#320: The ADHD Explosion

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2017

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You’ve probably heard about the precipitous rise in diagnoses of ADHD in America the past few decades. What was once a rare mental illness has now become a common problem amongst children -- particularly boys. Why the sudden spike? Are there really more people with ADHD or is something else going on? My guest today has some possible answers to that question. His name is Steve Hinshaw and he's a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. In his book, "The ADHD Explosion," Dr. Hinshaw gives the lay reader a crash course into ADHD and provides some insights as to why we’re seeing such a huge spike in the number of individuals diagnosed with it. We begin our conversation talking about what exactly ADHD is and how it impairs individuals. We then discuss the biological and environmental causes of ADHD, debunk some of the myths surrounding it, and discuss which treatments actually work. Dr. Hinshaw then delves into his research which shows that the rise in ADHD is not because more people are actually developing it, but rather that cultural and economic forces in schools, corporations, and governments incentivize shoddy diagnoses. We also discuss the fact that ADHD medication is often used by people who don’t have ADHD in order to perform better, and whether it actually improves performance for these folks or not. We end with a discussion about his new book, "Another Kind of Madness," and the stigma of mental illness in America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:13.9	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Man in this Poghaz.
0:17.9	Well, you've probably heard about the precipitous rise in diagnosis of ADHD in America in past few decades.
0:23.3	Well, as once a rare mental illness has now become a common problem among children, particularly boys.
0:28.7	Why this sudden spike, and are there really more people with ADHD or something else going on?
0:33.6	My guest day has some possible answers to that question. His name is Steve Hinshaw.
0:36.7	He's professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. In his book, The ADHD Explosion, Dr. Hinshaw gives the lay reader a crash
0:43.0	course into ADHD and provides some insights as to why we're seeing such huge spike in the number of individuals diagnosed with it.
0:49.2	Now, we begin our conversation, talk about exactly what ADHD is and how it impairs individuals.
0:54.5	We then discuss the biological and environmental factors that go into ADHD to
0:58.8	bunks some of them mis-surrounding it and discuss which treatments actually work.
1:02.4	And then Dr. Hinshaw delves into his research, which shows that the rise of ADHD is not because more people are actually developing ADHD,
1:09.7	but rather that there's cultural and economic forces in schools, corporations and governments that incentivize
1:15.7	shoddy diagnosis. We also discuss the fact that ADHD medications often used by people who don't actually have ADHD
1:21.9	or perform better, whether it actually improves performance for these folks or not.
1:25.8	We under-conversation discussing his latest book and other kind of madness,
1:29.2	talk to memoir about his father and his mental illness. And it's about mental illness in general and how he
1:34.8	stigmatized it today, what we can do to stop that. So if you know someone who has ADHD, this podcast will
1:39.7	provide a lot of insight about a condition few really understand. After the show is over, check out the show notes at
1:44.5	awim.is slash ADHD. Steve Hinshaw, welcome to the show.
1:53.2	Thanks so much for having me on. I'm eager to get rolling.
1:55.9	So you co-authored a book called the ADHD Explosion. ADHD is one of those things that has I feel
	...

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