lindsmuse wrote
I don't think the incidence of these conditions is rising, I think the threshold at which they become noticeable is moving as our environment changes.
And hopefully as it becomes more visible and evidently prevalent, the cure/solution is getting worked on harder. It may be quite a revelation when and if we ever get there. I agree with the 'tower of Babel' theory - I'm sure this has something to do with it ...
There's books written about sensory overload in modern society. It's escalated quite a lot in the last 30 years.
I read some articles about ADD and the reasons why it's diagnosed so much more these days. Some factors
1) It's better understood and better documented. It's been around for years but in the good old days they'd just write "Johnny must try harder" on you report card and hope that you'd grow out of it
2) Doctors misdiagnosing or carelessly diagnosing or prescribing just to shut up Johhny's parents who know all about ADD and are convinced that Johhny must have it
3) Modern life presents more distraction, more simultaneous demands on attention and so borderline cases that would have functioned adequately 30 or 40 years ago now find it harder to cope
4) Less stigmatism
So it's not all bad in the modern world, there is some real progress being made. Looking back on my school days, especially pre high school, it's clear now that there were kids who had mild mental problems or behavioural problems which would get identified and addressed now. But back then they were busy trying to eradicate polio and so things like ADD got less attention from researchers and drug companies. Now that things like polio and rubella are largely prevented attention gets turned to other disorders. (though incidence of rubella is increasing again in the USA and UK because of the quack scares around the MMR vaccination)
