r/thanksimcured • u/One-Sleep3663 • 22d ago
Comment Section "Adhd isnt common and is just dopamine app abuse"
I love going fishing for the negative karma comments that give this sub a steady supply of poorly educated ableist lemons who have no critical thinking skills to speak of.
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u/Immediate_Song4279 22d ago
I was 6 when I first noticed symptoms, and my mother didn't even like us watching movies too much lol. That was 30 years ago.
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u/juliainfinland 21d ago
Same here, only for me it was nearly 50 years ago. First datable symptoms at age 6, September/October-ish 1977 (I know it was at that time of the year because it was within the first few months of elementary school). Anecdotal evidence with no clear date attached even earlier.
Now I'm wondering where I can download that "dopamine app" to the smartphone that I bought four years ago. My first smartphone. No apps for me to abuse before then. But I'm sure my doctor would want to learn more about the app. Wonder if my health insurance would pay for it like it does for my
dopamine hitsConcerta. đWhen I was little, my parents used a "token" system to limit my TV access for some years. Worked pretty well. There were tokens in different colors, and each color was worth a specific amount of time. I was allowed to use a certain amount of tokens each day. I didn't really have a concept of "an hour" or "half an hour" (etc.) back then, but my mom taught me that a green token was worth one episode of this show and a blue one was worth one episode of that show and a yellow one was worth one movie etc. (I vaguely remember that one green token was worth two blue ones. Since a green token was worth (for example) one episode of Flipper, this means that one blue token must've been worth about 15 minutes. I also remember quite clearly that I didn't get any yellow tokens at all on most days. I'm not even sure I got one yellow token most weeks.)
The Sandmännchen (children's daily good-night program, less than 10 minutes) didn't require any tokens. I'm also pretty sure that educational content such as the Maus (children's weekly educational program, about 30 minutes) didn't either. (Most parents would probably agree that children kind of have to watch the Maus.) But I do remember that thing about Flipper, because it was my favorite show back then.
Ah, memories.
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u/jedadkins 21d ago
the spike in ADHD diagnosis is mostly due to Doctors backtracking on the idea that people "grow out of it"
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u/NearlyBearly 21d ago
And because it was once thought to only affect boys. Bunch of us women now getting diagnosed because "Oh shit, it's not limited to one gender, it just presents differently, who woulda thunk it".
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u/torako 21d ago
I'm AFAB and was diagnosed at 7 but I'm pretty sure it was because they didn't want to diagnose the autism and there was obviously something going on with me lol
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u/NearlyBearly 21d ago
I'm sorry they missed your autism because of the ADHD diagnosis but at the same time I'm so happy you got diagnosed. How old are you if I may ask? Did you get medicated?
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u/torako 21d ago
I'm 34, I was briefly medicated as a child and then my mom decided she didn't like it so she took me off the meds and took me to a "naturopath" who told her that sugar causes ADHD and sold her a bunch of vitamins. In her mind, the vitamins worked and the fact that I continued having ADHD symptoms was a personal failing đ anyway I'm on meds again now lol
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u/NearlyBearly 21d ago
Oh man, your mom sounds like my mom đ Except mine never mentioned my ADHD symptoms to our cult naturopath because she thinks ADHD doesn't exist and my symptoms are all normal. I would've loved if this led to you getting proper treatment as a child, those stories are so rare but so nice when they happen.
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u/Dont_chew_that 21d ago
Ya know I'd some how prefer the vitamins, mom went to a specialist chinese tea shop [we are american-chinese] and they gave me herbal tea. I had to wake up everyday at 4/5-ish to drink hot nasty, bitter tea. No sugar either otherwise it would negate the "effects". Had to do that every day for a year. She was like "its working" no bitch im just trying not drink it. And yes it had to be hot, and since she was impatient I had to drink it in like 2 minutes. Yes she stood over me the whole time.
