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Evan Porter

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Surprising 16-year-long ADHD study proves researchers' hypothesis completely wrong

The findings from first-of-their-kind, long-term ADHD studies keep rolling in and surprising researchers along the way.

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Scientists continue to be surprised by the findings of long-term ADHD studies.

Our understanding of ADHD has come a long way in just a few short years. Though it wasn't even formally recognized as a medical condition until the 1960s, by the time the 90s rolled around, diagnoses and stimulant prescriptions were extremely prevalent. (Raise your hand if you grew up in the era of "Anyone who struggles in school gets Ritalin!") Today, diagnoses and treatment are a lot more thoughtful and individualized, and there are more options for treatment and therapy including but not limited to stimulants like the well-known Ritalin. Even with all these advancements, though, we still have more to learn.

A new long-term study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has proven to be an excellent next step in getting a better understanding of the disorder, showing that a lot of what's commonly believed or assumed about ADHD is incomplete or just flat-out wrong.

Researchers studied 483 participants who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood and continued to assess them for a period of 16 years. The study's authors wanted to get a sense of how ADHD symptoms might change over time.

What the researchers found surprised them. In most participants, symptoms of ADHD fluctuated greatly over the years rather than staying consistent. What surprised them even more were the environmental factors that seemed to play a role in those fluctuations.

adhd, children, kids, mental health, neurodivergent, brains, psychology, medicine, research, medical studies ADHD brains work in mysterious ways, but we're starting to get a clearer picture. Photo by BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA on Unsplash

Researchers expected that greater life demands—like more responsibility at work, a heavier workload at school, major life changes, etc.—would exacerbate ADHD symptoms. What they found was the opposite.

It makes sense that a person that struggles with inattention or hyperactivity might have more trouble focusing when they have more "going on" and more distractions to pull them in different directions. It was a huge surprise to the researchers that, actually, people's ADHD symptoms seemed to ease up when life got hectic.

“We expected the relationship between environmental demands and ADHD symptoms to be the opposite of what we found,” study author, professor, and clinical psychologist Margaret H. Sibley explained. “We hypothesized that when life demands and responsibilities increased, this might exacerbate people’s ADHD, making it more severe. In fact, it was the opposite. The higher the demands and responsibilities one was experiencing, the milder their ADHD.”

- YouTube www.youtube.com

I have a 4-year-old with ADHD and the findings totally track for me based on what I've witnessed in our own life.

We find it's actually easier to be in perpetual motion sometimes—out running errands, doing activities, visiting friends and family—versus staying put too long. When we're just relaxing at home, that's when she tends to start bouncing off the walls! Her ADHD tendencies come out strong in these quiet periods, including what we sometimes playfully refer to as her "hoarding" dozens of coloring sheets or surrounding herself in giant piles of toys, blankets, and stuffed animals; thereby making a huge mess in the house.

Doing nothing or doing very little is not often a restful state for people with ADHD. Typically, people with ADHD experience more background noise than neurotypical brains—so a quiet, seemingly restful environment can sometimes amplify racing thoughts, negative self-talk, and impulsive behavior versus dampening it. You know how kids sometimes act out in school not because they're not smart, but because the material is actually too easy for them and they're bored? Something similar is at play in both of these scenarios.

Of course, as always in science, you have to be careful assuming causation from the findings.

adhd, children, kids, mental health, neurodivergent, brains, psychology, medicine, research, medical studies The results show that staying busy may actually help relieve some ADHD symptoms. Annie Spratt/Unsplash

It's important to note that the results of the study don't definitively prove that being busy causes a decrease in ADHD symptoms.

“This might mean that people with ADHD perform their best in more demanding environments (perhaps environments that have stronger immediate consequences, like needing to put food on the table for a family or pay rent monthly). It also might mean that people with ADHD take more on their plate when their symptoms are relatively at bay," Sibley says. Either way, the correlation is certainly strong and worthy of more study.

