Evolutionary advantages to ADHD ?

[hum4n]

I was diagnosed 3 months ago with ADHD (4 days after my 30th birthday).

I have been searching all my life for this answer. It is no destination, but it is a monumental end to a chapter in my life (something like Andy breaking out of Shawshank prison, or Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) reaching the boundary of his constructed reality ‘Seahaven’.. or Evey’s awakening in V for Vendetta, or Captain Algren’s enlightenment in The Last Samurai, Neo’s deep breath and unplugging, breaking out of the Matrix, Frodo releasing the ring in a journey from a shire to a distant mountain…. I dreamed of tasting a liberation and freedom for decades. Well, the journey continues.. and now I am looking into ADHD in the same way I searched for answers and understanding. I don’t want to romantisize and sensationalise what ADHD is… I just want to explore it.

So here’s an alternative theory for ADHD (It’s not an opposition to ADHD, this has a foundational support of the reality of this cognitive difference).

There’s one line of thought/research on ADHD (that someone touched on in a conversation I had 4 days after being diagnosed with ADHD… which was initially a business meeting with a stranger, that turned into a 6 hour in depth exploration of ideas when I recognised he had ADHD)… So, he told me about an idea that says that ADHD is a kind of cognitive wiring that has had an evolutionary advantage through natural selection, which makes a person with ADHD the optimal hunter/huntress. Our attention is so widespread. Thousands of years ago, humans were not only the hunter, but also the hunted. So the widespread attention allows a human to be aware of their surroundings at a higher level.. sensitivity to sound in an environment, hearing a twig snap 10 meters away under the foot of a prowling predator.. or accessing problem solving, logistics and creative thinking, memory, reaction, perception… to have more chance of survival as an optimal hunter. (I’m exploring the idea)… So, I wonder if living in todays society predominantly structured for the ‘farmer’ cognitive wiring, that amongst many other things, at night our minds sometimes do not have the stimulation of being a hunter, if our lives are still functioning in so much farmer ways… we might fantasize about doing and being things in life that aren’t part of our current lives.. all my life I can recall day dreaming like this…. perhaps our nature and wiring is for more than a farmers society.. and we have become sleeping lions who’s food gets delivered in a plastic wrapped tray. So I may have been stuck/conditioned/imprisoned in self constructed coping mechanisms to function in todays farmer society (for use of a better way of referring to society, for the sake of exploring this idea). Since I started meds, I am now able to do things I have never been able to commit to, such as doing training sessions with a coach and getting in shape (on week 5 of a training program, 3 to 4 intense sessions a week and loving it)… this makes me feel better and I’m sleeping better because of this (also with some melatonine until I learn new routines). I feel more of who I am being released. It is liberating and I experience more and more gratitude and self acceptance each day (amongst life’s challenges). Added to this physical side… is also a sense of what a hunter/huntress does. The hunter goes out into the unknown, not with fear, but with curiosity and determination to use all of their mental and physical faculties and abilities to discover and capture something to bring back to the community/society….. not just “hunting” animals, but the journey into the unknown to discover and capture what pushes us/community/society/life forward. This driven sense of purpose is like a hyperfocus. I consider the many great people with ADHD in astro physics, cognitive science, ALL sciences, agriculture, arts, music, law and order, technology, design, architecture and construction…. and on and on…. people pushing the boundaries, breaking limitations, going into the unknown, diving into the abyss… and bringing something back (cue: list of awesome people with ADHD).. What we do in life might be for ourselves, our family, our community or society, the human species or all life on this planet… and on all levels we can do this, none greater or more significant than another.. as it is said, the difference we can make isn’t always it’s greatest on a global level, but where it starts at home, “Be the change that you want to see in the world” – Gandhi. So, I’m exploring ideas here.. I could be accused of romantasizing and sensationalising what the cognitive wiring of ADHD is. But my exploration does have reference to cognitive science, evolution and the human journey and so on.With that said, rock on my fellow hunters and huntresses, warriors, Lion and lionesses. Perhaps we wonder and day dream about doing things that make us feel alive in this life, because there is so much greatness and states of BEing and potential yet to be released within us in this life, having been held back and imprisoned by a farmer society (I don’t want to reinforce victim mentality or make an “us and them” paradigm out of this… again, I’m just playing with the idea and exploring). I’m looking at liberation from the conditioned and self constructed prison from a profoundly sick society, which needs people with minorities of cognitive differences such as ADHD to participate in society, and not be filtered out, incarcerated, marginalised and discriminated against..I consider these epic lyrics, “Emancipate yoursleves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds” – Bob Marley… and music in general, love it: “The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought” – Thomas Beecham.. “Rise like lions after slumber, In invanquishable number.Shake your chains to the earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you”- Percey Shelley 1819“Follow your bliss.If you do follow your bliss,you put yourself on a kind of trackthat has been there all the while waiting for you,and the life you ought to be livingis the one you are living.When you can see that,you begin to meet peoplewho are in the field of your bliss,and they open the doors to you.I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,and doors will openwhere you didn’t know they were going to be.If you follow your bliss,doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”- Joseph CampbellI have struggled with sleep and getting up on a morning most of my life.
But perhaps our challenge is not in sleeping in this life, but in awakening to our true authentic self. “The cave you fear to enter, holds the treasure you seek”- Joseph Campbell

My first post here, I might be in the wrong section.. if so, please advise me. Thanks you ((( <3 )))

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[angelicdemon]

That’s a whole lot of reading,lol.Good thing I’m able to focus pretty good today. 😀 Anyways that’s a very interesting thought or theory.That could probably explain why if some people with ADD/ADHD have paranoia or anxiety issues.Along with other things which ever they might be.I don’t know if this happens to everyone.I’ve noticed there just isn’t really a median.Like sometimes with me at times I feel like I’m really def or something and not be able to hear or understand.Other times it’s like I have super hearing.Even when it comes to sight or timing.Either I feel like i’m blind as hell and not noticed things then others It’s like I notice every small detail with out any effort.Timing wise I’ve had people say I’ve freaked them out with it,lol.Either my timing with anything is so off it’s kinda sad and other times it’s crazy how right on I am.Like if i’m not paying attention to how long something is cooking or for someone to return.Then a lot of times without effort or really thinking about it.I just get the urge to get up or message who ever it is.A good bit of times the second I get in the kitchen or after i sent that message.The time goes off at that second and the person replys.Doesn’t happen all the time but it happens a good bit.I had a guy I’m with just reply “witch!” in a joking way,lol.Again idk if this type of stuff happens to everyone or anything.I’ve always wanted to know if it’s an ADD/ADHD thing or not as well.But I hope the theory you just explained is really possible that would be freaken awesome,lol.

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[hum4n]

yes I hear you about the different times. I have often been mistaken for being slow and judged as a bit “dumb” for it many times.. then when people see how quick I can be too, they realise I’m not so slow hahah… it’s also a bit like the inattention and the hyperfocus…  It seems that most of the world doesn’t know what to make of people with ADHD.. and also, I often don’t know what to do with myself in this world.

Well, now with the diagnosis, I’m learning so much. It’s great to be here and have access to this forum, and speaking with you Angelicdemon 🙂 I really enjoyed reading how you write, as it is a way and language that feels just like my way and my language.

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