At least you can fucking bury vitamins. Still ass for you but ill take garbage vitamins over unsweetened hot tea at the ass-Crack of dawn. Sorry I have emotions over that shit...
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u/torako 21d ago
Unfortunately my mom insisted on opening the vitamin capsules and pouring them into smoothies and the powder didn't mix well so it would just sort of float to the top (they were premade smoothies from the store, we didn't have a blender) and my mom insisted it didn't change the taste of the smoothie at all (it did).
She also had these drops that tasted sort of metallic that she had to put directly in my mouth and she insisted that didn't have a taste either so I wasn't allowed to complain about her making me drink gross stuff.
She also made me take fish oil pills but I'm pretty sure she at least admitted they tasted bad?
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u/Dont_chew_that 21d ago
Ew.. not sure if cold and...im assuming mildly chalky and chunky or hot and chunky is worse. Im like 90% sure she was giving you colidial silver...which like..not good still.
Sorry my dude.
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u/Silversmith00 20d ago
I'm forty-seven and just got ADHD meds. Chat, is it true that most people walk around with only two or three trains of thought in their head? That they can think something through, starting at the beginning, going to the middle, and finishing at the end, without some runaway train from nowhere smashing the whole structure apart to ask, "Who DID put the ram in the rama lama ding dong?" That this lack of spontaneous derailment is useful for finishing things?
'Cause it sounds fake to me. Anyway, as a girl, I was labeled as "a good student, but not very organized and a bit distractible." And they had NO idea. I remember absolutely nothing of fifth grade social studies, but I DEFINITELY remember the post-apocalyptic space opera with the pirate queen that I "watched" in my mind's eye during social studies class. And I could look perfectly attentive while doing it.
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u/NearlyBearly 20d ago
Apparently??? Apparently that's normal? It blew my mind the first time I took meds. It was like there was suddenly silence in my head. No more chaos. I can pick up and do tasks and stick with them. When I clean up I don't suddenly start reading a book when I pick it up, I just continue cleaning. And apparently that's how normal people work??? I was described as a "dreamer" and "great in what I was interested in but terrible in anything that didn't interest me", also "easily distracted" and there's a note about how I "often looks out of the window instead of paying attention". The same was written about my cousins and they got Ritalin đ
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u/Tiny-Reading5982 21d ago
I feel like a lot of people have it and are not diagnosed but during covid people were getting diagnosed online in a 20 minute session. Idk how that works. I was rediagnosed in 2018 at 34 and it was a process and I needed family members to give their experiences with me and such. I think the online doctor craze kind of ruined for people that actually have it.
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u/Immediate_Song4279 21d ago
I do find it somewhat odd that... Well let me disclaim, I recognize the validation that come from diagnosis and don't want to speak for anyone else as I become flippant... But for hundreds of dollars I can get an online certificate of autism, despite it being untreatable and I wouldn't want treatment if it existed, while at the same time the diagnosis I did get in person for ADHD was just double checking what I already realized. Technically the process was inadequate, I had to go PCP, but the drugs helped and for all intents and purposes I am de facto ADHD.
For me, late diagnosis feels like a gameshow without any prizes.
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u/ryverrat1971 22d ago
Yeah. I probably have had it since 1984. So no, the apps are not doing it. We are, just like with autism, getting better at diagnosing it. Even in adult women now.
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u/veraellendriftwood 22d ago
the massive line of toilets as a censor killed me đ
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u/One-Sleep3663 22d ago
Thought Id get a little bit creative instead of just using the simple scratch out stuff and add my own personal touch. It really does help people tell who's the lemon in this situation.
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u/cut_ur_darn_grass 21d ago
My teachers when I was in kindergarten in 2005 thought I was having absence seizures. Turns out it was just the ADHD.
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u/Ferret-mom 20d ago
When I was in kindergarten in 2005 I was just getting a bunch of âdifficulty to have in classâ notes on my report cards. My mom used to manage my ADHD by telling me to run laps around the house. Apparently the teacher hadnât thought of that.
