book called: ADHD Does Not Exist

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There is this book called ADHD Does Not Exist, by Richard Saul M.D.

It basically argues that although many people do experience ADHD symptoms, there is no one single condition that is responsible for all of the ADHD symptoms. In actuality there are at least 20 different conditions that produce ADHD symptoms.

Was wondering what you all would think of it.

I think that's probably true, at least to some extent. Though I believe there is an entity called ADHD.

There are also at least 20 causes of autism. This doesn't mean there isn't an entity called autism.

No one single "cause" and no one single "condition of" ADHD? That I can get behind.

ADHD "does not exist"? Oh for sure! There's also no such thing as epilepsy. Because demons.

(Yes, that was a joke. A sarcastic one.)

There isn't any specific known causes for autism. The book claims there are known causes for ADHD symptoms such as sleep disorders, learning disabilities, or depression. We can't link autism to any specific causes like that.

Interesting. You can go read up about psychopaths or sociopaths and you can go read about ADHD, and I have to say, the symptoms are very similar. The overlap is over the top. You can go to a forum about marriage and psychopaths and marriage and ADHD and the complaints are almost exactly the same. Not at all with autism.

Damn I think I better read it because now I am curious what he is going to be saying in it.

Really ?

I have ADD (inattentive type) and I don't think I act similar to a psychopath

Last edited by StellarJean on 30 Sep 2015, 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

I wouldn't want to read it. Quite frankly I don't want to know. Saying "ADHD doesn't exist because everybody has those traits" is like saying "Bipolar doesn't exist because everybody has mood swings".

You probably aren't similar to a psychopath. That is the problem of using this one all encompassing diagnosis of ADHD to group psychopaths into the same category of people who have attention problems due to various other reasons. It is also especially annoying that ADD is now being classified as a subtype of ADHD and is now all being lumped into one giant group.

Also what is interesting is that it is estimated that 4 percent of adults have ADHD and between 1 and 4 percent of people are sociopaths/psychopaths. So sociopaths/psychopaths could potentially explain a majority of cases of adult ADHD.

Conduct disorder is a comorbid to ADHD:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atten ... y_disorder

Conduct disorder often goes on to be Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD):
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduct_disorder

ASPD is sociopathy:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antis ... y_disorder

(I'm using the simple english wikipedia because it gets to the point more quickly)

So maybe that could be a possible explanation for that?

I knew someone with ADHD, he also had Asperger's but he also had ODD and I think he had conduct disorder because he behaved very much like a psychopath. Pathological liar, manipulative, used violence to get his way, bullied other kids, bullied his mother and abused her so she was afraid of him and he was in control of her, he threw an ax at my brothers, he also bragged to me about hurting other kids in his school who were defenseless and broke their bones and had no remorse. These were all handicapped children he would hurt. He also had anger issues and got angry easily. This kid had been in and out of hospitals and was kicked out of public school. He definitely had more than just Asperger's.

I read that ODD can lead to conduct disorder and it can lead to APD in adulthood.

Thank you e4c5 and iliketrees for your explanations

Yawn