How common is ADHD in your family?

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Honestly, almost every member of my mother's family could fit the diagnosis and my grandmother was diagnosed around 50, she now thinks she has dyscalculia as well and she's definitely not a label seeker. There are a few quiet members of the family who are very talented with art or music and show some AS traits but I can't say whether they are Aspies or not, but I am surprised that we don't have any diagnosed autistics.

I wonder if it common for ADHD to be this prevalent in a family tree with no autism popping up anywhere.

I am the only one in my whole family (including up to first cousins) that I know of with an official ADHD diagnosis. My mother and father both display some traits, though they are different ones. Almost like her traits + his traits = complete ADHD trait set in their oldest offspring. Though I wouldn't say theirs are strong. Mom suspects my youngest sister has it because she is "like me" but I don't think she is. She's certainly not hyperactive at the least. Mom's sister is a better candidate however.

There are no diagnosed autistics in my family either, and certainly none that have traits. I'm just magic!

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The term ADHD has an unusual background.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD):

ADHD is the current term for the lifelong neurological challenge which previously has been known as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), Hyperactivity, Hyperkinesis, Organic Brain Syndrome, Minimal Brain Dysfunction, and Minimal Brain Damage. (Source: ADHD BB)

There are four ADHDs today (2010).

In my view, ADHD can be viewed as being a very small group of children and adults who, for some reason, respond positively (not a cure) to the right central nervous system stimulant - alerting agent - which temporarily normalizes (not a cure) some aspects of how they pay attention and how they use their memory (not all aspects).

Central nervous system stimulants include: Coffee, caffeine compounds, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, and so on. None of the medicines are cures.

In my family, am the only one with ADHD; am ADHD Inattentive type.

About Paying Attention

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodmi ... ntion.html
http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-5/auditory.htm

If one applies the idea that to qualify for ADHD a child or adult has to respond positively to the right central nervous system stimulant medicine - alerting agent - for a very long period of time like 5 or more years, then the number of children and adults with ADHD in the United States is quite low: 2% or far, far less.

Tend to lean toward conservative estimates vs using guesstimates about ADHD which can fall in the area of 10% or more of the USA population which, to me, seem a little too high.

Meds do work for a few persons with ADHD, not everyone with ADHD.

In some cases, the right choice is to be med-free. That's my understanding.

The whole area of ADHD - ADD can certainly be slowly clarified over time but it appears that the powers that be today (business guilds) prefer foggy, vague diagnoses vs accurate ones.

ADHD - ADD is often used as a wastepaper basket diagnosis today which it is not.

It's time to look carefully at ADHD and how well medicines work for it and to (my view) reduce the number of estimated persons with ADHD to 2% or less of Americans and also to promote meds for ADHD as being slightly helpful for a few (not everyone) but never as cures for ADHD.

None of the medicines used to treat ADHD are cures at all. They can temporarily reduce some symptoms a little for some users (not everyone) but they do not cure anything.

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Other

My dad has a few ADHD-like tendencies, but I think that's about it.

As far as I know, it's only me and my youngest (of two other) brothers that very likely have it.

For some reason as a kid, I only met 6 out of the 10 symptoms, so they didn't diagnose me, but still chose to medicate me with Adderall. :\ It's questionable whether anything good or bad came out of that. I think it slightly affected me, but mostly caused weight gain.

adderall cause you to gain weight? interesting.

Putting it in perspective, I don't remember how exercise played a role or not. I didn't do any strenuous exercise before or after, but I was in various sports also before and after. It was only after I started taking it that I eventually became overweight.

Eventually I stopped taking it and started normally losing weight (I was also actually doing strenuous exercise soon after I stopped taking it, if that counts.)

I was adopted and aside from my biological mother being severely autistic and mentaly challanged and my biological father being a philandering, promiscuous ass, That's all I know about my biological family. But from what my dad says, just about everyone on his family tree would have been diagnosed ADHD these days. I think both my adoptive parents have AS traits and definatly would have been diagnosed with it if they were kids today.

My brother in law has it, so it will be interesting, if my niece turns out, to have it, as well.

I'm the only one in my family who has ADHD, but my entire family, except for one, is neurodiverse--the older of my sisters is the only one in the family who doesn't have autism, my littlest sister's gifted, I used to be hyperlexic (but grew out of it), and my mom's got sensory integration disorder and some kind of dyscalculia. My sister had to be the only NT in a completely neurodiverse family... I don't blame her for escaping to China. (Seriously. She's going there as an English teacher.) Then again, just about every autistic born into an NT family experiences the same thing; plus, she's introverted and asexual like me, so it's not like she's a disgustingly average human being or anything. She's just NT, and NTs can be surprisingly diverse.