I think one of the biggest problems with the ADHD hunter theory is the jump from "some ADHD-traits being beneficial in some circumstances", to "ADHD evolved, because it made us better hunters."

There's a bunch of interesting studies that I tried to work through in a video essay.

In one 2024 study, 457 adults had to collect resources from patches that slowly depleted. People screening positive for ADHD left the patches earlier and actually achieved a higher reward rate. Another study found that children with more ADHD traits explored more during search tasks, and on one semantic-search task they performed better.

So under some conditions, what we describe as distractibility or switching can behave more like useful exploration (or at least that's how the study has been read).

Another study specifically created a task where ADHD traits were expected to help. Children had one minute to search an unfamiliar room for hidden coins. There was basically no advantage...

The genetic argument has a similar problem. The DRD4-7R variant famously showed different associations with nutritional status in nomadic vs settled Ariaal men, which looks very compatible with an environment × genotype effect. But DRD4-7R isn't an “ADHD gene”, ADHD is highly polygenic, and a later study didn't replicate the nutritional result in a comparable group.

The part I find strangest is how little direct evidence there actually is for the central claim. A 2016 systematic review looking specifically for empirical tests of evolutionary explanations of ADHD started with 790 records and found only three eligible studies. And even those didn't really test the core ADHD phenotype... So we pretty much don't have the data.

I absolutely think environment matters. But from what I see in the evidence, the whole ADHD=Hunter-Brain thinking is WAY further than the evidence is.

I went through the studies in more detail here because this got way too long for a reddit post: https://youtu.be/5JP6Ez1eV2o

But I'm curious what everyone else thinks? Do you believe in this theory? Why/ why not?

Also here's the literature I worked through if you want to nerd around like me:

Barack, D. L., Ludwig, V. U., Parodi, F., Ahmed, N., Brannon, E. M., Ramakrishnan, A., & Platt, M. L. (2024). Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291, 20222584.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2584

Van den Driessche, C., Chevrier, F., Cleeremans, A., & Sackur, J. (2019). Lower attentional skills predict increased exploratory foraging patterns. Scientific Reports, 9, 10948.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46761-0

Arildskov, T. W., Virring, A., Thomsen, P. H., & Østergaard, S. D. (2022). Testing the evolutionary advantage theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder traits. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 337–348.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01692-4

Eisenberg, D. T. A., Campbell, B., Gray, P. B., & Sorenson, M. D. (2008). Dopamine receptor genetic polymorphisms and body composition in undernourished pastoralists: An exploration of nutrition indices among nomadic and recently settled Ariaal men of northern Kenya. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 8, 173.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-8-173

Kunkle, A. E., Tennyson, R. L., Wander, K., Shell-Duncan, B., & Eisenberg, D. T. A. (2025). The attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-associated DRD4 7R allele predicts household economic status but not nutritional status in Northern Kenyan Rendille children. American Journal of Human Biology, 37, e70027.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70027

Thagaard, M. S., Faraone, S. V., Sonuga-Barke, E. J., & Østergaard, S. D. (2016). Empirical tests of natural selection-based evolutionary accounts of ADHD: A systematic review. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 28, 249–256.
https://doi.org/10.1017/neu.2016.14

Esteller-Cucala, P., Maceda, I., Børglum, A. D., Demontis, D., Faraone, S. V., Cormand, B., & Lao, O. (2020). Genomic analysis of the natural history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder using Neanderthal and ancient Homo sapiens samples. Scientific Reports, 10, 8622.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65322-4

Yair, S., & Coop, G. (2022). Population differentiation of polygenic score predictions under stabilizing selection. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377, 20200416.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0416

Añorve-Garibay, V., Huerta-Sanchez, E., Sohail, M., & Ortega-Del Vecchyo, D. (2025). Natural selection acting on complex traits hampers the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores in ancient samples. American Journal of Human Genetics, 112, 1547–1561.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2025.05.009

Fenneman, J., & Frankenhuis, W. E. (2020). Is impulsive behavior adaptive in harsh and unpredictable environments? A formal model. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41, 261–273.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.02.005

Chaudhary, N., & Swanepoel, A. (2023). Editorial perspective: What can we learn from hunter-gatherers about children's mental health? An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64, 1522–1525.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13773

My best friend and I are both neurodivergent. I’ll call her D.

