Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › What ADHD actually is
Many people who end up in trouble with the law have never had their ADHD recognised. Behaviour read as defiance can be the same difficulty with stopping and thinking ahead.
That is not a claim that ADHD explains crime, and most people with ADHD never go near a courtroom. It does mean that where impulsive trouble keeps repeating, somebody should ask whether this person has ever been assessed properly. An assessment at first contact is worth more than another warning, and it opens treatment that a punishment does not.
Qur’an and Sunnah
When you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative (Quran 6:152). Justice includes being accurate about what a person could and could not do.
وَلَا تَقۡرَبُواْ مَالَ ٱلۡيَتِيمِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِي هِيَ أَحۡسَنُ حَتَّىٰ يَبۡلُغَ أَشُدَّهُۥۚ وَأَوۡفُواْ ٱلۡكَيۡلَ وَٱلۡمِيزَانَ بِٱلۡقِسۡطِۖ لَا نُكَلِّفُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا وُسۡعَهَاۖ وَإِذَا قُلۡتُمۡ فَٱعۡدِلُواْ وَلَوۡ كَانَ ذَا قُرۡبَىٰۖ وَبِعَهۡدِ ٱللَّهِ أَوۡفُواْۚ ذَٰلِكُمۡ وَصَّىٰكُم بِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Stay well away from the property of orphans, except with the best [intentions], until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice’- We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear- ‘ when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in God’s name. This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed’
Qur’an 6:152read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A meta-analysis of neuroimaging in oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder deliberately separated the findings attributable to those problems from those attributable to co-occurring ADHD, which are often conflated. That same conflation happens in a corridor or a courtroom. The review is about brain imaging and says nothing about how many people in custody have ADHD.
Noordermeer SD, Luman M, Oosterlaan J. (2016). A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Neuroimaging in Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) Taking Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Into Account.. Neuropsychology review doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
A difficulty nobody has named gets treated as a choice, and choices get punished rather than helped.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Eating and body image are part of this for more people than you would think. Forgetting meals all day and then eating without stopping in the evening is a very ordinary ADHD pattern rather than a separate failing.
Use the established rating scales and a proper developmental history rather than working from the impression someone makes in a first meeting. What you see in a room is a small and unrepresentative sample.
ADHD is not only about focus. Physical health tends to drift down the list, and appointments, sleep, food and movement are exactly the sort of thing this condition makes hard to keep up with.