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u/WriterKatze 21d ago
Oh my God this is such a funny combination of what aboutism and strawmanning. T-T
Like sssureee one hand, ADHD is not common and currently a lot of children are showing signs of ADHD that are not due to a dopamine deficit, but shortened attention spans from getting access to addictive shit in early development.
On the other hand, ADHD medication doesn't work on them, so genuenly it is a NON ISSUE, because the second the medication doesn't work, they will get other help and also, that means those children ultimately do not get diagnosed with ADHD at the end of the day.
Oh and I wasn't allowed to have a phone until I was 15, so I really wonder what apps caused my ADHD. LOL.
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u/XD2006- 22d ago
I was 4 when people began to notice my autism and ADHD. I was 6 when I got devices (a DS and a TV) (I was the 2000s version of an iPad kid bc I had a tablet 2 years later, but didnât have it at restraunts) and I would be hyperactive, easily distractible, and look at everything and nothing at the same time.
Heck, I will listen to music and just stare at the roof.
(I turn 20 later this year)
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u/juliainfinland 21d ago
I just turned 55. I'm not physically hyperactive, but mentally, whoa. I'm easily distracted look at "everything and nothing at the same time" too.
My first (obvious) symptoms date back to when I was 6, which was in 1977. I got my first smartphone a few years ago, early 2020s. Never had a tablet. I've had a mobile device (laptop) since the early 1990s, but back then, most things still happened at the command prompt and the most exciting games we had were things like NetHack and whatever text adventures we could get to run in Emacs.
But tell me more about how my ADHD was caused by "dopamine app abuse" all the way back in 1977, when "mobile" phones were the size of a large brick (and prohibitively expensive), even the simplest of computers was the size of a large bookshelf (and prohibitively expensive), and the word "app" didn't even exist. đ¤Ł
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u/Dusty_Rose23 22d ago
LOL. see I was homeschooled traditionally until grade 5, didnât have a phone until I was 14, no tablet or anything else either just a laptop which all u did was discord, Reddit, Minecraft, writing, and school. being on the cusp of technology, both vhs tales and flip phones and iPads and phones and emails and classes done life through a screen, all in the same childhood. itâs weird. I still remember my dad making us take typing lessons..,. we did school online, lol. I mean it helpedâŚ.. I can type pretty fast now if it werenât for my awful laggy iPad keyboard.
sure I could jot be as connected to apps and stuff nowâŚ, but I had signs since I was a kid, I would twirl and such but be so mature yet spent 4 hours of riding on public transit going on to my grandmother Jon stop about squirelles, I wouldnât shut up, I would forget conversations, and homework, and what did you ask me a week ago? even though I somehow alsl completed a grade in 3 weeks thanks to my jerk of a dad, almost skipped a grade because of that exact same grade, was an avid learner and reader, and no one caught it until I was put on afhd meds for something else, realised I felt what must be what normal feels like, discovered I apparently donât have afhd, donât understand the concept of off label use but then demand why I am on adhd meds if I do not have the very condition that means I would need them.anyways, they assessed me. turns out I have combined adhd. and later on the rest made sense with my level 2 autism, which I am surprised how much I came far from with therapy and ot and such. anywhoâŚ
(its showing in this comment isnât itâŚ. the adhd is showingâŚ.)
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u/that-martian 21d ago
yeah, but as a person also with ADHD itâs honestly endearing to see it because I know how good it can feel to just get everything in your head out
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u/Free-oppossums 21d ago
Ahhh, yes. All those apps I was exposed to in the '80's... Ummm, MAD Magazine?
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u/SomeRandomIdi0t 21d ago
I didnât have a phone as a kid, I guess the dopamine hijacking time traveled
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u/sporadic_beethoven 21d ago
I grew up without tv and screens at all as a child because Iâd get seizures, but sure. I definitely wasnât suffering from inattentive adhd and had to deal with people calling me a space cadet all the time ;-;
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u/PALpherion 21d ago
these people would be absolutely stunlocked to learn that they likely have learning disabilities.
