I once had a degenerate customer, incredibly gifted and bright, but nonetheless a degenerate. What he taught me is that everyone has something that is a vice regardless of whether it is viewed as healthy or unhealthy one by society. For a lot of triathletes, yes, exercise at a basic level is medicine for ADD/ADHD, and it is often healthy, but often times it unhealthy and taken to a compulsive extreme. Even Sebastian Kienle has jokingly referenced that his mom made him do it to keep him busy and keep him moving.

Does triathlon attract a disproportionate amount? I don't know but I suspect in general ADD/ADHD is over-diagnosed. Having lived or trained with various professional triathletes, including one or two that were extremely unstable, it has been interesting to watch them and their behavior. Personally we all had similar motivation levels and goals, but of everyone I have lived with I had the least desire to actually train but the most desire to race. I just love racing but the training, well it is for the birds. I look at training as very much as part of the process to race. There was a famous triathlete in Tucson. He swam 10K a day, all steady, and joked that he did it so he could eat a pizza every night. This was not a healthy relationship with food IMHO. Did he have ADD/ADHD??? Not that I know of but exercise addiction and food issues, you bet. I think in general, movement is good, we were all meant to move. It is in our DNA. And people who find triathlon like to move and I think what they realize is that moving makes them feel good. After all exercising releases endorphins. Whether they truly suffer from ADD/ADHD well that is probably something that needs some more research. I do think there is a more common link between all of us than ADD/ADHD.

---

---

Save: $50 on Speed Hound Recovery Boots | $20 on Air Relax| $100 on Normatec| 15% on Most Absorbable Magnesium

Blogs: Best CHEAP Zwift / Bike Trainer Desk | Theragun G3 vs $140 Bivi Percussive Massager | Normatec Pulse 2.0 vs Normatec Pulse | Speed Hound vs Normatec | Air Relax vs Normatec | Q1 2018 Blood Test Results | | Why HED JET+ Is The BEST value wheelset

Can't speak for others, but for me I find stimulation in the combination of risk/thrill and tech that I can learn about (i.e. hyperfocus on/obsess over). But I am more -I than -H type. And didn't get diagnosed until last year... I haven't really been involved enough in tri to identify a pattern, but again, probably because -I.

Various interests from childhood through to now:
BMX
Dirt bikes
Quad bikes
Motor boats / inner tubing
Downhill skiing
Motor sport/racing
Cycling/bikes
Tri

Basically, things that go fast (mostly motorised because physical effort is too much work). Gimme that dopamine!!

I am not sure about some of those other sports, but I can tell you a reason why triathlon is great for my ADHD personally. When you have ADHD your mind races in a million places and it is hard to focus, but when you finally do focus on something your brain is like "This is great. I want to stay here forever." Swimming, biking and running are great ways to find that focus and lock in.

---

Website - Follow Me On Strava - Follow Me On Instagram

AD with or without HD is a symptom
Not a disease

It is of course very nice to the pharmaceutical industry to mix symptoms and diseases, because it generate a much wider market. Mixing symptom with disease with pseudo-solution makes such a great market for Ritaline...

As a psychanalyst, or in my personal life, I never met "peoples with AD w/wo HD".
As a cyclist / track cyclist / triathlete (recent) / race car driver, I never met "peoples wit AD".

I meet many peoples, with a lot of symptoms (100% of peoples show smptoms), some of these symptoms nicely pre-empt by Ritaline producers...

According to Ritaline producer, 100% of the population should use Ritaline
According to me (and some other not financially interested in Ritaline production / distribution), much less peoples than peoples currently taking Ritaline

Do I see symptoms ? yes (if no symptoms, you are dead)
Some looking like the newly hyped "AD w/wo HD", and previously named differently ? yes
What is behind ? it depend, very much, and Ritaline is in most most cases not the solution
Correlation between the "symptom" and some sports ? not clearly
Correlation between what is behind the "symptom" and some sports ? not clearly

Not really...I am pretty laid back and can focus. I am a thrill seeker though. Thinks I love to do often include pushing my limits physically and mentally, going fast, exploring new places or climbing high.

Ironman
Road Racing
Slalom Skiing
Snow skiing (fast)
Mountain climbing
Back country hunting
Sky Diving
Scuba (not really thrill seeking, but exploring new places non the less)

The proper diagnosis for ADHD should be, "sit here and do this 1 task for 4hours, if you are able to without being distracted such as logging on facebook or slowtwitch, you get 1million dollars" If you still get distracted, then you have ADHD. A lot of cases of ADHD is just because people don't care about what they're doing, thats why they're distracted. Doctor's prescribe the drugs to the kids, because they don't want to deal with the parents bothering them, plus the doctor's gets paid for each diagnosis, and the parent's don't want to deal with the kids.