In the meantime, the study's authors think the results could be viewed in a hopeful light for people just learning to manage their ADHD. “If you’re a doctor talking with a patient who is first getting diagnosed with ADHD, it’s a huge help for that person to hear the message that, ‘You’re going to have good years and not-so-good years, but things can go really well for you if you can get the right factors in place,'” Sibley said. As a parent, I can imagine how reassuring that would have been to hear early on in our own process.

adhd, children, kids, mental health, neurodivergent, brains, psychology, medicine, research, medical studies We still have so much to learn. Photo by Europeana on Unsplash

With ADHD diagnoses on the rise, more and more research is being conducted. For example, a recent long-term study out of Sweden was just published linking use of ADHD medication with a reduction in traffic crashes, general injuries, and criminal behavior. That's a strong argument for continuing to hone in on accurate diagnoses and treatment for people who need it, as it clearly benefits society as a whole when done properly!

We're learning more and more about what the factors that affect positive ADHD outcomes are—what might exacerbate symptoms and what types of things can help—and we're starting to get a clearer picture of how people can manage this challenging disorder.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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The American island where residents speak a dazzling blend of Southern and Old English

Ocracoke's endlessly entertaining dialect may soon be extinct.

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An isolated island called Ocracoke is home to a unique accent not found anywhere else in the world.

American English comes in all sorts of different flavors and varieties. I grew up in Baltimore, which shares some dialectical DNA with the accent you find in other Northeastern cities like Philadelphia. Baldamor, hon! There's the New England dialects, most famously the Boston accent: Pahk the cah at Havahd yahd! The New York accent is world famous, as is the deep Southern twang, which gives way to a thick Cajun accent the closer you get to the water in Florida and Louisiana.

These are all different versions of the greater American dialect. But there is one place, a tiny island off the coast of North Carolina, where a few residents speak in such a unique way that it's not even identified as American by most people around the world.

Ocracoke, North Carolina, is home to a unique dialect called the Brogue: A strange blend of American Southern, Old Elizabethan English, with little bits of Irish and even Australian thrown in.

The Brogue, also known as Hoi Toider, is absolutely fascinating to hear in action. When you watch interviews with the locals of the island, they at first appear to be speaking a form of deep American southern—you can hear the twang the way you might in parts of Georgia of Alabama. But then, without warning, a word or phrase will slip out that sounds distinctly British. Old English even. Then you'll swear you hear a bit of Irish!

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The dialect owes its roots to a surprising source: Pirates.

Pirates loved to hide out on Ocracoke as the island is incredibly remote, about 20 miles from the mainland of North Carolina. Even today there are no bridges or flights to Ocracoke; it can only be reached by a (quite lengthy) boat ride. Eventually, the island was actually purchased by the Blackbeard's quartermaster (yes, that Blackbeard), William Howard, where he created something of a pirate settlement. English sailors and Native American tribes also passed through and had their own unique impact on the culture and developing language of the island.

In case have your doubts about the island's buccaneerish roots: "In one popular island legend, Ocracoke comes from the phrase, 'Oh, crow cock,' which was spoken by the infamous pirate Blackbeard as he waited to do battle at sunrise with the governor’s forces that had come to capture him," writes a guide from NC State University.

The dialect had a lot of room to develop without much outside influence. The BBC's Brian Carlton writes, "Howard's community lived in near-isolation for almost two centuries. Electricity didn't arrive at the island until 1938 and a ferry service didn't start until 1957, leaving the islanders cut off except for the occasional supply trip to the mainland."

That's why Hoi Toider is still alive to this day, although its speaking population has dwindled.

Here are a few hallmark phrases of the unique dialect: A "dingbatter" is anyone not from the island; a tourist. An "O'Cocker" is anyone born on the island of Ocracoke. A "buck" is a good male friend, while a "puck" is a female friend. The Brogue uses "weren't" liberally for singular nouns ("The sun weren't out yesterday.") and frequently adds an "a" in front of verbs. ("We went a-fishin' this morning.")

But to fully appreciate Hoi Toider, you've got to hear it in action:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Experts say that as awesome as the Brogue is, it will likely disappear within the next 50 years.

Though the island remains about as remote as it comes, in 2025 there's no escaping the influence of social media, television, and film. Every generation born on the island is a smidge less-adoptive of the Brogue than the one that came before.

It will probably be mostly gone in the next couple of generations, which feels like a tragedy. Instead of "dingbatter" and "buck," the kids will be saying "Skibidi toilet" and "rizz." OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but young people growing up on the island won't be as immersed in the language as their elders and will begin to speak more and more like your average American.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

There's a concept called culture homogenization. It's the idea that over time, because of technology and globalization, unique individual cultures from around the world will all start to look more and more the same. It's why you see fast food restaurants directly next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and people all over the globe listening to the same handful of musical artists.

