Understanding ADHD

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Is it time to expand the way we think about ADHD?

It’s been a question hanging over me for the last few years, since I started working with college-age kids. so many of whom come into class struggling to manage their ADHD symptoms.

So I dove deep into this recent piece by the education writer Paul Tough, who looked at the connection (or the disconnect) between what the latest research shows us about ADHD and the impacts of how we actually treat it.

First, some numbers: ADHD diagnoses have been growing at a rapid clip. A 2022 study found that 1 in 9  U.S. children have ever received an ADHD diagnosis — that’s 7.1 million children.

The most common method for treating ADHD symptoms is medication: stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall.

The pharmaceutical approach to treatment rests on the assumption that A.D.H.D. is a medical disorder that demands a medical solution, Tough writes.

But some scientists have begun to argue that “the traditional conception of A.D.H.D. as an unchanging, essential fact about you — something you simply have or don’t have, something wired deep in your brain — is both inaccurate and unhelpful.”