Triathlon

Plus, AD w/wo HD (as currently defined) is not a disease, but a symptom (or a series of symptom), very conveniently considered as "a disease". With a convenient solution : Ritaline

It is the "dream come true" for all pharmaceutical industry. Associate frequently seen symptoms with a product. Such a jackpot.

Problem : we are doing this with kids, with no idea of the consequences.... oh, wait, we have some feedback.... but it is not important...

haha yup, complete jackpot for the pharmaceutical industry. One of the few times where the drug ritaline was discovered before "ADHD". Kids took the drugs because their parents made them to, and when they're grown up, they literally can't function without it. Even a day without taking it, they feel completely miserable. Now the kids are slaves to the drug, paying every month to get it, and on the odd day that they can't or run out, they go crazy. Seems legit.

FYI, you can edit your subject line to correct the spelling. You should see an edit button on the right above your initial post. Thanks!

I had my son tested, years ago, and the doctor said a couple of things that have stuck with me. The first was that a person with ADD is the kid who's always looking out the window. He does this because his mind can't get enough stimulus/input following the teacher. He's not bored, his mind is just racing and the teacher can't provide the input needed. The second thing was that if the person's dad is blue-collar, he's typically a truck driver (or something similar) because of the constant stream of input he can get. If the dad is white-collar, he's probably in the computer industry (and I was and still am). So yes, I can believe that a high percentage of people in triathlon are somewhere on the higher end of the ADD spectrum, and also type A personalities.

Oh, another thing the doctor said was that he had heard ADD called "warrior syndrome" because for thousands of years it was the ADD people that were best suited to hard training and charging into battle screaming and acting crazy. They (we) were respected for an ability others did not have. In the words of Jimmy Buffett "an occupational hazard beats an occupation just not around".

---

I'm closer to the feathered end of the spear than the point.

That definitely rings true for me! It think that's why I have trouble riding or running indoors at times. A couple of days ago my mind was racing all over the place and I needed to have Zwift, Music and March Madness on TV to feel mentally there! Coaching spinning is the same way, I enjoy things a lot better (and ride better) when I am up on the mic riding hard and have the distraction of music, watching the class, giving feedback and telling stories.

---

Website - Follow Me On Strava - Follow Me On Instagram

"Acting crazy" in the eyes of someone without that trait. But to those with this trait, when under threat/risk your mind works at its best. I'd suspect ADHD types would make great firefighters. Unfortunately most of modern society (school, work, etc) is built around sitting down and shutting up, and ADHD often doesn't align well with that.

To those slagging off the pharmaceutical industry (and I'm not saying the industry is always guilt free), there is plenty of evidence to support the mechanisms and causes of ADHD, and the efficacy of methylphenidate (though it doesn't work for me). There's plenty to indicate that ADHD (by other names) has existed for a long time before Ritalin. There's plenty of syndromes or illnesses that aren't disease based, but have medication based treatment. So if you don't know what you're on about, please stop talking.

Haha, fixed multiple spelling errors, probably missed more.

Yeah, no intention to trigger a “big pharma” debate, although the resposes are interesting.

“Disorders” are just a descriptor of effect on “function”. Most everyone has some symptoms of add/adhd at some point or another, but disorder requires enough symptoms, prolonged duration, and an effect on “function.” It is all a bit of an arbetrary line in the sand, but a “disorder” for some taks/jobs can be an asset (“order?”) for others. Some of the most sucessful people i know have terrible adhd, but they found a job where it was an asset.

The trick is, formal education institutions do not always work for people with add/adhd. Struggles in school are often just an easy line in the sand to define effects on function... resulting in meeting criterion for “disorder.” Make them an emergency room doc, race car driver, or some other high input job and that “disorder” is now an asset. That is often why adults with add/adhd don’t “need” stimulants.

So disorder is semantics. Don’t take it personally.

Oh yeah, and if you are anti ritalin (or other adhd therapy options... not all are stimulants)... give up coffee, because caffeine is a stimulant too.

IMO - my buddies who have ADHD have better things to do with their time than spend hours and hours every day developing their “engine”.
Unless you are naturally gifted, triathlon places a huge premium on putting in long training hours without much external stimulus. You got to put your head down and focus.
To me that’s on the opposite end of spectrum of the “exciting” sport (e.g. car racing, motor cross, etc). So no - I do not think that triathlon attracts ADHD folks.

In fact I find it very easy to dismiss most "diagnoses" of "psychological conditions" in this way. It's nearly like religion in that it serves as a crutch to satisfy the need for reason when we find something confusing or difficult. People love labels and tidy excuses. You're an aggressive self-centered prick? No, no, no, you're a type A personality. You get distracted easily? ADHD. You're a republican and someone disagrees with some of your poilitical views. They're a "libtard". And vice versa....

