What Has Happened To Our Attention Spans

A few months ago, my sister called me and asked, "Josh, I think I have ADHD". Like any loving brother, I said, "Don't be an idiot. You don't have ADHD."

Let's be really clear here. I'm not a doctor. If you suspect you have ADHD, go see a medical professional and get a diagnosis.

However, logic suggests you probably don't have ADHD.

So why does it feel like everyone has ADHD these days?

The things, as I learned this week, diagnosing ADHD can be really tricky.

In this letter, we are to talk about:

• The rise of ADHD

• Why probably don't you have ADHD

• What's actually going on with our attention spans?

So let's do it.

Diagnosing ADHD

Again, I am not a medical professional. While this is my working understanding now, it may change as I continue to learn more. I am presenting what I believe is important and interesting to know. But this is not a self-diagnosis practice. In fact, this is an argument against self-diagnosis.

I am unsure if ADHD is a genetic code, a developmental mechanism, or a mix of both.

This is what makes ADHD hard to diagnose. There is no objective test to identify ADHD. Pathologists cannot take a blood sample, test for a chemical, or determine whether you have ADHD.

Instead, diagnosis relies on exhibiting six or more of the 18 symptoms outlined in the DSM-5 for children. Adults need five or more symptoms to qualify.

The issue is that the symptoms are vague:

• lacking attention to detail

• easily distracted

• disorganized

• aversion to do cognitive tasks

• forgetful (loses things like your wallet, keys, phone)

• talks alot

• impatient

• energetic

• fidgets

• interrupts other

are 10 of the 18 symptoms in the DSM - 5. Remember that to be diagnosed with ADHD, children need 6 and adults need 5.

By this rubric, I could be diagnosed with ADHD. No doctor would, though. The big caveat is that your symptoms must be functionally disabling and present for six or more months and occur in multiple contexts ( at school, work, home, sport, etc).

A good clinician can make an assessment using these criteria. We can't. Self-diagnosis is inappropriate in nearly all circumstances because we are not sufficiently trained. We have agendas, existing beliefs about ourselves, and judgements we want to be consistent with.

We want things to make sense to us, and we want explanations for why we are the way we are.

ADHD offers an explanation. In recent years, it has become more popular in the media. The awareness of the disorder has increased significantly.

Diagnosis rates of ADHD have increased. More people with ADHD are getting diagnosed.

But that doesn't explain the number thoroughly because most experts believe the total number of people with ADHD hovers around 3% of the population. That hasn't changed.

Mathematically speaking, the difference must be an uptick in false diagnoses.

More people believe they or their child has ADHD, and unfortunately, there are a lot of doctors who are happy to diagnose them incorrectly.

There are many reasons why people are incorrectly diagnosed. Is it an honest mistake, or something more sinister?

As stated in an article I read while researching a little about our attention spans, "ADHD is enormously profitable for the pharmaceutical industry. An apparently lifelong but non-fatal illness, often diagnosed in childhood, with no cure, for which people can theoretically be medicated their whole lives."

The article then states, "Pharmaceutical companies fund a great deal of the scientific research into ADHD".

Definitely, a conflict of interest. I think doctors can be too trigger-happy with prescriptions.

Surprisingly, there are even incentives to be diagnosed with ADHD, from medication enhancing cognitive performance to disability privileges.

I'm not really too interested in that.

What I am interested in is the blur between pathological ADHD and the lifestyle of the modern world.

Why we can't focus.

I don't know what it is like to have ADHD. But as the article explains, it's like having a firehose of information turned on you.

It's your mind jumping from idea to idea without the ability to stay with one of them for an extended period of time.

This is not my experience. Nor do I believe it is the experience of most people dissatisfied with their attention spans.

• university students struggle to stay focused for more than 65 seconds

• office workers get distracted every 3 minutes

• CEOs of fortune 500 companies get on average 26 minutes of uninterrupted work per day.

I believe our decreasing attention spans and inability to focus are not due to the rapid increase of ADHD but a repercussion of the lifestyles we live.

