I missed that article, which apparently was published about the time I was attending and speaking at the CADDAC conference in Toronto.

Seems the hundreds of adults who showed up to learn more about ADHD, after suffering for years due to rampant ignorance from physicians and therapists alike, might have taken umbrage at the piece.

Indeed, as you point out, ADHD doesn’t always offer any advantages on the sports field (or sometimes any place else); in fact, it can dampen any natural sports ability due to distractability, impulsivity, poor planning ability (such as preparing for a game), etc. Several major-league baseball players have come forth in the media to explain how their ADHD often interfered with their ball-playing and how treatment has allowed their abilities to shine.

Increasingly, we have historical evidence that ADHD has been described in the medical literature for more than 100 years — even dating to 1798, according to recently re-discovered medical textbooks from a Scottish physician. I write about it at my blog: http://tinyurl.com/la3w9r

Unfortunately, some in the liberal arts academia crowd who apparently never took a shine to science classes are seeking to make a name for themselves by writing diatribes about brain disorders being “social constructs.” They conveniently leave out the fact that at no time in our history have we humans been at the mercy of so many distractions; it takes an extremely strong prefrontal cortex to resist derailment, in my opinion.

I find their efforts shameful, as these authors are willfully pandering to a science-phobic public for their own self-aggrandizement. No, I can’t be charitable to these authors one iota, because their message denies the very real suffering encountered by people with these “social constructs.” Moreover, I would question how many suffer from their own undiagnosed conditions, such as oppositional defiance.

As you rightly point out, they create more stigma than illumination. We need to be moving forward, not backward to the 1950s or farther.

Gina Pera, author
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?
Stopping the Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder
http://www.ADHDRollerCoaster.org