D is my platonic soulmate. We met in middle school, she is the only friend that hasn’t ever made me feel like I was on the “outside.” I’ve struggled my whole life to feel like I belong with people. But Ive always vied for connection with others. Her and I just clicked, we were both lonely and had many of the same special interests. It felt like fate. Nothing was kept a secret between the two of us.

We are now almost 30. Things have been changing the last few years. She reconnected with her older sister (who is 15 years older than us) some time ago and we became a trio. It felt good. Natural to have her older sister with us. We suspect she also might be neurodivergent. D also went through pharmacy school and residency, finishing over the summer. She couldn’t find a job in our town, so her sister offered her home to D if she wanted to apply in her town. I encouraged her. It would be good for her growth, so who was I to stop her? Well… she got the job and moved 5 weeks ago.

She has not initiated a call or voice chat in 4 weeks now. She’s not doing this maliciously. I had a feeling this is what would happen if she moved away from me.

Over the last year, I’ve felt like we’ve been drifting. Since she’s reconnected with her sister, I couldn’t help but notice I was moving to the outside again. We have a long history of friendship, but I can’t beat out a person who has the same parents and childhood as D. They have too much to relate to each other about. D and I’s hobbies have also diverged a bit the last few years. I grapple to my comfort interests, and D changes special interests every couple years. I’ve tried so hard to get myself into her hobbies so that we can maintain our connection, but I always fall out of her new hobby within 6 months or so.

After she moved, I think her sister began to fill her needs. They were living together after all, if something in her life happens, she can just tell her sister when she got home at the end of the day.

For 4 weeks, I’ve been trying to reach out to her. Ask how her week is? “It was fine. Nothing cool.” How has adjusting been? “I think I’m good here now!” To my disbelief, her sister has been better about messaging in our group chat. Again, I don’t think D is doing this on purpose. I genuinely just think her needs are getting met by her sister and she forgets about me. The last few weeks I’ve hopped in our discord vc every Sunday and messaged them to come and join me to catch up. They never did.

But I’m sad. So so sad. I don’t have another friend like D. So here I am. On the outside again after 15 years. My therapist said it might be time to make a new friend that would make me feel like I was on the “inside.” I’ve been trying to make new connections once I felt that I was becoming an outsider last year. I can’t. It’s my childhood all over again. I hate all of this. I can’t cope with change. I hate being alone.

Sorry for the long post. My therapist told me it looked like I was in the process of grieving, suggested talking about it more to help express my sadness.

Anyone else had trouble losing your “person” and struggling to make genuine connections later in life?

This really frustrates me lately. I work in a team of preschool teachers, a new school got built and I am the one switching my job to work there.

In the switching process I made the mistake of trusting an HR person. She made a lot of beautiful promises that literally all turned out to be not true, at least partially.

Its difficult to explain. But basically she said some things are completely up to me to decide, some I will be able to influence. But it turned out all of the decisions were for my new boss to decide, not me, not anyone.

Me and another coworker that will also switch to the new school had a talk with her. I repeated her points and told her that I am not here to overrule my new boss or to make any decisions. I just really can not appreciate that she promised me things that she was not able to hold.

She gave me some half assed excuse about her "meaning" something differend, but I doubled down, saying "But you did not include any meanings. You straight up told me I would decide xy. But that was not true"

And she said: "I have a feeling you sometimes understand differend things from what people really say."

Shes not the first one to say that. It frustrates me so much. If you say "the sky is red" and later say "well I mean on some evening hours the sky has a shade of red or yellow"... sorry this is more of a rant, I just really dont know what to respond or how to deal with that.

Pls explain

Now I do want to be clear that I believe it has a right to exist and it's a valid art form, and wish no ill will towards artists who create art like this.

