It’s amazing that pharmacist made it through pharmacy school with such hidebound attitudes. Fortunately, in my ten years of guiding adults and their partners through the ADHD maze (evaluation, treatment, etc.), I’ve never heard such an egregious pharmacy-related report. Lucky you.

It’s ironic, though, that you defend Hartmann’s hypothesis, in so much as they encourage such baseless perceptions.

The geneticists I know say the case is completely without merit. Moreover, I find that such fanciful tales have indeed contributed to the very prejudice you encountered when picking up your prescription medication, especially when it comes to children. Tragically, this too often means that proper ADHD treatment strategies are delayed often well into adulthood, when the emotional baggage has accumulated and the door for reaching certain developmental milestones has long shut.

Even on the face of it, Hartmann’s hypothesis makes little sense. With all the distractions, multi-tasking requirements, etc. of our modern world, how on earth can anyone call our lives “linear”? And if hunters of yore were so easily distracted from their goal as some adults with untreated ADHD are — by every little sidetracking stimulation in the environment — they wouldn’t have eaten for long. More like, been eaten.

Genetic mutations happen. There isn’t always an advance-the-evolution case to be made for them. As long as the mutation doesn’t cause death before an opportunity for pro-creation, it remains in the gene pool. This is especially true when that mutation is associated with sexual precociousness, pregnancy at an earlier age, and multiple sex partners (as ADHD is associated). Thus, mutations can proliferate widely in the gene pool, perhaps more quickly than mutations that are associated with more caution and reserve.

Cheers,
Gina Pera, author
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?