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Evolution Of ADHD

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Is ADHD Evolution? ADHD or ADD, a mental illness in which every American thinks they seem to have at times. Many people seem to think at times they have ‘ADHD brain’ at times or say they are ‘so ADHD’. ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a mental disorder which is characterized by the DSM-V as impairing one's attention, shifting tasks constantly, and displaying hyperactive behavior (European consensus statement on diagnosis and treatment of Adult ADHD: The European Network Adult ADHD). Although some people seem to think ADHD is just something kids experience nowadays, recent research is showing perhaps ADHD is a product of natural selection, and at one time needed to survive in nomadic settings. Many people afflicted with ADHD seem to think they were biologically wired in a certain way and recent research is pointing to the fact that this …show more content…

In order to back her claim Tremblay cites another research psychologist’s research, Dr. Elaine Morgan’s Descent of Woman, who proposes the wader theory for why ADHD could have actually helped early humans. In Elaine Morgan’s research article published in 1972 (Descent of Woman), Morgan proposes “ADHD surfaced primarily due to humans spending time in aquatic waters and spent a majority of the evolutionary period going from quadrupedal to bipedal” (qtd Shelby Tremblay). As a result, a human child needed to initiate contact with their mother to survive. Elaine Morgan quotes a research study stating that children afflicted with ADHD initiate more contacts with their mother and therefore possessed an evolutionary advantage over people who were not afflicted with this illness. This theory, along with Eisenberg’s research experiment further cements the case that ADHD is a direct result of

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