Ocracoke has managed to hang on longer than most places due to how difficult it is to reach. Here's hoping that the Ocracoke Brogue can survive somehow, some way, in little pockets of the island. It's just too dang cool and interesting to go away just yet.

This article originally appeared in May. It has been updated.

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Harvard linguistics expert explains perfectly logical reason we say 'Yeah, no' and 'No, yeah'

They're called discourse particles and they serve an important role in conversation.

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"Yeah, no" makes no sense, but serves an important purpose in conversation.

The English language is weird. Not only are our formal rules of grammar confusing and inconsistent, things get even stranger when you start to account for casual, conversational English and colloquialisms. The truth is, we say a lot of things that don't mean exactly what they sound like they should mean. And sometimes? The things we say don't mean anything at all.

For example, almost everyone uses "How are you?" as a colloquial greeting, and not as a genuine question. We also say things like "I slept like a baby!" when babies are notoriously fussy sleepers.

One of the weirder things we say is so subtle you hardly notice it most of the time. It's "Yeah, no." For example, someone might say something to you and then add, "Sorry if I interrupted you." And you'll say, "Yeah, no, that's OK!"

What the heck does "Yeah, no" mean, and why do so many of us say it frequently?

Harvard linguist, self-proclaimed Etymology Nerd, and author of the book Algospeak, Adam Aleksic says "Yeah, no" and similar phrases aren't random tics. They are useful fragments of English that serve very specific purposes in our interactions.

"On the surface level, it doesn't make that much sense," he explains in a recent video on TikTok. "But that's only because you're thinking about it as 'yes' + 'no.'"

"[Yeah, no] is actually a grammatical feature called a 'discourse particle' and it can serve three different functions."

Discourse particles, or discourse markers, are words that could sometimes be thought of as "filler words" in conversation. Examples would be things like "like," "well," or "you know." They add little to the actual content of our spoken sentences but infer a lot of subtle meaning and help us modulate our tone.

english language, english, language, linguistics, conversation, small talk, people, words Like, totally. Giphy

The first function of a discourse particle, specifically "Yeah, no" is clarification, according to Aleksic. If someone asks, "Do you eat meat?", you might say, "Yeah, no I eat everything" or "Yeah, no I only eat fish." "Yeah, no" is meaningless in this instance and all the information comes in the rest of the sentence, but it allows you to transition and elaborate on your more detailed answer smoothly. Think of it as a conversational lubricant!

The second purpose of "Yeah, no" is to indicate hesitancy. Saying "Yeah" before "no" can buy you time to think about your real answer, which is "No." (It works the other way, too... If someone asks if you'd like to go get a cup of coffee, you might say "No, yeah, that sounds great.") "Yeah, no" also softens rejection. "Would you like a a drink?" ... "Yeah, no, I'm good" sounds nicer than plain old No.

The third purpose is social deflection, or hedging. "Yeah, no" can indicate modesty or soften the overall impact of whatever it is you're saying. For example, "I love this dinner you cooked us!" ... "Yeah, no, thanks!".

"It's genuinely such a useful phrase," Aleksic says in summary. Watch his full breakdown here:


@etymologynerd

yeah no why is this so interesting #etymology #linguistics #language #grammar #sociology

Because this is English we're talking about, the nuances go even deeper than that.

You won't find detailed definitions for phrases like "Yeah, yeah, yeah, no," or "No, no, yeah" in the dictionary, but that doesn't mean they don't have distinct meanings.

Sometimes it's not even about the etymology and content of the words; it's just a feeling.

In another tongue-in-cheek video, Lucie Fink explains some of the variations pretty well:

No yeah = Sure

Yeah no = No

Yeah no for sure = Yeah

Yeah yeah yeah (fast) = Yeah

Yeah yeah yeah (slow) = Total BS


@luciebfink

No yeah it makes total sense. 🙌 #english #noyeah #yeahno #englishlesson #language #fyp • inspired by a video from @braving on Instagram

And so on and so forth. There are an endless combination of discourse particles and markers we use in extremely subtle ways to make micro-adjustments to the meaning, tone, and content of our conversations. It's honestly fascinating how we do this at an extremely high level without even thinking about it.

