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Comment by smelterdemon | Hacker News Reader

You can make that argument for most if not all mental disorders (cf. Erving Goffman). The fact is that persons with ADHD face significant difficulties functioning in modern society and suffer as a result, which is our best criteria for treating a mental issue as a disease.

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Like I said elsewhere - does that mean that being ugly/unattractive is a disease? Or having an awkward personality, or having a low IQ? Or for that matter, being a member of any discriminated-against minority?

It seems unjust and coercive to tell people they have a disease and should be medicated simply because society demands it.

Those certainly could result in some mental disorder. An awkward personality and to some degree low IQ could be symptomatic of a mental disorder as well. It's definatly possible to make a convincing case that all mental illness is a manufactured construct [1]. But I don't think you can reasonably say ADHD is not a disease and still believe, say, depression or anxiety disorders are diseases.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Mental_Illness

Interesting link, thank you.

Before we talk about forcing people to go on drugs they don't want, let's get to a place where society lets everyone who could benefit from treatment at least have the option of receiving it.

The problem with this is that offering people the treatment can create the disease, in some sense.

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