Is ADD/ADHD an evolutionary adaptation?

I’ve been reading books about ADD/ADHD because I suspect I have this disorder. (Once I’m reasonably certain that I have it, I’m going to get a doctor to test me for it.)

I’ve been reading about the most common symptoms and the one that most caught my eye is that most ADD/ADHDers are easily distracted by sound. (I certainly am, which is one reason why I think I have the condition. I can be distracted by the sound of my own typing and forget what I was writing. But not always.) In today’s noisy world, with cell phones everywhere; with people playing Walkmans so loud you can hear the music twenty feet away even though they’re wearing headphones; with fire trucks racing down city streets several times a day, sirens blaring; with TVs found in nearly every bar and many restaurants, bus stations, train stations and airports; and so on and so forth, it’s no wonder that even those with mild cases of ADD/ADHD can become stressed out. It’s mentally tiring, it’s wearying to have all these things vying for your attention and you lack the ability to screen out the junk and focus on the important stuff.

But I wondered if maybe there was a time when this “disorder” was actually an advantage. In what kind of society would being so sensitive to sound be good for someone? It came to me abruptly; it was an epiphany:

Hunters would need this ability. Imagine the hunter going out looking for prey. He looks for signs, he listens for them. There is slight movement nearby and he hears an animal rustling in the grass. Because he is attuned to sound, he knows just where this animal is and can either wait for it to come into view and strike or approach it for a better shot. And this talent is not a liability out on the savannahs of Africa because of the relative silence there. There are no sounds vying for his attention except for the wind or the sounds of birds or other animals. He can ignore those because there are so few of them and because they simply aren’t very loud. But put this same man in a large, bustling city and the cacophony could overwhelm him. And we aren’t really very far removed from this man who lived only 50,000 years ago.

Others could have this “disorder” and, for them, it is neutral: for farmers and fishers, ADD/ADHD would be neither beneficial nor a liability. But the quiet of the water where fishers catch their prey, the silence of the fields would be attractive to such people because of the lack of distractions. (And I say “disorder” because, really, it’s a liability only in the wrong environment.)

(I know one person is not a sufficient example, but, at the moment, it’s the best I can do.) My father was a farmer (cotton, sorghum, alfalfa, cattle). He loved the quiet of the fields. He loved to go on camping trips in the mountains of Colorado and West Texas because of the quiet and the solitude. Crowds made him uneasy. He never lived in a city and he admitted it was because of all the noise (and the dirt and the traffic and the crime, but the noise was the reason he cited most often).

There are other characteristics common to people with ADD/ADHD; why don’t we speculate on the possibility that they, too, are evolutionary adaptations? You can, of course tell me where you think I’m wrong and you might even claim that there is no such thing as ADD/ADHD, but you’d better have a good reason why. I suppose people could claim there is no such thing as evolution, but I think you’d be better off in another thread. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Thom Hartmann in “A Hunter in a Farmer’s World” has offered a theory that ADD is not really a disease, but represents an earlier adaptation. His theory is that the characteristics that are common to people with ADD actually might have served well for primitive hunters, while “normal” people are better adapted for farming. Since the advance of civilization has meant that humans gather their food more by farming than hunting, and the development of various technologies have changed the living environment to where ADD characteristics are actually a hindrance to most people, that the condition is now seen as a disease.

That’s the theory, anyway. Actually, I have trouble understanding how lack of ability to concentrate for long would actually be an advantage to hunters, either. But it’s something to think about.

While the hunter is stalking something it still doesen’t want to be caught and eaten itself. The ability to concentrate on one thing is probably more of a liability in a hunt than it is an advantage.

I don’t think there is a difference between a disorder and an evolutionary adaptation that is no longer useful. But when you only have a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Pyschiatrists don’t have a name of things that could be useful in only some situations. Its either a disorder or its not.

All my allergies only affect me inside buildings which would have been great even 1000 years ago, but today its a big hassle.

Thanks, Elvis. That book is available at the library and I will read it.

Since Hartmann’s book, there has been some corroborating evidence. I read a while ago that did a sociological study of people who more recently adapted from hunter-gatherer type societies (Inuit, Native Americans, Australian Aborigines), and all of them scored much bigher in tests for ADD than did others. He anecdotally pointed out that one Inuit school he visited had a huge percentage of kids already on Ritalin - something like 80%.

It’s just a correlation, and there could no doubt be a zillion other factors at play, but it is interesting.

