ADHDball

**ADHDball** represents the neurodevelopmental disorder known as *Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder*, characterized by a persistent pattern of inattention, excessive energy, and impulsivity of varying severity. ADHDball is often depicted as creative, childish, and/or immature, with a very short attention span that renders him unable to complete tasks that require concentration for relatively long periods of time. He is easily distracted by his own thoughts/external stimuli (for example, a bug or a loud noise), unless he is in a state of *hyperfocus*, which is an intense form of mental concentration or visualization that focuses consciousness on a subject, topic, or task.

## History

Hyperactivity (as in the state of being unusually or abnormally active) has long been part of the human condition, repeatedly observed in a variety of situations, especially in the field of pediatrics. The terminology used to describe the symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has gone through many changes over history, including "minimal brain damage", "minimal brain dysfunction", "learning/behavioral disabilities" and "hyperactivity".

### Melchior Adam Weikard

In 1775, Melchior Adam Weikard, a prominent German physician, published the textbook *Der Philosophische Arzt*. Weikard's text contained a description of ADHD-like behaviours, possibly the first ever such description in medical literature. For instance, Weikard stated that:

*An inattentive person won't remark anything but will be shallow everywhere. He studies his matters only superficially; his judgements are erroneous and he misconceives the worth of things because he does not spend enough time and patience to search a matter individually or by the piece with the adequate accuracy. Such people only hear half of everything; they memorize or inform only half of it or do it in a messy manner. (...) They are mostly reckless, often copious considering imprudent projects, but they are also most inconstant in execution. They treat everything in a light manner since they are not attentive enough to feel denigration or disadvantages.*

The treatment recommended included isolation from any external stimuli, and physical activity when agitated.

### Sir Alexander Crichton

Scottish-born physician and author, Sir Alexander Crichton described, in 1798, a mental state much like the inattentive subtype of ADHD, in his book *An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement.* Crichton described attention problems as:

*The incapacity of attending with a necessary degree of constancy to any one object, almost always arises from an unnatural or morbid sensibility of the nerves, by which means this faculty is incessantly withdrawn from one impression to another. It may be either born with a person, or it may be the effect of accidental diseases.*
*When born with a person it becomes evident at a very early period of life, and has a very bad effect, inasmuch as it renders him incapable of attending with constancy to any one object of education. But it seldom is in so great a degree as totally to impede all instruction; and what is very fortunate, it is generally diminished with age.*
Crichton noted that "…they have a particular name for the state of their nerves, which is expressive enough of their feelings. They say they have the *fidgets*." Dr. Crichton suggested that these children needed special educational intervention and noted that it was obvious that they had a problem attending even how hard they did try. "Every public teacher must have observed that there are many to whom the dryness and difficulties of the Latin and Greek grammars are so disgusting that neither the terrors of the rod, nor the indulgence of kind intreaty can cause them to give their attention to them."

Both Melchior Adam Weikard and Alexander Crichton wrote about the occupationally disabling features of this disorder, including attentional problems, restlessness, early onset, and how it can affect schooling, without any of the moralism introduced by George Still and later authors.

### Sir George Frederic Still

In March 1902, Sir George Frederic Still (1868–1941), known as the father of British paediatrics, gave a series of lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in London under the name Goulstonian Lectures on ‘some abnormal psychical conditions in children’, which were published later the same year in *The Lancet*.

He described 43 children who had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation, who were often aggressive, defiant, resistant to discipline, excessively emotional or passionate, which showed little inhibitory volition, and could not learn from the consequences of their actions; though their intellect was normal. He wrote: "I would point out that a notable feature in many of these cases of moral defect without general impairment of intellect is a quite abnormal incapacity for sustained attention.

Dr. Still wrote: "there is a defect of moral consciousness which cannot be accounted for by any fault of environment". When Still was talking about moral control, he was referring to it as William James had done before him, but to Still, the moral control of behavior meant "the control of action in conformity with the idea of the good of all."

"Another boy, aged 6 years, with marked moral defect was unable to keep his attention even to a game for more than a very short time, and as might be expected, the failure of attention was very noticeable at school, with the result that in some cases the child was backward in school attainments, although in manner and ordinary conversation he appeared as bright and intelligent as any child could be."

He proposed a biological predisposition to this behavioral condition that was probably hereditary in some children and the result of pre- or postnatal injury in others.

Many historians of ADHD have inferred that the children Still described in his series of three published lectures to the Royal College of Physicians would likely have qualified for the current disorder of ADHD combined type, among other disorders.

### In the DSM

In the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as DSM-II (1968), the condition was called "Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood". It was in the 1980 DSM-III that "ADD (Attention-Deficit Disorder) with or without hyperactivity" was introduced. In 1987 this label was further refined to "ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)" in the DSM-III-R and subsequent editions, including the current DSM-5

#### Terminology

 1980 to 1987
 1987 to 1994
 1994 to present
 ADHD with combined presentation (hyperactivity and inattentiveness) [ADHD-III]

## Relationships

Still a WIP

As a neurodevelopmental disorder, ADHDball is mostly seen hanging out with other neurodiversities. These include, but are not limited to:

Autismball: Minecraft buddies.

Touretteball:

In some comics, ADHDball is depicted as a younger sibling/child/grandchild in family contexts. For example:

Dementiaball

## How to Draw

The easiest way to draw ADHDball is to simply draw Denmarkball with a well-centered cross. If you need a step-by-step guide, here you go:

1. Draw a ball.
2. Paint it red.
3. Draw a white cross on the frontal plane of the ball.
4. Add arrow tips by the end of the lines.

## Gallery

1. ↑ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). *Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (5th edition).* Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (97-103).[1]
2. ↑ *Hyperfocus.* (2021, May 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 23, 2021.[2]
3. ↑ Weikard's description of ADHD.[3]
4. ↑ Denmarkball[4]