The amount of times I see comments about this topic and they just read as "since we figured out being left handed doesn't actually mean you're possessed by demons, there's so many more left handed people!!! what is this huge rise about, there must be a conspiracy! maybe the government did it or there's a bunch of fake lefties!!" (for context look up left handedness rates before and after it was punished)

Alternative title: Too much screen time and not enough positive parent interactions amongst babies and young children leads to ADHD symptoms and changes grey matter in young brains. Source: An educational and child development professional who’s appalled at the lack of social skills and emotional regulation (including attention spans, appropriate classroom behaviours, physical aggression, violent tantrums) etc. I’ve been in the field for 25 years and the amount of children displaying these behaviours and emotions is growing every year. It’s crazy! This has very little to do with being better at identifying ADHD. There simply is way more kids struggling! Wake up parents. It’s not cute in the slightest that your 6month old can operate an iPad while you get more “me time”.

Here’s a PSA: your children need constant interactions from you, the parent. You need to model healthy behaviours too (no phones at the dinner table). If children are going to succeed on school, they need to sleep the night before (8-12 hours). You are the parent, yes you can take away devices. And for god’s sake, don’t pretend the x-box was “stolen” or the cord just disappeared, you are in charge(and your children need you to be the alpha), own your decision and explain why you are restricting use. Find socializing activities for your child. Play dates, organized sports, etc. Make sure your children play (unstructured) outside everyday. This is where so much learning and social skills happen!!! Eat together as a family without screens. Conversations naturally occur., as do bonding and attachment here. End the day with bed time stories and snuggling. Your child will feel an attachment to you, and learn that you are there for them (plus they will learn to associate positively with reading).

It is 250% increase in diagnosis though. Around the world it has increased massively since the 80's/90's and some reasons in random order are:

* Better economy, better access to psychologist's
* More awareness and knowledge
* But also, how easy it is to misdiagnose unknown maladies relating to focus, memory, hyperactivity, lack of motivation.

I'm curious e.g. how many COVID brain foggers are gonna be welcomed into my club of ADHD inattentive type.

Interesting hypotheses, all testable.

Any evidence of any of them?

Congratulations, you are holding the wrong end of the stick

Nope part of it is increased awareness, and I think environmental pollution is affecting development, as well as type of development stimulus.


Increased awareness there is evidence for, the other two are just hypotheses. Many people in there 40 and 50’s get diagnosed now when they find out their children have ADHD, and all the challenges as well as benefits like hyper focus start to make sense.

By the way ADHD medicine are not addictive for people with ADHD at pharmacological doses, they just balance some brain chemistry to allow more neurotypical executive functioning.