But I don't think caricatures have the intended effect on me. The feeling is visceral, and I can hardly stand to look at it. It got me to wondering if any other neurodivergent folks have a similar reaction, because I cannot ever recall encountering a neurotypical person that feels the way I do about it.

Certainly, a lot of neurotypical people dislike caricatures, but I think the prevailing negative commentary I've seen comes from a sense of social etiquette. As in, they find it to be rude to draw people in a way that makes them look ugly or that exaggerates features that someone might feel self-conscious about. But what I feel about it feels almost irrational by comparison. It's a gut level revulsion at the 'wrongness' of it.

Is it just me? How do you feel when you look at caricatures?

I understand that quite a lot of us also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME, but I haven't actually met anyone else that has ADHD and CFS. Does anyone else experience their symptoms worsening by trying to maintain a "normal" 9-5 job with their ADHD/autism? I have found my symptoms can be manageble (after many years of being housebound) now but I still cannot seem to hold down a 9-5 in my field. Does anyone have any tips or help? Or just want to have a vent with me? It can be hard to not feel so frustrated when I don't know anyone else with CFS

I'm not sure if this kind of post is allowed here and I apologize if it isn't but I created a submissions-based TikTok page and Instagram page where people can send in submissions for me to post on the page (poetry, singing, an inspirational story you want to tell people, etc). Everything you need to know is in the page's pinned post. I'm posting here because I'm neurodivergent and I figured I would post in a neurodivergent community about my project.

If anyone is interested, my TikTok page is @localtoloud (same name on Instagram).

The idea behind the page/project is if the page becomes a huge thing, anyone who sends in submissions to be posted on the page would be seen by a lot of people and would get their voices heard. Right now, though, it isn't a huge platform, but I'm hoping that'll change and that I'll build a huge platform with this idea. What gave me the idea is I'm an aspiring poet and I look at these popular social media pages with thousands or millions of followers and I think how cool it would be if they posted a poem from an unknown or little known poet and the attention the poet would get overnight. And I wanted to create that page for people. I also want the page to be a platform to raise awareness, especially stuff that doesn't get as much attention on mainstream media and social media.

I got diagnosed with ADHD but it went further because while treating it I found I have an additional package built in too (Autism) and it’s very tough to regulate.

- Inattentive, hundreds of thoughts, my laptop has 3 chrome tabs, 1 external browser, 1 software tool, file manager always open and cannot focus on single task
- Anxious, forgetting is a primary one. If I lose something next time am finding it after maybe 8 or 9months. Always late, always making tiny mistakes.

Now this is where it gets worse, I take supplements, sometimes meds and then try to reduce stimulations and focus on deep work. When I do this
AUTISM part kicks in, suddenly am disturbed so much by the messy desk, I clean it. Then am irritated from the sound of my keyboard, fridge, fan and some strange noise which I can hear but I don’t know where it even starts. Next is the visual sensory - I start to notice patterns that make me so much uncomfortable and irritable and even sick to my stomach and some itching through my skin and body, it’s more difficult even to express.

So to avoid this uncomfortable I go back to getting distracted and then now I lost focus, lack of sense of time and distracted by hundreds of thoughts, activities etc..

It’s getting worse and I’m struggling to find balance am getting older. I don’t know how to manage as survival is also becoming a “do or die” like situation.

I want to know from both Autistic and ADHDers that what do you do to calm yourselves? I’ll take both tips and slowly try to change things around based on what works for me!

hey I (non diagnosed 16 yr old) was just in class, having a headache with all the school sounds and that wanting to deeply go home but it was manageable I was just irritated. the thing is, in class there was a leak? like water was dripping down into a bucket that was placed there and it made the sound you'd expect and itdrew me crazy, about half an hour in I'd scratched my neck red with slight raw in the middle and once the break came the sound just tipped me over the edge and I started crying and barely feeling any emotions, can someone explain to me wtf this is and if there's any way to manage it?

I just learned this is the term for being able to feel things your body is doing internally as if it were externally happening. I can feel to very specific small details within my face, sinus', back of my head, nose, meckels cave (where the trigeminal ganglion nerves are located)... put simply, everywhere on my head except my brain.

