[MBTI General] article: ADHD in nomadic society

[Augenblick]

As I have seen some talk of ADD/ADHD perhaps being a collection of personality traits as opposed to an actual disorder, and in turn sparking talk of certain MBTI types being more likely to exhibit these traits, I thought I would post this here. What do you think?

I was 'diagnosed' with ADD as a child, and have periodically returned to this idea that it's hardly a disorder at all(something i feel most here will likely agree with.) Forgive me if this is the thirteenth thread on this subject.

anyway... Here's the article: discuss

 

[Sniffles]

Thom Hartmann has been writing about this idea for some years now.

 

[Halla74]

I am ESTP and have ADHD.

I feel it is a grouping of traits, and necessarily a disorder in all cases.

In my case it sometimes is, it sometimes isn't.

I guess when these traits interfere with one's ability to live a normal, productive life then they become a "disorder."

I am creative, hyper, always happy and entheusiastic, chronically late (Perceiver!), have a short attention span when engaging in activities not of my personal interest (aka WORK), and a habitual multi-tasker (do 5-8 things at once).

I have made peace with many of these traits, some however I must consistently try to mitigate as they are not appreciated by others at certain times. :whsitling:

It's hardly life threatening! But it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes...

BTW, I was diagnosed as an adult but my anthology of childhood medical records and school records confirms it - BIG TIME. My mother and niece also have ADD/ADHD.

 

[Prototype]

It's all about the learning curve,... It too bad they weren't more knowledgeable about how ADD/ADHD worked back when I was younger. That would have made school, and life much easier for me.

 

[A-J]

As I have seen some talk of ADD/ADHD perhaps being a collection of personality traits as opposed to an actual disorder, and in turn sparking talk of certain MBTI types being more likely to exhibit these traits, I thought I would post this here. What do you think?

The article fails to provide data on the most interesting and important thing - namely, comparison of the effects in settled and nomadic parts of the tribe.

Second, it falls into the usual trap of associating ADHD with childhood and overemphasizing the importance of its effect on school performance vs life performance. Childhood is simple: You aren't really responsible for anything important and it's very hard to make bigtime screwups. Once you get into and past adolescence is when the real trouble starts. You have to pay bills on time, show up for work in time, manage money responsibly etc. Even if you breezed through school, you will likely have major trouble with regular life due to those things, lack of impulse control and associated comorbidity such as depression or anxiety disorders.

As for personality traits or disorder? It's been pretty consistently shown that ADHD is associated with problems in function and number of dopamine receptors. That places it squarely in the disorder camp. I haven't seen much correlation with personality except for the almost complete lack of J types (pretty obvious when you consider that sticking to plans is hard / impossible most of the time). ISxx also seems to be underrepresented, but that could be simply due to sampling bias.