For decades, clinicians, especially those working with ASD and ADHD, have screamed for at least some acknowledgment of how unresolved childhood trauma impacts behavior in adulthood. The APA DSM paid lip service to this issue about eight years ago and has gradually increased its recognition of the effects of unresolved childhood trauma, but it still falls woefully short. Star Trek, however, has been able to address the issue of childhood trauma as well as adult trauma for almost 40 years.
Regarding ADHD, individuals with ADHD tend to have, on average, a 19-point higher IQ than neurotypicals, yet most with ADHD underperform compared to neurotypicals despite this advantage. Much of this underperformance is caused by childhood trauma. Let's look at the numbers: by age 12, the average child has heard 20,000 more negative comments, rejections, criticisms, judgments, and scoldings than neurotypical peers. This is the primary source of shame and negative self-talk that ADHDers often default to, which can lead to significant learning and occupational impairments if left unaddressed throughout life.
Fifty percent of court-mandated anger management cases involve undiagnosed ADHD adults. Recent research from Denmark indicates a direct link between unresolved childhood trauma related to ADHD and anger management issues later in life. When examining adults with anger problems, childhood trauma is always evident.
ADHDers are eight times more likely to be victims of sexual assault by age 14 compared to neurotypicals. Due to a strong desire to be seen, an ADHD child is far more vulnerable to grooming by pedophiles. Impulsivity draws ADHDers like insects to a bug zapper, making them easy targets for predators.
ADHDers are five times more likely to have the shit beaten out of them compared to neurotypicals, largely inflicted by undiagnosed ADHD adults who themselves could benefit from resolving their childhood trauma.
Despite all these challenges, removing ADHDers from the population would drastically slow innovation. Approximately 66 percent of successful Silicon Valley startups have at least one founder with ADHD. While many thrive in various fields, they do not constitute the majority of positions in the workforce.
Less than five percent of people with ADHD have had a truly supportive home environment with at least one parent advocating for them, or experienced a supportive school environment that made education feel less like an escape room, and avoided the landmines of childhood trauma that most people with ADHD face. For these individuals, 80 percent of their life’s challenges are manageable. The rest can usually be addressed through compensation strategies or seeking help when needed.
I once saw two female students with ADHD describing the different kinds of power chords their mothers used to beat them with, choke them with, and cut them with. These two young Black women have a higher IQ than you, do okay in class, and have other interests, but they would be excelling if they weren’t fighting their past. In both cases, they were diagnosed after school counselors recommended they get a proper diagnosis, which they did. However, their parents never continued with the necessary therapy because they feared their kids would rat their themselves out.
At last count, 93 percent of adult psychiatrists in this country who completed their four years of residency in adult psychiatry have had no instruction on diagnosing or treating ADHD. Yet, ADHD is the #1 neurological condition you’re born with. Less than 25 percent of adults properly diagnosed with ADHD received their diagnosis from their first psychiatrist. That results in a 75 percent failure rate in diagnoses. No other medical field has a failure rate as high as this. This, combined with a long-standing lack of awareness about the consequences of unresolved childhood trauma, is why many with ADHD are often misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder or bipolar disorder, leading them to receive treatments for years that fail to address the true underlying cause. See Demi Lovato.
Lastly, recent neurological research has shown that ADHD children who have experienced childhood trauma have a massive increase in white matter connectivity and density close to specific regions of the prefrontal cortex, whereas neurotypicals who have experienced equivalent trauma barely have a noticeable difference.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as part of his rehab for allegedly being a spy, Chief Miles O'Brien experiences false memories that cause him to develop PTSD. The rest of the episode focuses on O'Brien dealing with this artificial trauma to the point where he was ready to use a phaser on himself. This episode strongly resonated with me, as I was unaware I had undiagnosed PTSD from two childhood sexual assaults whose trauma was never addressed. It was after seeing a top ADHD psychiatrist that I realized that, like O'Brien, I too had PTSD.
Star Trek has always emphasized neurodivergence. Initially, it was Spock. Later, in TNG, they expanded the scope with Reginald Barkley. There were also episodes about Captain Picard dealing with trauma from being assimilated by the Borg and being held hostage by the Cardassians. Kurtzman Trek has successfully expanded stories to include more types of neurodivergence, trauma, and how trauma is resolved, reflecting society's growing awareness. It strikingly depicted a future where neurodivergent individuals feel included. For those of us who are neurodivergent, Starfleet never felt like an escape room. We have a place in the future.
Good for them!