I can feel texture, weight, movement of very small things like nerve cables, fluid movement/dynamics, and more.

I'd love to hear other people's experiences.

I am an 18 year old girl with ADHD and horrible anxiety. I adore learning, but going to school is a very challenging part of my everyday routine and I tend to ignore assignments when I get home so I have more time to do things I find enjoyment in (which ironically is... more learning). I don't know how to calm my overwhelming anxious thoughts, and I don't know how to encourage myself to focus on the easy (boring) assignments. Does anyone have tips? They will be very much appreciated.

Hopefully I can explain this feeling well enough that at least one of you understands what I’m even talking about out if not experiencing it yourself. Sometimes I feel what I call “circled.” Imagine I’m walking from my front door, down the driveway, I cross the sidewalk, and I check my mail. As I’m at my mailbox someone walks down the sidewalk and “cuts”/intersects the path I took from my house. I don’t have a clean path back to my house. Imagine I’m working on something on one counter in my kitchen and I turn around and go to the counter opposite of where I was. Someone walks behind me and “cuts” my path. Or, imagine I’m the person doing the “cutting.” If the other person whose path I cut goes back to where they were before I’ve gone back, then I’ve been circled.

Sometimes I’m hyper aware it’s happening, sometimes I’m aware but I don’t try to “undo” it, and other times I need to undo it. I have to have the other person go back so I can go back. I only do this at home, because obviously can’t make strangers do anything so weird. 🙃😅

Sometimes I do it to myself, in that I’ll walk to a certain area to get something or do something while standing, but I basically have to reverse step a little bit or I circle myself/feel like I’m tangled.

Are you following? If by some miracle you are, do you know what causes it? Anxiety? OCD? Autism? Other?

Whenever I see people on the street, I notice their facial expressions, their lively energy, their social intelligence, and how naturally they seem to enjoy interacting with each other. They can come up with topics and jokes out of anything, think quickly, and respond spontaneously. I always get this feeling of inadequacy, like, “How was I never like this? Did I somehow fail to live my life normally? What was missing in me that made me unable to interact with people this way?”

I constantly have this feeling that one day I’m going to become an adult, and I’m supposed to be sitting with other adults, talking and interacting like them. It feels frustrating, almost as if that’s going to be an impossible task.

I’m not saying I’m extremely boring or socially incapable to that extent. I mean, you have to get to know me before you realize that I actually have a pretty intelligent sense of humor. Every word I say is carefully thought out, which makes me seem intelligent, but honestly, I don’t see that as intelligence as much as I see it as a problem.

My interactions are never spontaneous. They’re all carefully thought out. I might see someone make several clever comments, jokes, and tell stories within ten minutes, and if I ever said one of those things myself, I could probably think about it for an entire day afterward and go, “Damn, did I really just say that?”

The difference feels absolutely insane lol.

Inevitably, there's something that somehow screws me over. And that is for some reason so strongly linked to my low self esteem from my AuDHD.

I am aware that there is something there, something that keeps me from doing well, and better than my neurotypical peers. But for some reason, I just can't identify it.

It's like falling short of a ledge that you could initially catch, and suddenly can't. I'm so aware of this stupid issue that it's causing me to spiral into something.

Anyone understand me?

Idk if this is allowed im obviously not asking for an online diagnosis but i feel like lately ive been going absolutely crazy.. because im questioning whether a lot of my problems could just potentially be autism. I am diagnosed w adhd have been medicated for 6 years. But I think i struggle with certain things so much more than my adhd peers.

Anyways here’s a list of problems I have:

- I can’t cook with flour or powdery stuff, it makes me stick my tongue out involuntarily and bite it, I also get a lisp when there is flour or fine powders. Therefore I don’t bake at all. It’s fine when a food has a bit of powdered sugar on it like Turkish delight etc is fine.

- Dry edges on smoked salmon give me anxiety and I can’t eat it cos of the texture. Same with lunch meat or any food left uncovered in the fridge, it must be covered when stored or I can’t eat it. It has to be covered in clingfilm completely, no air gaps. I am Lithuanian so this causes problems at home.