ADD traits are very useful for hunters. Being distractable means catching slight movements out of the corner of your eyes and having them interrupt your thoughts - useful not only to prevent the hunter from being the hunted, but also to spot elusive game. At the same time, most ADD people describe the ability to ‘hyperfocus’ for short periods at a time, which could also be very useful for a hunter actively stalking. And ADD brains tend to have a ‘calming’ reaction when the external stimulus levels go up, making them good in a crisis, but when the stimulation levels drop, the ADD brain tends to become unfocused and wandering. That’s why ADD kids are so out of control - they are stimulating themselves by acting out.

I’m mildly ADD, and I used to go to sleep at night by putting on headphones and turning the music up. When my wife saw me do that she thought I was nuts, but for me loud music is calming - without that external stimulus I have a constant running dialog of thoughts in my head that I can’t shut off.

I have a theory that the rise in ADD awareness is proportional to the decrease smoking. Tobacco is a stimulant, and people who smoke may have been self-medicating ADD, which is why so many smokers would describe how a cigarette would calm them down and help them to think.

ADD people tend to be creative and intelligent, and are therefore probably disproportionally found in occupations like Engineering, writing, aviation, police work, and other jobs where there is a lot of stimulation and/or opportunity to be creative. And have a look at some old NASA footage of mission control - it was always littered with butts and ashtrays.

I am 1/8th Cherokee, from my mother’s side.

For background noise, I use an electric fan, even in cold weather. (I point it away from me so that it doesn’t blow on me and get me chilled.) I simply cannot get to sleep without it. My two brothers are the same.

When I was a freshman in high school, for a few months, we lived in an apartment that had central air. It worked fine, but it was the kind that shut off completely when it reached the right temperature. I remember lying in my bed unable to sleep because it was too quiet in my room without the sound of the central air.

My father was a heavy smoker.

You know, except for the details, I could swear that I wrote that. I cannot sleep when it is dead quiet. I, too, have a fan which is on perpetually (its purpose is more to produce “white noise” than cooling). I sleep much better when the central air is running (even if it’s just blowing non-conditioned air).

Maybe I should take up hunting…

Sam Stone mentioned “hyperfocus” for short periods of time.

What about “hyperfocus” for long periods of time?

I am trying to integrate two theories of add, one theory
of sexuality, two sexual practices, one external
stimuli reduction gadget, and one paraphilia.

  1. “Hunters in a Farmers Land” (Tom Hartmann)
  2. “Reward Deficiency Syndrome” (Kenneth Blum)
  3. “Sexual Resistance” (C.A. Tripp)
  4. “Karezza” (?)
  5. “Eye Gazing” (Barbara Keesler)
  6. "Pole Floor Fan with a Small Beam Spotlight (Wal-Mart)
  7. “Somnaphilia” (anonymous pervert)

“ADD SCENARIO”

First of all I fantasize about a “sleepy girl” for sexual
arousal, then I go out and Hunt down a “sleepy girl”.

I take her home (she knows what I am going to do and is
a willing participant). We go to bed, I give her a massage,
and wait for her to go to sleep.

After she goes to sleep, I position her into the “spoons”
position, get out of bed, turn the floor fan and spot
light on, and point the beam of light at her face so
it will show up in the mirrored wall that is adjacent
to the bed.

I return to bed, assume the “spoons” position, and
begin “coitus reservatus” while controlling my “endorphin”
release. I am now in the “hyperfocused” stage and stay
in this stage for several hours.

The only problem I have not solved is “eye gazing” with
the “sleepy girl”, that theoretically keeps one from
fantasizing about another partner, although looking at
her face helps. I have tried those sun glasses with
eyeballs, but this has proven to be more distracting than
beneficial.

Another problem I have had is that some “sleepy girls”
feel that this type of sex is emotionally unfulfilling for them. My ex-mistress Jay expressed this on several
occasions during our six month relationship.

Any suggestions on how to solve these two problems will
be greatly appreciated.

jesse (diagnosed with add in 1995 at the age of 55)

:confused:

That one passed me in both lanes. I have absolutely no idea what any of that meant.

But it was a strangely compelling narrative. Like a Fellini film or something.

I got the book. I went to the back to read “About the Author” and, to my dismay, found out he is trained in homeopathy and accupuncture as well as allopathy. He says Ritalin can work, but says homeopathy works too.

big disappointed sigh

He may be right about the origins of ADD/ADHD, but his recommending homeopathic treatment for it doesn’t fill me with confidence.

