We may be able to construct favorable educational settings for those with ADHD (the relatively recent recognition of many different "learning styles" is a step in this direction), but we can't construct a different world for them to live in. My daughter has to function in a world in which impulsivity and disorganization are very detrimental and, in that context, ADHD has to be considered a serious disability. (The word "disease" will make my kid feel like she's erupting in pustules, so no thanks to that.)

ADHD is lots of things. I'm uncontrollably curious, quickly bored, scattered, quick to anger, all of that. I was diagnosed with ADHD quite recently, and though it's still uncertain there are parts of the diagnosis which are indisputable.

Also indisputable is the knowledge that my "type" would be quite useful to a nomadic group -- constantly moving, seeing new things, dealing with dynamic challenges; this is a context in which I thrive, and its absence from modern life is what renders my state a "disability."

Even now, the way my mind works seems innovative and fresh to me (and sometimes to those around me), and I think this disability could be harnessed more effectively by our highly regimented society. Instead, we try to educate and drug it out of kids, and shame it in adults. How much innovation do we lose this way?

But that's just an aside. In reality, I have to deal with my lack of focus everyday, and the consequences are apparent whenever I measure my potential against my actual.

yea, I agree, I'm off the charts ADHD, and am trying to develop a learning environment optimized for people with ADHD... not a way to fit them into the current system, but fundamentally refocused on enpowering people with ADHD or Dyslexia to create the environment they need to be sucessful in the world at large. Just started, 'The Drive of Progress Foundation' <link> , actually in the wake of a book I just wrote about the subject "The Drive of Progress in Man' [on amazon.com]... This is serious... I wrote a book, unmedicated but have major ADHD, that means it's not an attention problem... we need to correct this misunderstanding for good. Once we do, the economic environment will never be the same.

I understand what your daughter's going through. I was diagnosed with ADHD at a very young age and I've been coping with it ever since. But I managed to get through school, graduate from college with honors, and hold down a job. Now I am in a highly respected graduate school program. Your daughter can manage these things too, especially since she has a mom who understands what's going on.

With regards to the concerns raised in your post, there are actually ways to change the world or at least one's lifestyle to make it easier to cope with ADHD, and those changes even help people who are "normal." I suggest you look up psychology professor Stephen Kaplan, who has done a lot of studies of attention and how it works.

I recently took one of his courses in cognitive psychology at the University of Michigan. He says that it's not only people with ADHD who suffer in contemporary society - pretty much everyone does. As I've written in comments elsewhere, our brains are not adapted to the kind of environment we live in - one that is largely artificial, overstimulating, and requires us to force ourselves to attend to/block out things in spite of our instincts to the contrary.

my question to all this is "what about adults?" I think it would be great to create a different learning environment for children in school (for example, I think running a high school more like a college would be fantastic for kids with ADHD, though of course I'm not expert) but then the problem is, what do they do when they get to the office? It may just be all that much harder to adapt. I posted it somewhere else, but for me personally, what i now know to be ADHD was a hindrance to me in elementary/high school (but not impossible), was
actually an asset in college and grad school, but continues to be the bane of my existence in my career. How do you create the right environment for adults???