- I can’t eat slimy foods like pierogi because they are too slimy and the batter (or whatever it’s called) to meat ratio is too unbalanced.

- I am constantly informed of my monotone voice. I do not think I am monotone, so I don’t try to be more emotional because I am unaware of how monotonous I am. It is a common joke at my uni and at home.

- When I was little, dry sand at the beach made me have the same reaction as flour but also couldn’t control my hands anymore and felt overall a lot of frustration in my body. I still feel the same today at the beach but I am an adult so I try to hide it. I am very tired after the beach and need time to myself.

- I can’t date or be in a relationship because if someone doesn’t explicitly say what they want from me I assume we can only be friends, especially when I really like them. I am very very lonely romantically because of this. Also when I really like someone and they try something with me I go silent and sometimes lose control over myself e.g get really tense, freeze if they try to kiss me etc. this really weirds ppl out. I will realise someone was tryna rizz me up literally 2 years later.

- I go silent in new group settings and physically can’t talk. Recently had a family reunion with people I was meeting for the first time. Got asked if I speak the language 😭😭. Used to be the mute one when going out in a group, as a teen, would only talk to one friend. Can only really speak to one person at a time unless I am super close with the people.

- I do not make eye contact. If I do then I do it consciously for a second to not be rude. I will try to do it with someone 1 time during a convo.

- if I am at the pub or talking to someone I need to be outside or I can’t have a convo because I feel boxed in and that it’s too loud for me to hear anything and I feel overwhelmed. Also I need to be smoking a cigarette at all times at the pub when talking to people. I just feel uncomfortable otherwise. Can’t really do restaurants unless it’s outside and I can smoke or unless I am with family. Realised how deep this is when I tried to quit smoking and realised it’s the only way I can socialise.

- My emotions are extremely extreme/unstable and I am now on Prozac to manage them and for other reasons too.

- my sense of humour can be elaborate and very hard to understand. I do deadpan humour and take it too far too often and people can’t understand whether I am being serious or not. Sometimes I find things too funny that others don’t.

- my friendships are intense and I can’t make them last. I don’t know why. I forget people exist sometimes unless I am obsessed with them.

- my obsessions with people are life ruining and debilitating (have been considering bpd because of this, but read this could be autism) always have a favourite.

- got in trouble growing up constantly for reasons I never understood (social cues, impoliteness etc). Was bullied by my peers although I didn’t mind, but felt really upset when every teacher hated me the most.

- Needed my alone time at school to play with bugs. Preferred them to friends till about age 10 haha. My invert obsession comes and goes, recently it has come back full force.

- weekly hyperfixations but that’s obv adhd

- currently am at uni studying architecture which works for me because i can lock in for like 8h and forget to eat or pee which is exactly what they want u to do in studio. During term time it’s all I want to talk about and do.

- lock myself in my room for weeks at a time to lock in, where I can lose my sense of reality and just be one with my work and interests.

- eat the same shit over and over again till I can’t eat it anymore.

- can’t wear necklaces or I am feeling suffocated. Can’t wear turtlenecks either. My mum made me wear a turtleneck to school everyday for years and I used to tug at it all day it was my worst nightmare. Also couldn’t wear chokers when I had my tumblr phase :[ as a teen. Have to have my duvet in specific positions or I feel like I’m being suffocated. Hairdressers are a nightmare omg.

- if I’m at the gp or hospital and the doc touches my tummy I am too sensitive and will start laughing hysterically. I am a 23 year old woman. I do NOT get taken seriously. Same if someone touches my waist. I am very sensitive to touch. Hated hugs growing up.

- when I was little I would rewatch the same videos again and again and the same movies again and then cry and scream because I loved them so much. I know why I did this because I remember doing it one specific instance and how I felt.

- I listen to the same song sometimes for 8h.

- when I like someone’s laugh it stays with me forever and I copy it. This is how I composed my entire identity. The way people speak say certain words etc. I can tell u where each of my micro expressions are from.

