Comment Re:Disorders of social behavior (Score 1) 132
I don't disagree that ADHD is often misdiagnosed in children, especially boys. And treatment far too often is to go straight for the meds. And if they don't work, try a higher dose! It really is a sad state of affairs.
However, as someone who actually suffers from ADHD, I felt the need to comment on your post, because there is also a certain element of our society who thinks it is a completely made up disorder, and your post might be construed to convey that notion. I don't know if that was your intention or not, but I just want to point out that there are in fact children out there who do need medication to function at school and at life in general. The working theory is that there are measurable, structural differences in the ADHD brain, which studies have born out. I hate the misconception that you "grow out" of ADHD. You don't. If your kid grew out of it, your child was probably just a normal child who then grew up to develop the ability to focus at will. In cases like mine, I still require medication to do a lot of normal activities. Sure, I can get by without it, and I even do that intentionally from time to time (I hate taking amphetamines daily). But I am... off. I leave sinks running for hours after washing my hands (three times this month). I leave laundry in the washer soaking wet until the next day. I sometimes have trouble holding conversations with people because my head drowns out their speech with its own incessant noise. And my job performance (computational physics, requires detailed focus) suffers. It's not a lack of willpower. And it's not just sometimes (everyone can get distracted from time to time), it is a daily struggle to stay on task. It's a constant stream of noise in my head that doesn't allow me to focus on much of anything without great effort.
The problem with children is that the symptoms present as a hatred of homework and school, which is a common and not unreasonable reaction that boys have to school. And it's really hard to know what a child means when they say "I can't focus on my homework" because to children that probably means the same thing as "I don't want to focus on my homework"http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/07/03/1634215/common-medications-sway-moral-judgment#. A mature adult can more straightforwardly tell you, "I want/need to do task A, but I can't seem to focus on it or finish it and it drives me crazy." Better diagnostics are absolutely necessary, especially when we are talking about giving amphetamines to developing young brains. I won't do it to my children unless I am absolutely 100% sure of what it is. When the problem is bad, real, and affecting their grades and social development, and all other counselling approaches have failed. A few dirty pictures and a 'forgotten' homework assignment or two are not enough. Not even close.
However, as someone who actually suffers from ADHD, I felt the need to comment on your post, because there is also a certain element of our society who thinks it is a completely made up disorder, and your post might be construed to convey that notion. I don't know if that was your intention or not, but I just want to point out that there are in fact children out there who do need medication to function at school and at life in general. The working theory is that there are measurable, structural differences in the ADHD brain, which studies have born out. I hate the misconception that you "grow out" of ADHD. You don't. If your kid grew out of it, your child was probably just a normal child who then grew up to develop the ability to focus at will. In cases like mine, I still require medication to do a lot of normal activities. Sure, I can get by without it, and I even do that intentionally from time to time (I hate taking amphetamines daily). But I am... off. I leave sinks running for hours after washing my hands (three times this month). I leave laundry in the washer soaking wet until the next day. I sometimes have trouble holding conversations with people because my head drowns out their speech with its own incessant noise. And my job performance (computational physics, requires detailed focus) suffers. It's not a lack of willpower. And it's not just sometimes (everyone can get distracted from time to time), it is a daily struggle to stay on task. It's a constant stream of noise in my head that doesn't allow me to focus on much of anything without great effort.
The problem with children is that the symptoms present as a hatred of homework and school, which is a common and not unreasonable reaction that boys have to school. And it's really hard to know what a child means when they say "I can't focus on my homework" because to children that probably means the same thing as "I don't want to focus on my homework"http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/07/03/1634215/common-medications-sway-moral-judgment#. A mature adult can more straightforwardly tell you, "I want/need to do task A, but I can't seem to focus on it or finish it and it drives me crazy." Better diagnostics are absolutely necessary, especially when we are talking about giving amphetamines to developing young brains. I won't do it to my children unless I am absolutely 100% sure of what it is. When the problem is bad, real, and affecting their grades and social development, and all other counselling approaches have failed. A few dirty pictures and a 'forgotten' homework assignment or two are not enough. Not even close.