At least now we don't have to worry about whether we're coming off confused or not well-spoken when we sputter out a "Yeah, no!" We're just so advanced at using the English language that sophisticated concepts like "discourse markers" are second nature to us now. Thanks, Etymology Nerd!

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Dad takes kids' devices then captures hilarious, pathetic video of them 'playing' outside

Have kids forgotten how to just... play?

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Two boys sitting on swings, with heads down, looking miserable.

It's become a common refrain: These dang kids and their dang screens! I'm loathe to admit that I've had this thought a lot lately myself. When it comes to planning our kids' summer break, a part of my brain assumes they'll just want to play outside with their friends most of the day making up games, riding bikes, coming inside to grab popsicles. The stuff I did at their age. But in reality, it hasn't worked out like that. Most kids in the neighborhood are at camp or they're inside watching TV or playing video games.

When I try to encourage my kids to go outside more, I get a lot of grumbling and push back. Is it possible this generation has just...forgotten how to play? Are the phones and tablets to blame for this strange phenomenon? One dad recently had the brilliant idea to take his kids to the park, take away their phones, and force them to go play. The results were...not exactly what he was hoping for.

"It was a nice day outside," Charles Lavea told Newsweek. "I thought we could go get food and eat at the park. I took my daughters' devices, phones and iPads, off them and left them at home. I wanted them to get some sun and fresh air, so we went."

kids, playing, playing outside, fresh air, no screens Levea probably envisioned something like this. Canva Photos

In footage shared by Lavea on TikTok, you can see what happened next. His two girls are shown sitting on swings, forlornly swaying back and forth, not knowing what to do with themselves. You can tell they're just disassociating until dad's weird little experiment is over. They would rather be anywhere else in the world. Specifically, they'd like to check in on what's going on on their phones. It's all over their faces and in their sad, hunched body language.

Watch the comical video here:

@lifewithlaveas

This generation man 🤣🤣🤦 I remember growing up all we did was play at the park with the kids in the neighbourhood 🤷 #lifewithlaveas #girldad #funnymoments #trendingsound #titanicflutefail #tiktokparent #viralvideos #fyp

Commenters had a field day, and most agreed: Kids "these days" don't know how to play outside.

"Bro when I was that age me and my sista be seeing who can swing the highest and jump off the swing on our feet"

"They would ratha watch other kids playing from there devices"

"Kids these days won't know the struggles we been through since the 80s - 90s kids been through with no phones, gaming pc, iPhone, Samsung, tablets, Facebook, tiktok, YouTube & Instagram wasn't invented. Even internet was hard to get when we use to have dial-up internet back then."

"Honestly the kids nowadays have no idea how to play outside eh? My kids too 😂🙈 I used to run out the door and never came back til the street lights turned on."

Bluey, kids, outside play, 80s, 90s, no screens Things were different when we were kids. media1.tenor.com

The data backs it up. There's been a shocking decline in how often kids play outside in the last couple of decades. One study estimates only six percent of kids aged nine to thirteen regularly play outside unsupervised.

But is it as simple as saying that phones and tablets have rewired our kid's brains so the fun of playing outside can't keep up with the quick and easy dopamine hits found on screens? That's part of the problem, sure. But did you know that only around 20% of kids walk or bike to school, compared to 70% of parents who did so when they were young? That's not kids' fault, and it's definitely not because they're in their room playing on their iPads. It's because our culture has stoked so much fear in parents that our kids will be kidnapped or hit by a car that we rarely let them out of our sight anymore.

Kids have less unstructured free time than they did in the past, too. Your average kid is enrolled in more sports, clubs, and extracurriculars than ever before. Those are generally good things on their own—these activities challenge them, teach them new skills, and help them make new friends. But it doesn't leave them a lot of time to flex their imagination and invent silly outside games with other kids, and that time is important too.

imagination, kids, playing, play outside, games imagination GIF Giphy

It's easy to grumble about how kids are obsessed with their devices—and, of course, genuinely laugh when dads like Lavea show that their kids barely know how to use a swing set—but change is going to have to start with us parents. The screens aren't going anywhere. Time spent playing outside is so good for a child's mind, body, and soul. We may just have to awkwardly force them into it a little more often, and that might mean pushing our own fears aside, or (the scariest thing of all) putting our own phones down to lead the way, too.

This article originally appeared in February. It has been updated.

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