Is ADHD or ADD all in our heads?

Well, yes it is, in a manner of speaking, all in our heads, I mean.

If by that you mean brain functioning.

That is what the research on brain functioning shows. You can kind of get adhd pictures of people or at least what might be called snapshots of their brain and how they might be different from brains that are normal.

However, if what you mean is that professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians and even teachers just made it up, ADHD, that is, well, uh, no.

Yes a name was made up to identify a cluster of symptoms, what are now called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms. However, it is not just that the symptoms are identifiable, and they are, but they are seen in actual brain functioning as well as behavior. So there is a brain basis for the disorder.

To get a little technical, in one form of ADHD, people with ADHD tend to not have enough Beta waves in their prefrontal cortex. Yes, that is technical. And that is only one form of ADHD. There are others. But the purpose here is not to get technical, exactly. The purpose is to clarify the nature of the construct of ADHD or ADD and the researched fact that, yes, ADHD and/or ADD exist as researched constructs. That means that they are entities that exist in an identifiable and replicable (repeatable) way in both brain functioning and behavior.

Where is this discussion coming from?

It is coming from the fact that people will make statements like ADHD or ADD is just made up. ADHD is not really a disease. Or better yet, it is ‘all in your heads’. No, it is not a disease, it is a disorder, quite literally, a disorder of the brain and a disorder of behavior. It is in your brain. It’s manifestation is in disordered behavior of a specific kind. It is not a disease. But is it just a ‘made up’ concept without a correlate in the real world? No.

Charles Shinaver, PhD

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