Explaining ADHD rise with philosophyfrom @glass__museum

Transcript

Does it seem like everyone has ADHD now? Social media is filled with videos both encouraging self recognition of psychiatric conditions as well as reactionary skepticism of self diagnosis. And good, I'm not here to tell you whether or not you have ADHD or depression or anxiety, but what I think is worth considering in this conversation is why so many people increasingly recognize themselves in the symptoms of these illnesses. The growing prevalence of psychological distress reflects not only individual pathology better also the social conditions produced by neoliberal capitalism. As author Rank Fisher argues in capitalist realism, the mental health plague in capitalist societies would suggest that instead of being the only system that works, capitalism is inherently dysfunctional. Drawing on Oliver Janes' The Selfish Capitalist, Fisher argues that the rising rates of mental illness correlate with the neoliberal forms of capitalism that have come to dominate countries in the Best. Contemporary discussions of mental health overwhelmingly frame suffering as an individual problem requiring individualized solutions. They also tend to mask the ways in which broader structural causes contribute to individual psychological distress. He writes that the current ruling ontology denies any possibility of a social causation of mental illness. The chemical biologization of mental illness is strictly commensurate with its depoliticization, and this depoliticization defines our mental health discourse. If distress is understood exclusively as individual pathologies, then systemic solutions never enter the conversation. And the burden shifts onto individuals who adapt to increasingly sick social conditions instead of questioning the conditions themselves. This sentiment is echoed by philosopher Kyung Chul Han in his book The Burnout Society. Han argues that the modern proliferation of neurological illnesses reflects a direct consequence of what he calls the achievement society. In this framework, exploitation no longer requires an external oppressor. Instead, individuals become both exploiter and exploited, as neoliberal capitalism exploits the individual's sense of freedom itself. As productivity becomes internalized as moral obligation, individuals willingly push themselves beyond healthy limits in ways that external coercion alone could never achieve. Burnout, which often precedes oppression, does not point to a sovereign individual who lacks the power to be the master of himself, but rather as the pathological consequence of voluntary self exploitation. The constant imperative towards self improvement and self optimization creates a psychological environment in which anxiety, depression, and burnout become increasingly the norm and not the exception. And when it comes to ADHD, we can see how modern environments have intensified many of the difficulties that characterize it. Tier attention economy is vying for your eyeballs all day every day. We can't even sit down to take a shit without taking our phones with us, so how can we expect to focus on a task for more than ten minutes at a time? I'm not trying to suggest that ADHD is in a very real condition and that those diagnosed with it are just bad at focusing, but rather that it makes sense given the broader context why the symptoms associated with it are becoming increasingly common. And no within the achievement society, individuals are simultaneously expected to be productivity machines working at max workflow output while also being immersed in environments literally designed to take your attention away from you. These conditions are perfect for manufacturing shame within a self flagellating subject as the achievement subject finds itself fighting with itself. It's like waving a donut in the face of someone who's been starved for days, and when they inevitably eat it, they have everyone telling them that they're undisciplined and rank self control. Now, I'm not a healthcare professional, but I do think that when it comes to these mental conditions that are systematically produced under capitalism, we become too comfortable adapting individuals to unhealthy systems rather than transforming the systems themselves.