Find a therapist to help with ADHD

The standard view holds that ADHD is a brain disorder rooted in faulty “executive functioning.”

A growing body of research suggests ADHD may instead be a cognitive style mismatched to modern classrooms.

Reframing ADHD as a mismatch, not a disorder or myth, changes who bears responsibility for fixing the problem.

One in 10 American kids is diagnosed with ADHD. About half of them are on stimulant medication, such as amphetamine-based drugs like Adderall. That's about 3 million kids.

These kids are all given the same story. They have a brain disorder called “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” It stems from a defect in something called “executive functioning” — a hypothetical brain system. This defect can be corrected by medication.

There are mental health professionals who criticize the dominant narrative. However, they often err on the opposite side by suggesting that ADHD is no more than a “myth,” as suggested by a new UK documentary, The Great ADHD Myth?

The film claims that there’s a spectrum of normal variation in kids with respect to distractibility and inattention. Doctors have drawn an arbitrary line near the lower end of the spectrum – but otherwise, ADHD has no biological reality.

Yet there’s an emerging insight in ADHD research — arrived at by numerous investigators in different fields, including neuroscience, anthropology, and psychology. The ADHD mind is neither a defect nor a myth. It's a unique cognitive style, mismatched to an environment it was never built for.

ADHD as an Evolutionary Mismatch

The emerging........

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