[_yb2s]

What spectrum means in this context is that it's a multi-dimensional problem- different levels of severity across a large number of different dimensions. Executive function is typically broken up into a large number of different functions, and people have different levels of each, so a person that functions well in one context might do poorly in another, and vice versa.

[LoganDark]

> What spectrum means in this context is that it's a multi-dimensional problem

I used "spectrum" to mean that ADHD is not always severe enough to cause outright disability, but the underlying problems can still be present to a lower degree.

The parent mentioned "procrastinates or can struggle with focus without having ADHD" (emphasis mine) and I wanted to point out that some of those people may also have some very mild form of ADHD.

[_yb2s]

I don't disagree with your point, but you are misusing the term and misunderstanding what it means when it is applied to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD.

[LoganDark]

ADHD the diagnosis is a set of symptoms. These individual symptoms may be present to varying degrees in different people. The fact that it varies means that ADHD is a spectrum. That's not misuse or misunderstanding, and it agrees with your original comment. I'm simply clarifying what I meant because it's not just "everyone has different specialties". It's that specific problems that can contribute to ADHD can be present in people even if they don't have the entirety of ADHD. There is no genetic boolean that decides if one will have ADHD or not.

While, sure, everyone does have different specialties, they could also have some traces of ADHD that aren't severe enough to give them all the symptoms but still manage to hurt their performance in certain areas.

Also, I said nothing of autism. Please don't extrapolate

[adadadadadad]

> ADHD the diagnosis is a set of symptoms.

ADHD is the set of symptoms. The only reason people care about the term is because you can access drugs.

> “The child often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities because she has ADHD and she has ADHD because she does not sustain her attention in tasks or play activities.” As Pérez-Álvarez (2017, p. 2) notes “the symptoms are the guarantee of the diagnostic category, which in turn is invoked to explain the symptoms in an endless loop.”

> https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.81476...

[LoganDark]

> ADHD is the set of symptoms.

The formal diagnosis of ADHD, which is what I was referring to, is based on the presence of a certain set of symptoms defined by the DSM-V or ICD-11.

ADHD itself, which the diagnosis aims to identify, is not the set of symptoms itself but rather the root cause of the symptoms. The symptoms point to the presence of some root cause which is ADHD.

[_yb2s]

I don't think it's logical to assume that there is one singular root cause for the symptoms of ADHD (or any other symptom based diagnosis). There are likely a number of very different distal causes, although, because they present with the same symptoms, they may involve some common mechanisms. ADHD itself is defined as its cluster of symptoms, and doesn't imply or assume any singular underlying mechanism.

For example, streptococcus infection seems to be one (relatively rare) cause of ADHD.

As our medical understanding evolves, I think a lot of conditions currently based on symptoms will be found to be a cluster of different underlying mechanisms, and may eventually be divided into different conditions with different treatment approaches.

In reality, virtually all medical conditions are symptom based. Our knowledge of biology is very primitive and incomplete, so even where we think we understand parts of the mechanism of a condition, we are probably still missing much of it, and our perspectives on these change. In that sense, it's more clinically useful to stick with symptoms which we can observe directly, and not focus on ever-changing and incomplete theories about what might cause them.

[adadadadadad]

If you have the symptoms, you have the disorder...a disorder which is only identified by the symptoms. Do you get it?

[T_MacThrowFace]

Aren't you guys talking about an academic and somewhat theoretical definition of the term "spectrum"?

In reality, it means

"But doctor, how can you attach this very serious and stigmatizing diagnosis to my child while skipping half the tests in the official criteria and fudging the numbers to reach some threshold number?"

"Oh don't worry, it's a spectrum, you see"

...

"But doctor, what you just entered into my medical records is not what I told you at all, how can you be sure you're making the correct diagnosis if you're not really listening to what I'm saying, and when you're completely misrepresenting my situation?"

"Well, it's a spectrum you see"

[LoganDark]

I'm using "spectrum" to mean that mild and severe cases of ADHD exist, as well as everything in between.

For example, ADHD controls my life and I was never diagnosed with it until I figured out the symptoms myself, because nobody could ever see me struggling with it - there is no fighting it for me. However for some others, their ADHD is trivially controllable via medicine or habit-forming.