather than the posts.

I do have a thought though- I am sure that ADD characteristics could be found retrospectively in many characters in old literature if we looked for it. I daresay there are many examples in Dickens.

[johnny_walker]

Johnny knew they exist, but they are right in terms of society. Society has changed so much that most of us are now becoming more an introvert person. Over time, the adaption of adhd people will have the biggest problem coping into fitting in society.











Until when Johnny became captain america.... things changed for the better. Why dont you drop a bomb like what Johnny did the other day? ( Its a riddle chaps)


Good luck Sargent.

Keep Walking

Johnny Walker

[sarahsweets]

Not sure about the hitler thing it sounds far fetched. As far as adhd being more prevalent now I think it boils down to knowledge that has finally made it to the "laypersons or regular persons ears ". I'm sure that it existed for years but despite what the medical community knew it just didn't make it down to the average folks. Now that there is validation and knowledge of this disorder it makes treatment more specific and available. And despite some of the corrupt parts of the pharmaceutical industry the fact remains that the research done on drugs has at least made more treatment options available. I hope I made some sense. Lol

[stef]

Originally Posted by Barliman

I do have a thought though- I am sure that ADD characteristics could be found retrospectively in many characters in old literature if we looked for it. I daresay there are many examples in Dickens.

A Tale of Two cities: the guy, a lawyer, who looked like the main character;
Great expectations: the Pockets (I think, can't remember their name), relations of lady Havisham;
there must be some in Shakespeare too;

psychology has developed relatively recently, there must have always been some people with ADD around...

[Retromancer]

Damn right. Adolf Hitler is an inspiration to us all!

(Actually as noted Hitler received a periodic injection of a cocktail that included methamphetamine.)

Originally Posted by aystro

I am just getting the feeling that all the recent technologies that came in the last 50 years have awoken this mental brain capacity. I don't remember Hitler taking Adderall to concentrate better on his mass killing.

[ginniebean]

ADHD had different names back then, the inattentives were "stupid' and the combined types were "ain't right in the head".

[AbsentMindProf]

ADHD-PI was always there. It's just that, in the past, EVERYONE called us lazy and scatterbrained instead of today, when only 90% of the population says that.

[mctavish23]

Barliman made an (another) excellent point regarding Scottish physician

Andrew Crichton's original research study on what we now call ADHD,in

1798, in "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement".

In it, he refers to "mental restlessness," which is considered to be the first

ever mention of what would today be considered ADHD-PI Type.

Going back a little further, one of Shakespear's characters in King Lear was

also considered to be a candidate for what we now call ADHD as well.

Hope that helps.

tc

mctavish23

(Robert)

[AddaptAbilities]

Originally Posted by stef

A Tale of Two cities: the guy, a lawyer, who looked like the main character;
Great expectations: the Pockets (I think, can't remember their name), relations of lady Havisham;

Sidney Carton was the underachieving lawyer, I think. He was definitely depressive, if not ADHD. What about Mr Micawber from David Copperfield? And possibly Richard Carstone of Bleak House, who couldn't settle on a profession while he was waiting for the settlement, and died in a properly contrite Victorian way.