[pantalaimon]

I think the conflict here is more in that way:

Do you want to give people medicine so they can conform to what society expects from them, or do you instead try to change society so it doesn't have this expectations in the first place.

With ADHD what a lot of people see is this: You are not being efficient, so that is a flaw that needs to be fixed. But where is the line? Should we really optimize for maximal productivity or are other forms of society possible?

[always_good]

You might be looking at ADHD too much through the lens of buying some Adderall before a uni exam so that you can nail it.

ADHD interferes with everything from social relationships to doing anything that you want to do. We have to be productive insofar as to pay for food and shelter, but you're addressing a very narrow aspect of what ADHD medication treats. For some people, it's the ability to socialize, finish a joke, and achieve their life ambitions.

[mjburgess]

Yes, this "Social" view of disability has I think, gone too far.

A dog with three legs is much worse at being a dog.

There is really something it is to be a human, and it isnt just defined by culture and present-day society.

We live on earth. We eat food. We socialize. We, by being human, do a very large number of things merely because we are human. And if you damage part of our body, we can't do those things. And doing those things is a fundamental part of what we do.

ADHD really is a neurological impairment on this scale. It isn't "being less productive". It is a torture, a trauma, an on-going alienating, destabilizing impairment.

You might say "well couldn't there be a society where ADHD was an advantage"... i'd say basically No, not without changing the human species.

Yes, maybe we could imagine one. A society perfectly designed for people with ADHD, but when you describe that society in detail, you'd discover its profoundly impairing to people without ADHD.

As in, imagine we all lived as if we had no arms. That would be an extreme oppression to the almost everyone who does. And that's because on-earth, doing the things human beings do, arms are inherently part of doing those things well. That is why not having arms is a disability, not a lifestyle choice.

Similarly for vision, hearing, etc.

ADHD is an impairment to advanced cognitive function. It's an impairment to your minds ability to "see" itself.

The moment we start to say, of children with ADHD, that they should have this impairment.. that it's our "culture" that decides this impairment is bad... I think that's a gross abuse of those children.

It's turning your own lack of dependence on pharmacology, your own health, into a trap for people who do need it.