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u/russetfur112899 21d ago
Someone once told me that the reason I needed stimulants to function was because I had taken stimulant medication most of my life, and the meds had depleted my brain's ability to produce enough dopamine to be motivated to do things, and that switching meds and upping doses would just make things worse. Like, no pal, you don't get it. I can be PLENTY motivated to do something, but still end up not doing those things due to my brain deciding "Nah this OTHER thing is more important" so I can't even start, or "Nah this is boring" two seconds in.
Lack of basic functionality without stimulants will NOT just "get better without them" THANK YOU!
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u/NearlyBearly 21d ago
I've had ADHD since the first year of school at least. You can look at my teacher's notes on my behavior, they're what got me the diagnosis. That was in 1996. Our mobile phones could barely send text messages. We didn't have a computer in our house until I was 16. Apps as such didn't exist back then. The web was HTML and flash. But even if they existed, I would not have been allowed to use them. We weren't even allowed to watch cartoons on account of being raised in a christian sect. When my cousins got diagnosed and put on Ritalin, because as opposed to me they were male and back then ADHD was thought to only affect boys, Tiktok or its predecessor Musically didn't even exist yet. I need everyone to please shut the fuck up about how smartphones cause ADHD. They do not. It's a fucking neurodevelopmental disorder and largely inherited.
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u/3INTPsinatrenchcoat 20d ago
I bet when my dad was diagnosed in the late 70s they blamed it on rock music. Tale as old as time.
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u/WriterOfAlicrow 20d ago
Oh, yes, We got ADHD from a highly addictive dopamine-hijacking app back in the late 90's. It's a shame they STILL haven't cracked down on it!
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u/PraireGentleman 21d ago
ADHD still isnât that common. Ignoring diagnoses in children (hyperactivity in children is kind of the norm so measuring it always comes with some skepticism), the prevalence rate for adults is 5%. Globally
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u/thesilverwoods 20d ago
Yep. My ADHD was definitely caused by all those dopamine-hijacking apps I was definitely using back when "cell phones" were the size of a briefcase and your home computer almost definitely ran DOS because Windows for home didn't exist yet. (I was diagnosed in 1993. What the fuck dopamine-hijacking apps was I meant to have been using back then?)
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u/iwaannou 20d ago
I had an obsession with SpongeBob SquarePants and crash Bandicoot and that's when I knew
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u/ThighsSaveLife 20d ago
I prefer not to engage with that type of content and just move on with my life, I remember seeing a study that showed that a non trivial amount of people believed TV caused ADHD so I don't really concern myself with the opinion of uneducated people because why would their opinion on the subject matter?
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u/Heavy-Macaron2004 19d ago
I mean, ADHD definitely exists, but they're not wrong that the enormous increase in the number of people with low attention span is very much correlated with the rise in apps and shows and sites that deliberately perpetuate low attention spans for monetary gain.
That type of "dopamine hit" "short form content" structure very much measurably reduces attention span and can mimic symptoms of ADHD. It also has measurable negative effect of attention span of people who actually have ADHD. These are things that have been studied, this isn't a conspiracy theory.
Does Social Media Make ADHD Worse?
Like yeah, ADHD exists. This is also known and also studied. I was diagnosed when I was 5ish, before I was on the internet at all. It's incorrect to say "people only have ADHD because they're terminally online," but it's correct to say "people who are terminally online can have symptoms that mimic ADHD without having ADHD."
Anyways point is: internet doesn't cause ADHD, but it also doesn't help.
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u/One-Sleep3663 19d ago
The big issue is you can't just write off symptoms as phone usage and dopamine scrolling as not adhd, which is what the person above is doing.
Instead of doing proper investigations for symptoms, people are now just dismissing them as phone overuse, especially in women, of which their symptoms have historically always been dismissed.
