What if many modern “disorders” are not so much innate flaws in people, but normal human responses to an abnormal environment? Here are some angles to consider: 1. The world has changed faster than our brains • For 99% of human history, life was slow-paced, tied to nature, and stimuli were limited (firelight, birdsong, face-to-face conversation). • In the last 10–15 years, we’ve had an explosion of smartphones, social media, 24/7 notifications, LED lighting, background music in every store, billboards, fast-moving visuals, etc. • Our nervous systems simply didn’t evolve for this constant, layered sensory input. 2. Overstimulation vs. ADHD • ADHD is often framed as a “disorder of attention,” but another way to look at it is: the world is now a constant barrage of competing inputs, so being scattered is a logical response. • In environments with fewer stimuli, what we call “ADHD symptoms” might actually disappear or lessen. (There are studies showing kids with ADHD often thrive in outdoor, movement-based, or highly engaging hands-on settings). 3. Medicalization of normal responses • Psychiatry often labels traits as “disorders” when they clash with societal expectations (e.g., needing to sit still in a classroom for 8 hours, or focusing on boring computer tasks). • But maybe the problem isn’t the person—it’s the environment and the system demanding unnatural levels of attention, productivity, and sensory endurance. 4. Stress as a modern epidemic • Rising diagnoses of ADHD, anxiety, depression, and sensory processing issues may all be signals of the same root problem: humans living in overstimulating, disconnected, artificial environments. • What looks like “mental illness” could actually be a culture-level mismatch. 5. The double bind • Because the system isn’t changing anytime soon, people seek diagnoses and medications as coping tools just to function in this hyper-stimulating society. • But if society itself is sick, then diagnosis is partly a way of adapting individuals to tolerate unhealthy conditions, rather than addressing the root cause. ⸻ EXAMPLES: Neurasthenia & Railroad spine.
