Journal eno2001's Journal: ADD and TV OMG 2
Before I get deep into this, I'm going to say that this JE doesn't mean I don't believe in ADD. I'm sure there are people with ADD, but I just don't think there are nearly as many of them as schools, doctors and pharmaceutical corporations would have you believe. I, personally, think it is one of the most overdiagnosed disorders next to depression and anxiety disorder. The short of it is that "there ain't no pill to fix your problems, just get off your ass and change your perspective". No this isn't a rah rah speech to tell you that life is what you make it. I'm just saying that there are some aspects of your life that you can control and manipulate to great effect. Not to make you richer or more attracitve or whetever you desire, but to make yourself smarter. Knowledge is more powerful than money. (another rant for another day though...)
Seeing that I recently have become the parent of a really cool baby girl (October), the ADD worriers have been coming out of the wood work. The latest craze seems to be that ADD is closely linked to television. Most of the findings go back to two particular experts (I have great disdain for "experts") who both say that the fast editing styles of television, the flickering of the CRT itself and the slickly produced audio (what??? Are we supposed to keep our kids from listening to our copies of HHGTTG or Lord of the Rings audio productions too?) negatively affect the development of a child's brain resulting in a higher risk of ADD. The recommendations regarding this range from not allowing your kids who are under two (or five depending on where you read up on this) to watch television at all. Hmmm...
THINK PEOPLE!!! How many of us watched TV from age three up to the present? I know that I watched a good deal of television as a kid and I wouldn't say it affected me with ADD. If anything, people who know me personally think I have an unbelievable amount of patience and perseverance. However, I'm sure that if the schools were trolling the classrooms for ADD kids back in the 70s, I would have been pegged as one. Why? Well, for starters I found school immensely boring (except for science class at times. Many other times the classes were far behind what I already learned on my own at home). I also had a lot of trouble interacting with other kids. Where competition and aggression seemed to be an encouraged trait for all the other kids, I didn't care to compete.
Just as an example... when I was about seven, my mom tried to encourage me to play sports. When she asked me which sport I wanted to play, I said basketball since I was used to seeing the Harlem Globetrotters cartoons on the weekends. So, I got signed up for basketball. The first time at practice was fine because it was mostly friendly practicing of dribbling the ball and shooting hoops with no score being kept. I actually enjoyed this. The problem came when everyone assumed that I knew how to play basketball.
Up to that point in time, I assumed that basketball was a cooperative sports where both teams stood at opposite ends of the court and took turns shooting hoops. Everyone got a chance to shoot in a specific order and each team would take a turn. The team with the most members who had the most stylish shots would be the winners. This would have made the gae challenging and fun. But... I was so wrong. When we actually had our first game I tried taking a shot when I got the ball an I missed. I expected the ball to then be passed to the other team. When I saw one of my team mates grab the ball and try to defend it from the other team, I got mad. I went over to him and grabbed the ball and handed it to one of the kids on the other team. At this point everyone on my team is yelling at me and calling me all kinds of names. That was it. I just disconnected and wandered over to a corner to play by myself until my mom came to pick me up. I am pretty certain that any adult looking for ADD kids would have assumed I was one when they saw me off daydreaming in the corner.
But, I wasn't an ADD kid. The problem in the above example is that the coach assumed that kids on the team already knew how to play. First off, why would a kid that age know how to play a sport. Isn't that what the teams are for? To teach? The other problem is that due to society's encouragement of asshole behavior, the kids took the game too seriously. It would have been far more constructive of them (or better yet, the coach) to realize "whoa... this guy really doesn't know how to play. Let's have him and another kid (or the coach) sit out so they can talk the rules over".
Another thing that would have marked me as an ADD kids was that I spent at least four to six hours a day watching television between age three and age five. With school, that dropped to about two hours a day and only after the homework was done. According to the ADD folks I should have been a Ritalin candidate. However, none of that happened. I was lucky enough to grow up in a time when people weren't looking for a disorder to label normal childhood boredom with. I'm sorry, but kids get bored. And when they get bored they do strange things to amuse themselves. This is NOT a disease! What IS a disease is how our society tries to find a cure for every facet of life.
So now... society is telling me that I need to make sure my daughter doesn't set her eyes on TV set until three at earliest and six at the late end. I think this is ridiculous and I pity the children whose parents are going to subject them to this kind of abuse. I'm not saying TV is great and that kids should watch tons of it. But I certainly don't think it's evil and I'm not going to let some quacks make me feel guilty because my kid might let her eyes rest on a program that I'm watching in the room with her. Like everything, there needs to be a balance. I won't let her watch TV all day long. She's going to need to go outside, breath some fresh air, run, jump, walk in the park, etc... But, when it's raining outside and she's had a crack at her coloring books, toys and maybe heard a story and she's still looking for something to do, I'm going to crank up some old black and white comedies or maybe a few vintage cartoons for her. And I'll not feel one ounce of guilt because I don't intend for her upbringing to be any different than mine other than the fact that she's growing up in a much ore fucked up world than I did.
The self-righteous fools who think they are or will be "excellent parents" are only burying their heads in the sand from the real truth: NO ONE IS A GOOD PARENT. If you're a decent person, you will try hard and sometimes you'll succeed other times you'll fail. It doesn't matter how many or which books you read. It doesn't matter how much you try and prepare. YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL SOMETIMES. There is nothing wrong with this as it's the way parenting has been done for generation. Don't fall for the optimistic bullshit that's being foisted upon you. Just do your best to make sure that your kid can think for himself/herself. By giving your kid the ability to form real personal opnions and critical thinking skills, you will potentially arm your child well against any brand of idiot they come across.
Finally, I have to say that I doubt TV causes ADD in most cases. Excepting instances where we are talking about real genetic ADD, I would say that irresponsible and unattentive parenting causes ADD. Add to that the mounting drug abuse problem (as in pharmaceutical companies abusing citizens with prescription meds) in this country and I think that the second biggest cause of ADD is the financial needs of the "suits" that work at those companies.
Bottom line 1: TV is not bad if used in moderation.
Bottom Line 2: TV is bad if you're a complete idiot literalist who equates watching TV with 40+ hours of TV a week.
Bottom Line 3: Meds to solve every percieved psychological ill are bad if you haven't tried other method first (ie. stop eating refined white sugar!!! It's really bad for you and causes a LOT of illness that you may not realize!!!)
The root cause ... (Score:2)
ADD (Score:2)
Back when I was first diagnosed I went through all sorts of tests and evaluations, it was almost 2 years before the doctors prescribed any medications. Even then I only took them for 3 years before my Dad and I decided to stop when I was in 7th grade.
Recently I've considered having myself evaluated as an adult and perhaps getting some sort of prescription. Mostly because the la