Soldiers wait to board a chartered plane in Savannah, Ga., March 11, 2022.
Photo:
Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press
The military is making it easier for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to join. This is a good development, though the rationale and the rules should be changed to reflect better the science of ADHD and to be more welcoming.
Pentagon officials explain that we can understand ADHD as a developmental condition that goes away in adulthood. But ADHD typically persists into adulthood. Officials also portray the loosening of rules about ADHD as necessary because of shortfalls in military recruiting, making the change seem like a watering down of standards to accommodate a disability. Yet while ADHD is a disability in some roles, in others it is a super-ability that can be advantageous in the military.
ADHD is best understood as a condition with sensory overstimulation and easy distractibility. People with ADHD describe it as similar to being in a store with 10 televisions tuned to different channels and being unable to turn down the sound on nine of them to pay attention to the one they want to hear. At a party, they have difficulty focusing on one conversation and ignoring others. The reason it seems to go away in adulthood is that many people with ADHD discover they can manage their symptoms with caffeine and exercise.
People with ADHD also find jobs in which their broad attention isn’t a problem, or is even an advantage. ADHD is perfect for hunters, allowing them to notice the slightest sound or movement in a forest and find the prey or avoid a predator. In modern society ADHD is common in jobs requiring abstract awareness of opportunity and danger, such as in venture capital and financial trading. ADHD is also frequent among people in high tech, not only audacious leaders but also software engineers.
But ADHD isn’t always advantageous. As society made the transition from hunting to other activities, some of the disadvantages became more…
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