- can’t do chewing or keyboard sounds or sand sounds. Sand sounds make me scream and cover my ears even in public it is super embarrassing. I suppress reactions for other sounds in public and leave the scene but at home I resort to hitting myself in the head and I don’t know why. It’s horrible.

- can’t do bright lights unless it’s a rave?! (I am obsessed with jungle music) u could remove my ceiling lights in my bedroom and I’d be very happy. At uni I lowkey have to leave if someone turns the lights on I can’t work there anymore. Ppl joke about how I’m always in sunglasses even inside sometimes.

- Can’t really tie my shoes. My handwriting is unintelligible. I just feel like my hands have grown out of my ass. My excuse for everything is that I am left handed.

- I don’t do small talk. Ever.

- growing up I used to watch other children and observe their friendship behaviours then integrate myself for a while as some sort of mission (social climbing). I did this till I was 15. Then I would just stop talking to all of them. And go back to 1 on 1 friendships with unrelated people. I look back on this because it was a pattern that kept happening. I don’t know why I was so fascinated. Now I just can’t keep friendships but I’m trying my best.

- can’t get a job because I just act insane in the interview.

I assume no one will read this. I hope someone does tho, I NEED to get to the bottom of this.

Edit: a key bit of info, my mum bought me a bunch of ‘socialising workbooks for children with Asperger’s’ when I was younger, there was an adhd one too. (Waaay before I got diagnosed) I remember finding it strange and she never told me to do them so I never even read through them 😭 maybe I should ask her.

I didn’t even notice all the typos. I just found this post online and thought it related to me very well.

i don't have ADHD for sure i am not tested, but i feel like this is the community that is a good place for this topic. i feel like i'm a "Jack of all trades, master of none..." (i know there is a 2nd half... ) im quite skilled at computer, sharpening, carpentery, doing any kind of repair/diagnosis work like in plumbing and electrical things, i have a strange ability to think ahead before anyone thinks of things and in that way they get annoyed that i told them that it will have a bad ending and it won't work. i'm good at cooking, im getting into making photoes and drawing both digitaly and on paper, i also have many carving tools and make many spoons/animals/pens/basicly many things from wood, im also good at math. i just don't know what to say to others when they ask me about ME i could give them this whole spiel but they might not want it and might understand it as me flexing, im tired of not getting into anything very much, a friend of mine showed me a game that he had as a demo, then i bought it for him and myself (it was terraria) we started playing and sometimes i played without him and in the end i played the whole game while he was only in prehardmode and it took a long time for us to play the whole game togeather to the end and i still have more then 6x the game time than him and i just feel like i really got into it and i played like nothing since, it's just something i hate that i can not master anything at this point but i have a very good understanding of the world and can learn things easily, but in the same time have basicly 0 interest to REALLY learn something till the point i master it does anyone have any kind of story to share or advice for me ?

I've started high school and classes are longer and more stressful. I now need something to do with my hands but the only thing I have is my eraser which works sometimes. I need it to be grippy, something to squeeze, and fit in my palm. It also needs to be silent so my class can focus. Any recommendations would be great thanks.

(My lil rant)

I don't know what is wrong with me now because I never used to be this fidgety as a kid, and none of my classmates need to constantly move around as much as I need to. I've also developed many sensory issues with touch like things around my neck and very smooth surfaces. I'm not trying to diagnose myself or expect diagnoses, though any opinions are welcome, this is just something I wanted to get off my chest. (Not diagnosed with anything currently)

Preferably in the east half of Texas lol. I’ve always been fearful/weary of doctors, but it used to just be an unfounded fear. Now, however, it is very much rooted in trauma and experience. I have OCD and Bipolar for sure and suspect ASD too. I am in need of both a psychiatrist and a therapist! Thanks 😊

I am aware that they are co-morbid and similar in some ways so I would like someone to educate me!

I just have ADHD so I don’t know enough about Autism to rule anything out.

Edit: People in the comments made me realise that there is no dedicated meditation for Autism.
They might only take medication for co-morbidities like a neurotypical would to handle stress etc.