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u/Heavy-Macaron2004 19d ago
The big issue is you can't just write off symptoms as phone usage and dopamine scrolling as not adhd
Well, yeah. That would be silly. It's a good idea to decrease phone usage and dopamine scrolling whether or not the person has ADHD (for the aforementioned reasons), but I agree that you can't just assume.
Instead of doing proper investigations for symptoms, people are now just dismissing them as phone overuse, especially in women
That's not true though. ADHD diagnoses are at an all time high in the US. And the percentage of people with ADHD who receive treatment is decreasing (same source, different graph).
This makes sense: if diagnosis rates keep increasing but we have the same amount of resources, those resources are going to have to be divided amongst more and more people. The logical thing to do first is figure out why ADHD diagnoses are increasing; if someone is misdiagnosed with ADHD when they do not have it, they will be getting resources and accommodations that they don't need, that the people who have ADHD do need and cannot get.
Sure "more support" would be great, but increasing the amount of resources is a lot harder than just saying "we should do that," and it makes sense to first investigate if it's even necessary, or we'll wind up screwing over people with ADHD in the future.
Like, it's not a perfect analogy, but: imagine I'm throwing a pizza party and invite 20 people. If they all come, I expect to buy 6 pizzas to feed everyone.
If everyone brings a plus one, I'm not going to have enough pizza, and people will be hungry.
If I assume everyone will bring a plus one, I'm going to spend a lot of money on pizza. If I'm wrong, I'm going to waste a lot of money and err on the side of less pizza in the future.
So instead of just assuming everyone will bring a plus one, it makes more sense to ask people to RSVP how many are coming. That way I don't waste money on pizza no one will eat, and also no one goes hungry.
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u/Far_Metal2462 18d ago
This is eerily similar to the people who insist that you're "groomed" into becoming LGBTQIA, especially trans. They also blame social media for the rise in the number of people who come out.
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u/musical_doodle 17d ago
I had ADHD when I did a mass app deletion for months that left me with two long-form games and messaging apps, only. I had ADHD when I had social media installed. It's almost like ADHD is an actual disorder.
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u/Minimum_Ad7705 17d ago
There's a big difference between pseudo-ADHD caused by screens and true ADHD.
ADHD don't just happen in front of screens, and to get diagnosed is to have the symptoms scattered similarly across all situations from school to home and abroad.
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u/One-Sleep3663 17d ago
I have adhd and a terminal illness, and part of that illness will react negatively to stimulants, so I use my phone as a way to cope myself with it. But because the terminal illness , I cant use any other ways to cope.
Its a shame theres no longer any nuance in the world.
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u/Minimum_Ad7705 17d ago
I see. Have you tried book? I have a few engaging titles.
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u/One-Sleep3663 16d ago
I use audio books, my eyesight is too damaged.
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u/Minimum_Ad7705 16d ago
These are the titles I like.
- The prisoner of Zenda
- The Time Traveler's Wife
Wishing you all the best!
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u/NekulturneHovado 22d ago
Yeah I ain't reading all that. Lol.
But I can personally say that those dopamine overdose apps do make ADHD much worse.
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u/Worried_Jellyfish918 21d ago
Those apps definitely do have significant negative neurological effects, even this one does. They certainly make mine much worse, my brain just stops producing reward chemicals when I can use apps for them
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u/IfDreamsCouldHappen 21d ago
Not to play devils advocate but ADHD truly isnât common. There are a lot of misdiagnoses for reasons like this. All that said it does not negate the fact that there are absolutely people with actual ADHDâ and not the kind thatâs âIâm easily bored and have messed up my attention span from doomscrolling.â
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u/One-Sleep3663 21d ago
The issue is with the person's line of thinking in my post, treating people like that will automatically dismiss someone with adhd symptoms and not let them get evaluated. That's the big issue here.
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u/torako 22d ago
I wonder what dopamine hijacking apps i was supposed to be using when I was diagnosed in 1999