You are absolutely correct on that. Whoever put forth that hypothesis is an ignorant fuck who knows nothing about hunting. The skills required are almost a perfect antithesis to the traits of those with ADHD: sitting perfectly still and quietly while waiting for game, methodical and systematic scouting of hunting areas, and slow perfection of hunting tools. Those are not the traits of a person with attention deficit disorders. I don’t even have an attention disorder and I could never tolerate hunting because it took an extreme attention focus to be successful and I don’t have that. It is very odd that someone would suggest that certain people would be suited to something that is the exact opposite of what their traits are.
Maybe you don’t understand ADD. One of the traits of ADD is the ability to ‘hyperfocus’ under the right amount of stimulus. When ADD people are really stimulated by something, be it a new hobby, an adrenaline rush, or whatever, they calm down and focus deeply on the task. Not all, I suppose. But this is a common trait. That’s why stimulants in ADD people cause them to calm down rather than make them jittery and hyper.
It’s also theorized that this is why ADD people are risk-takers or procrastinators - they need the rush of a deadline or the thrill of danger to perform well and ‘settle down’. It could also be why ADD kids can be such behavioural problems - they create conflict because the conflict provides the external stimulus needed for their brains to stop chattering and focus.
So don’t assume that sitting still while hunting is something an ADD people can’t do. Under the conditions of the hunt, that may be exactly what they want to do.
In addition to what Sam Stone said, realize that there is a difference between ADD and ADHD. A person with ADD may not neccesarily have problems sitting still for awhile (it’s actually what I do best!), while ADHD is where the hyperactivity comes in.
If all hunting involved focusing on an animal such as a deer after it came into view, I might agree with you. Most of it, however, is just sitting quietly for hours until an animal presents itself. Sometimes it could be days or weeks before one shows up. The inability to sit still during periods of inadequate stimulation is one of the symptoms of attention deficit disorders. Wild animals are extremely acute and will flee from any signs of human presence.
I also didn’t say that they couldn’t do it. It will just be much more difficult than a person without attention deficit disorder unless medication keeps it in check. I used to go deer hunting with my father in deer stands and I was bored out of my mind sitting perfectly still after even a half hour. I can’t imagine that someone who can’t sit still in the classroom with people all around and commotion going on is going to do well sitting like a statue or stalking quietly in the woods.
Well, if ADD isn’t a disorder, they’ll have to come up with a different name…
I have wondered something recently about ADD, and Sam’s post mentioning Hartmann prompted me to post.
Background:
There are some endeavors that I can stay focused on effortlessly. These include math problems, guitar playing and lifting weights.
But I make my living as an telecomms engineer, and find I have to work pretty hard to stay focused on some of the long-term tasks I’m assigned.
Had I lived several hundred years earlier, my ‘day job’ might have been fruit picker or ditch digger.
In these mundane, boring jobs, the ability to daydream and escape from the task at hand would actually have helped me.
In fact, I can attest that it did help me when I worked at jobs similar to these to pay my way through college.
But my work as an engineer is incompatible with such daydreaming.
Is it possible many of us have some sort of evolutionary predisposition to ADD, born of the need to endure the boring work we did for thousands of years?
And that the increased incidence of adult-onset ADD is a symptom of the move to a society full of jobs where we have to think and not just endure?
And finally, that people who never have any problems concentrating on work are the lucky few who earn their living at something they can focus on effortlessly?
Personally, I kinda question the idea of “adult-onset” ADD. I was not diagnosed until I was in my early 30s, but I know now that a lot of the issues that were problems for me when I was younger were definitely indicative of the disorder. In my own very casual research, it seems that females are diagnosed later in life as a rule, and males in childhood - and this seems to be connected to the fact that males typically exhibit hyperactivity more frequently than females (thus they become squeaky wheels, and they get the grease!)
You’re not referring to me, are you? I understand ADHD fairly well. I am a clinical psychologist, and I’ve published in peer reviewed journals on the disorder. For many children with ADHD, when a task has an intrinsic motivation, such as a favored video game, they can focus on it. However, they don’t achieve any greater focus than any other child, or any sort of “hyperfocus.”
People with ADHD are risk-takers because they lack the capacity to spend mental effort both on the task at hand and simultaneously evaluate the range of potential consequences of their behavior. Often it’s called impulsivity, and most of the time it leads people with ADHD into all kinds of problems. People with ADHD are also generally prone to greater accidents, not only vehicular, but also simply bumping into things and falling down. Their ability to attend to their environment is limited.
So, I agree that if hunting were that intrinsically motivating to a particular person, they may be able to muster their resources and perform as well as a person without ADHD. They are not going to have any particular advantage, and the idea that as a group they are going to function better as hunters is plain nonsense.
xgxlx, technically there is no ADD. DSM IV is the current diagnostic framework, and the subtypes are ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type, ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive Impulsive Type, and ADHD Combined Type. Prior versions of the DSM did include different organizations among the symptoms, but presently there are only subtypes of ADHD.
I guess when I refer to ‘adult-onset’ ADD, I mean it’s that adulthood is when it’s first noticed. Not first existed. I realize this goes against the literal definition.
I’m not sure how old you are, but I’m 45 and when I was growing up, the squeakiest wheels were more likely to be labeled ‘discipline problems’ than offered help.
So maybe, in my day, girls with ADD (being less disruptive) were more likely to be accomodated by the system than boys with ADD?
But today, your theory would hold.
I’m 40, and you’re sort of right - as far as I know, NOBODY was diagnosed with ADD when I was a kid. With the hindsight of my own diagnosis, I can see that there were probably two or three other kids in my grade school classes with the disorder, but until my brother was diagnosed at age 7, in 1984, I had never heard of ADD.
But really, since the disorder has become known, it’s been accepted that boys more typically display hyperactivity than girls do. Nowadays, a hyper child is likely to raise an ADD flag with a teacher, doctor or parent - and that hyper child is still more likely to be male. Girls tend to manifest the disorder as spaciness or daydreaming or not staying on task or whatever. Until ADD becomes a problem for someone other than the patient, it can go unnoticed a long time.