If you like your movies to have good guys and bad guys, if you're quite sure your religion, country, sports team, etc is the best. And most especially if you think horrible crimes are explained by the existence of evil people, you are prone to this harmful labeling and categorization tendency. It's by far the biggest hindrance to human development, both at a personal and societal level. It's been the facilitator of most armed conflict in human history. It's the biggest tool of marketing. It's a lie.

Sorry if that seems way OTT but i don't think it is.
When people are not happy about some aspect of life, they look for someone/or something to blame. It might be Jews, democrats, ADHD, the list is endless....
That's not to say ADHD or any other psychological "condition" does not describe a real trait. I would however question the motivation for the categorization, it's usefulness, and it's accuracy. When you can diagnose pretty much everyone with some "condition" or other, you're not diagnosing, you're just profiling the population. If we accept the need to normalise everyone we're accepting a very dangerous premise and missing the real issue.

Dangerous premise: Everyone should be "normal"
Real issue: We've designed many of our systems (education/work/social) too rigidly and they need remediation.

Look at it like a bike fit.
Instead of saying we need a bike that fits well, the use of drugs for ADHD attempts to force the rider to fit the bike on hand.

Yes, not the place for such debate.

However, just a few more words.

My own professional experience, and the much bigger experience of peoples I'm working with (with several books written on the subject from their research- OK, in french) indicates that this "symptom" approach is really not efficient.

It is efficient for the Ritalin producer, of course, as it create a large market for them.
But when working with each person individually (my job), you can really get to root causes, and get much better results. And then you realize why Ritaline is in most case more a problem than a solution.

But it is more complex than the DSM 5 approach "symptoms => Ritaline", of course.
More expensive ? not sure.

Big game in the pharma world is
1) find some existing symptoms (world is full of symptoms, not a problem)
2) find a product "solving" them (the symptom disappear - the root cause ? who cares...)
3) put this is DSM, and communicate widely
4) the product create more problems (it does), as well as the never solved root cause (of course) : no problem, let's do other products to "solve" the new symptoms

What are the consequences to group peoples by symptoms, especially when you know the symptoms can come from very different root causes ?

Sure it does create a $$$ market, and some group identification.
Does it help each person in this artificially created "group" ?
IMO, based on personal and shared professional experience, in the end, the way it is done now with ADw/woHD, clearly no.

Haven't read this article in years but definitely relevant to what is being discussed and seems to indicate that while these sports might not be caused by ADD/ADHD it could be a form of self-medication for some. (I know it is for myself- to some extent)

https://www.bicycling.com/...ntrol-over-his-adhd/

You make some great points. For quite some time now, I’ve noticed a lot of athletes on social media to have narcissistic tendencies not ADHD. Examples include that guy that buys a $5,000 to$10,000 bike, does one Ironman, and gets an M Dot tattoo. The next year he’s selling the bike and done with the sport, but he’s got IM stuff plastered all over social media. Someone else I know ran a 50k at a 12-15 minute mile pace. Now they declare themselves an ultra runner on social media. Another person I know did an 8 hour 70.3 and multiple 6 hour marathons. They refer to themselves as an athlete. Then you’ve got the guy that does a single endurance event and next thing you know he has his own website or page. There’s nothing wrong with being happy with your accomplishments, but it seems like a lot of folks are really into themselves.

It’s to the point that I don’t post about races or training. My feed is just littered with folks that need a constant pat on the back multiple times a day. I think they might need some type of support group.

The intensity with which I now pursue sloth is off the charts...

Unless those people are getting paid to do it and their livelihoods depends on their social media posts. More often than not, those people are missing something in their lives, missing a sense of accomplishment or find the need to prove to others why they are an accomplished individual. They also seem to lack the wisdom to know that literally not a single person actually cares about their accomplishment, people just care about their own achievements. On the odd chance that someone do care about your race, it's probably your rival ;)

Although we may have grown up from being an infant, our deep rooted tendencies don't change as much, babies cry and seeking attention is because they are in need of something, similar to those "athletes" that you described. I used to be annoyed by those people, now they have my sympathy.

Kinda off topic.

Kind of madly off topic but still relevant.

What drives people to a sport (triathlon) is different, but physical activity does seem like “natures ritalin” for some.

Social media is a bit off topic, but no doubt some people feed on the likes and follows, be it ego pleasing, and/or for financial gain. “Social influencer” may seem like a non-legit job to some, but do does “professional video gamer.” Heck, when the bicycle was invented, a “pro cyclist” probably seemed far fetched!

I thought we did this so we could treat our bodies like fast-moving dumpsters?