[brimble]

I'm reminded of the SlateStarCodex post that mulls over the difference between "real" ADD and just having totally ordinary (but pretty great) difficulty focusing on the exact same boring crap on a computer screen day, after day, after day—especially if, in the latter case, a lot of the people these folks are comparing themselves to, when deciding that they might have ADD, are already on ADD meds (or coke...) for exactly that reason.

If our society needs 1% of the population to be accountants (to pick an example) but only 0.1% of the population either have incredible focus abilities or don't find accounting brain-meltingly dull, then at least 90% of accountants are going to feel like they have a lot of trouble focusing at work. Once enough start medicating (legally or otherwise) it's gonna feel to others like they really do have a condition that most don't, but they both kinda do (in a practical sense, they do need to focus better to keep up with their peers) and kinda don't (in that it's sort of our society that's sick, not them—they're just acting like most people would, in that situation).