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Comment by tgaj | Hacker News Reader

To be honest, I don't think neurotypical people can really understand ADHD. And it's probably even harder for people who believe that brain is just some kind of a tool that we have 100% power over. And that's a problem because this lucky people who won on genetic lottery are often in power. I think like over 50% of my life problems are not because of ADHD but because whole world tries to convince me that it is my fault. And yet there are hundreds of research papers that conclude that you can't just fix someone with ADHD. There is no therapy and no medication that can cure ADHD.

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Sure, I recognize that there may be people with more severe issues. I have two childhood friends that had diagnosed severe ADHD but at the same time they both had other issues as well which I personally think hindered them more in life than their ADHD ever did.

I never tried to convince anyone that it is their fault for whatever problems they encountered in life and sadly one of them died by an overdose in an early age. Perhaps ADHD contributed to their lifestyle of choice, perhaps not.

I am not impossible to convince that I am wrong, I have just never seen any evidence for it (I haven't really searched for it though). AFAIK ADHD is a disorder that we just don't know that much about and maybe it has a biological function that has been positive in the development of mankind.

As I stated, I am not a doctor tho and maybe there is loads of evidence for it in which I am not aware about but frankly I don't care much one way or the other. It's not an issue that I care about that much and I just wanted to share my take since one of my exes was completely convinced that I had it. I know that people with ADHD can be very successful and I don't think people should think less of themselves because of some diagnosis.

So you are not interested in any research and you have only anecdotes (and one ADHD friend who died of overdosing) and still have very strong opinion about something you say you don't really care about. You are like a living example of people that make ADHD folks live harder.

I could read research papers about neurological studies but honestly I don't think I would understand it even if I tried. To be completely honest I don't believe you would either since most research papers are pretty hard to understand if you're not involved in the subject matter. One study doesn't make a thing proven science, so to have a good understanding of the matter you would pretty much have read upon it a lot. I don't have any very strong opinions on the subject though so you're simply attacking a straw man.

Please explain how I made the lives of my friends harder. By being their friend? You know nothing about me or my life. Being unfriendly doesn't convince anyone, you're just as much of an example of it as I am.

I just shared my thoughts since I at least have experience of it and if you disagree that's completely fine by me. I don't understand the sentiment today that you're not allowed to have opinions on stuff unless you're a scientist. It is imho impossible to be well read upon all things in life, sometimes all you have is anecdotes and experience.

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