Busy, bright, and fast are some words that come to mind when we think of the high-stimulation environments we put ourselves in.

Short-form content is an easy place to look for trends. Every video has subtitles and captions to hold your attention. The cuts are fast, and the colors are bright.

We're at the stage now where a clip of an interview must be split-screened with a game. One video at a time isn't enough for us anymore.

When we sit down to watch TV, within a few minutes we're scrolling on our phones.

Hell, watching a movie distraction free is an achievement for most of you.

Your phone chirps at you with notifications several times throughout the day.

Any gap of free time is consumed by your phone.

You don't have long sessions of uninterrupted work focusing on one task at a time.

When you feel that cognitive resistance after 3 minutes, you retreat from the feeling into a distraction.

At work, you try to multitask. You have 48 tabs open. You are replying to emails while trying to write a report. You join in a random conversation happening around you.

You never do anything in silence anymore. Seriously, you probably have music playing when you brush your teeth.

We have become addicted to stimulation.

If having ADHD is like a fire hose of information turned on you, then the environments we put ourselves in are like turning the fire hose on ourselves.

Focus is a skill, and if you don't practice it, it is only logical that your attention span will get worse.

It's probably not spontaneous ADHD but a world designed for comfort and overstimulation.

How To Find Focus In A Distracting World

I consider myself to have a pretty good attention span. Every morning, I spend uninterrupted, distraction-free hours writing these newsletters.

Most mornings I write in silence. Sometimes I have lo-fi music playing subtly in the background.

I have a glass of water. Most mornings, I sit through the mental discomfort until I find myself in a rhythm and submerge myself into the flow state.

These couple of hours in the morning are my favorite of the day.

You know why if you've been reading the letters or watching the videos. Intrinsic motivators.

If you keep doing something and consistently get distracted, evaluate your intrinsic motivators.

Poor focus is a symptom, not the cause.

For example, my sister, who said she thinks she has ADHD, has no problem sinking hours into a good book. Her intrinsic motivators for that activity is high.

The difference between a focused mind and a distracted mind is intention.

Be more intentional with your focus.

I learnt this framework from Dan Koe's book The Art Of Focus.

Dan categorizes focus into four types.

• Unconscious and narrow

• Unconscious and wide

• Conscious and narrow

• Conscious and wide

The issue is due to the design of modern society, our default state of focus is unconscious. You are not choosing where to put your attention but instead your focus is stolen.

Johan Hari's book Stolen Focus is a good read about how society steals our focus. We have already touched on some aspects of this.

Your focus narrows when your attention zooms in on the goal. By goal, I mean the thing the mind is craving: the next YouTube short, the cookie in the pantry, and all the other countless distractions you use to sedate yourself.

A narrow and unconscious focus results in feelings of stress, guilt and anxiety.

is a line I absolutely love from Dan.

You can think of an unconscious and wide focus as a state of great uncertainty. Your mind is scattered. Clarity does not exist. Feelings of overwhelm consume you. You feel lost and unsure of what to do.

Conscious focus is very different. You are in control. Clarity is achieved. You know where you are, where you are going and what you are doing. This is the state we want to be in as much as possible.

Narrow and conscious focus means deep work and productive feelings.

Wide and conscious focus is stillness, relaxation, and creativity. It's the sense of peace you feel when you sit on the beach and stare off into the horizon. There's nothing to do and nothing to worry about.

Today's main takeaway is that focus is a skill you need to improve if you want a better attention span.

Create time for empty hours to think. Sit on the beach, take a long walk, find some peace and quiet, and get away from the stimulation.

The thing about distractions is that they are only distractions if they are distracting from something you want or need to do. That means, to be a distraction, there needs to be an intention otherwise.

You need to have a goal and an action plan to achieve that goal. Planning after quiet reflection eliminates unconscious and wide focus, while executing the plan leads to narrow and conscious focus.

When you enjoy what you do, narrow and unconscious focus is no longer appealing.

Read this letter if you want to learn some practical tatics to unfuck your attention span. I will also revisit more strategies in a future letter.

That's all for today friends. Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Josh