Farmers are generally more cautious than Hunters. Farming doesn’t often demand that a person face short-term danger; Farmers learn, instead, to face the more long-term dangers like famine. They’re often better planners than they are fighters.

It’s derived from an old NLP technique called “breaking the logjam” and the very act of taking an action — even one limited to 5 minutes — often gets around all the internal chatter, rationalizations, fears, and complications around whatever it is we’re putting off. Genetic variants (such as the DRD4 7R allele, as well as others on DRD4 and DRD2) conferring susceptibility to ADHD are very frequent—implying that the trait had provided selective advantage in the past. [8] However, "it is unlikely that the observed bias towards nonsynonymous amino-acid changes has been achieved only by positive selection favoring the DRD4 7R allele because the bias can be found not only in VNTR motifs of the DRD4 7R allele but also in those of the other alleles", observed by more recent research—the DRD4 7R allele had no evidence for recent positive selection. [9] Furthermore, a recent 2020 study found that ADHD allele frequency has been decreasing for up to 35,000 years, indicating negative selection. [10] These conclusions, however, are still compatible with the theory: "Overall, our results are compatible with the mismatch theory for ADHD but suggest a much older time frame for the evolution of ADHD-associated alleles compared to previous hypotheses." it is transformative in thinking, explaining our "way of being" as "very primal". constantly alert to dangers and possible prey (others see that as distracted) ready to sprint at a moments notice; flight or flight always switched on, just as a Hunter-Gather (HG) would be. this book is a wonderful, joyful educator and extreme tear jerker, be prepared to hear some very painful stories that you will likely empathise with and have possibly experienced.But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Gary Paulsen said, “I am where I belong, and I belong where I am.” (A quote those of us here at Warrior Wellness Group live by, from his book, Brian’s Winter). This book was first published in 1993 and was updated in the decade and a half thereafter. The new 2019 edition includes several new chapters, as well as a few broad updates, but by and large, my original hypothesis still stands and, if anything, has been solidified and reinforced by the passage of time and discovery of new science, particularly in the field of genetics. Karen grabbed Shannon’s wrists and flipped her over on the bed, face down, and essentially fell on top of her, both of them facedown, holding her so she couldn’t hurt either herself or Karen, as Shannon continued to sputter and shriek and scream. (Her yells were so loud that Louise and I came over to find out what was going on.) Karen was talking Shannon down, saying, “It’s ok, you’re safe here, everything is going to be fine.” And after about four or five minutes (which is an incredibly long time for such behavior to persist), Shannon eventually depressurized and lay quietly on the bed, panting to catch her breath.

Similarly, Australia’s early white population was often descended from prisoners sent there by England: the misfits and malcontents of British society. I suspect a very large percentage were ADHD Hunters who couldn’t succeed as the Industrial Revolution “Farmer-ized” the British labor market and culture ended up on those prison ships that took Englishmen to both Australia and our State of Georgia when both were penal colonies. Since ADHD is a collection of skills and predilections necessary for the success and survival of a good Hunter, we’re left with the question, “What about non-ADHD people?” Where did their skills evolve from, and why do they represent the majority of the people in our culture? Now think of two things that you believe will happen some time before and after that event you just identified and point to them. People with a highly functional timeline will locate the one that will happen before much closer to their bodies, and the one that will happen later will be farther away than the other two. Excel at efficiently completing mundane tasks such as paying bills, sorting paperwork, and following complex company policies. the worldwide prevalence of adult ADHD is estimated at 2.5 percent” What is the Hunter vs. Farmer Hypothesis?The Hunter vs Farmer Theory claims that neurotypical individuals are the farmers. The farmers of today largely evolved from the gatherers of the past. This is why, in today’s modern world, hunter types (or ADHD individuals) can feel a heightened sense of chronic stress or feeling that we don’t belong. In 1989, at the age of 12, our middle child “hit the wall” in school. Most parents of ADHD children – or adults with ADHD – know exactly what hitting the wall means. It’s where a child has been faking it their entire academic life, paying attention twenty percent of the time (more or less), and somehow managing to pull a rabbit out of the hat at exam time. There are warning signs – extreme unevenness in their grades (they do spectacularly in those classes where they’ve bonded to the teacher, but poorly in those where they haven’t, regardless of how difficult the subject may be); last-minute work; constant reports of lost or missing papers and homework; a wounded expression crossing his face whenever the topic of school was brought up. But my wife, Louise, and I had managed to miss all of these. And now our son was in danger of failing one or two of his seventh grade classes. This book did for our family what years of being in and out of therapy failed to accomplish. It helped us to understand and appreciate each other’s unique way of doing and seeing. mother of an ADHD adolescent Janie Bowman It is refreshing to find a book that places ADHD in a framework that does not imply dysfunction. . . . The metaphor of a ‘hunter in a farmer’s world’ fits so many of the ADHD youngsters and adults with whom I have worked. Margaret (Peg) Dawson