Time and ADHD in Danish Families: Mutual Affect Through Rhythm

Based on fieldwork in Danish families living with ADHD, we expand on Nielsen's insight that ADHD is experienced as a state of desynchronization by showing how family members' rhythms mutually affect each other. We argue that ADHD is not only a biological and psychiatric condition, but also a temporal and socially responsive phenomenon. The intensity of ADHD is influenced by mutual affect in families and by general life circumstances. Families constitute bodily networks through which sensations, moods, rhythms, and practices spread and are passed down through generations. Yet, families use various time work strategies to manage rhythm affect.