His website.

So if it is true that ADHD is some kind of remnant of an evolutionary adaptation beneficial for hunting, could it also be hypothesized that ADHD “sufferers” might make excellent ground troops or military scouts?

jab1, it’s too bad you didn’t find what you wanted to. I mentioned Hartmann because he has the only positive answer I’m aware of to the question you asked. Actually, I think he’s fulla crap too, and that ADHD is simply a disorder rather than an adaptation.

jesse morrison, I do hope you’ll favor us with an explanation someday.

Originally posted by ElvisL1ves

jesse morrison, I do hope you’ll favor us with an explanation someday.


Once upon a time there was this Redneck Hospital Pharmacist from Memphis, Tennessee who was never “happy” unless he was involved in a high stimulus hyperfocused project suchas, bodybuilding, designing and building houses, inventing and developing high tech exercise equipment, or having prolonged intercourse.

One nite he went to work and found that the pharmacy was being renovated, and all the drugs had been rearranged or covered up with plastic sheets.

This presented a severe insult to his dual ADD and BIPOLAR condition, kicking him into a Manic Phase.

Being a life long consumer of obscure useless information, he remembered reading this book titled “Primal Scream” by Arthur Janov that was recommended to him by his ex-wife who had suffered thru several of his previous manic phases before divorcing him.

With high hopes of curing his ADD and BIPOLAR conditions, he loads up his car with his books, childhood pictures and teddy bear, kisses and hugs his wife and two daughters goodbye, and drives west on I-40, headed to Venice, California to enter Arthur Janov’s Primal Institute as a Primal Patient.

After enduring six months of screaming, crying, kicking, pounding, cursing, and finally, disillusionment; he decides to improve Primal Therapy with the addition of Bioenergetics. Within two weeks, the primal subject was doing “Birth Primals”, which was unprecedented in the history of Primal Therapy.

TO BE CONTINUED:

later—One of my sleepy crack ho’s just walked in.
jesse

I’ve never read Hartmann, but have had similar thoughts. Not about hunters though, about most of our history.

What is really happening in ADD? No one really knows. But one way of thinking about it is this:

We are all allocating brain power to several jobs at a time. Many people put a big chunk of those resources on one job and are very focused on it alone, hard to distract. Some are pretty equitably divvying up the resources and no one task is dominant in center stage for long. The subconscious and the conscious are pretty close. These latter folk are able to make the connections between the different processing streams; they tend to be creative. They notice that a tribe is on the horizon, the herd in the distance, etc, rather than being so focused on tanning the hide as to be indistractable. For most of our history, the equitable resource allocation group was at an advantage, and hence today this processing style, today called ADD, is fairly common. The former group was good to have around too; man could they tan those hides. Today the historically extreme focusing style group is at an advantage because the nature of our information driven world requires it.

ADD is an attentional difference. It was an advantage for many in every era before this information driven age. It should be treated when it is handicapping achievement, and then to the point that it is not handicapping only.

My 2 cents.

I think it’s possible - it seems our brain is evolving very quickly. I read something once about the hypothesis that reading requires an adaptation in the brain that was not as common as it is now, a sort of connection between the visual and language/hearing parts of the brain. One piece of evidence this book used was records from monasteries over a thousand years ago - a very significant portion of young boys who entered the monastery were never able to develop anything more than the most rudimentary reading skills, even after years of intensive schooling - something like 30-40%. He compared this to late 19th-century public schools, which used the same basic teaching methods, and over 90% of the students were able to learn to read. The author thought that dyslexia was not really a disorder, that it used to be the norm. A few people had brains that were able to see writing and instantly translate it to words in their mind. As reading became more and more important to the population as a whole, the trait became very useful, and those who could read were more successful and better able to provide for their children, who also tended to be able to read with little trouble.

Please don’t bother. I am not interested.

Badtz, what about people who have been deaf all their lives, who have never heard a human voice? They can learn to read, but their brains must necessarily process the information in a different way. A brain cannot associate the written word with the spoken word if it has never experienced speech.

Cuckoorex, Hartmann’s book does list a number of professions ideally suited for “Hunters,” such as private detectives, security guards, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, surgeons, and a few others, though I can’t remember them all right now. (The book is at home; I’m not.)

Perhaps you should get out of the city !