POLL: ADHD, real or imagined?

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Teachers are heroes, Depaara, no doubt about it. And I completely agree that a good teacher is very likely to notice traits and behaviors in students that parents will either miss, ignore, or deny. My problem comes in when society at large thinks it can raise a child better that the parents can and allows some agency to say "The school says you need Ritalin, so here's your dose!" without giving the parents - or even a doctor, for cryin' out loud! - a final say.

 

I withdraw my duel challenge, now knowing what you're truly talking about.

I remember as a kid, if it was something interesting, like a video game, I could pay attention, but if it was something I didn't find interesting, like school, I was fidgety and kept bugging other kids, I realize that when I'm off the meds, a good way to describe it is that everything seems like a good idea. No, not so much that, but nothing really seems like a bad idea at the time. My parents weren't convinced either, so they did a test when I was quite young. They had three different things to try. One was regular medication, one was sugar in the shape of the meds, and one was half-strenght meds. We were given enough of each to last a week, and weren't told which week had which pills. I wasn't told anything, of course. Apparently, I had no change with the placebo, I was better behaved than normal with the half-strength, and my parents thought they had flipped a switch from crazy to good with the regualar. I've been taking pills for close to 14 years now, and it really has helped me. I don't know what effect it has on people without ADD/ADHD, but the hyper-focused zombies portrayed on TV aren't anything like me.

You know, there are people I don't like about this. They treat me like I have the intellect of a 4-year old, if not directly, I can see it in their eyes. I have something that is classified as a disability, I take Ritalin, so I must be stupid. I've never had much tolerance for that.

 

Heh, it's untrue that ADHD is imagined as a separate unit and in fact consisting of low IQ, short attention span, unwillingness to learn etc. My own brother shows similar symptoms, only on a lesser scale (still needing to see a psychologist from time to time) and he isn't a bad student. Unwillingness to learn? Not really. Only unwillingness to study, but probably below that of my own halved. IQ? No smaller than 130. Concentration problems? Well, just give him a game and try to elicit a basic short answer from him

However, I do think that much of it is just uncontrolled aggression, aggression that is not dealt with, aggression that is not pointed out - and to some degree lack of compassion.

But of course there will always be kids and parents hiding behind ADHD label to give the kid a perk he's not deserving of and make his life easier as it's practiced most notably with dyslexia

 

Ok, so it's rare. Really rare. So rare in fact that only around 50% of the people in this thread claim to know one, or be one. I won't go any further in that, accuse me of flaming if you will.

I actually thought I had ADHD when I was a kid. But granted that I was merely over-energetic, certainly not someone suffering from a very real disorder. I've never known one or heard of one with the said problem.

 

I think it exists. ADHD iirc is partly explained by a theory that these people are under-stimulated. They get bored easily. It is thought that they are hyperactive to get the additional stimulus they need.

The stimulus can be purely optical even: A test has found that ADHD kids work more concentrated when writing on coloured paper - of course, the colour has to be changed regularly to prevent the effect to wear off. That also is meant to explain why ritalin, a stimulating amphetamine, works to settle them down. That, in comparison to the paper, has rised concerns about generous medication of "ADHD suspects" with ritalin - why give them drugs when something less grave might work too?

ADHD iirc is situation dependent. ADHD kids that can't hold still in school may be totally calm and conentrated in other situations. While maybe beeing unable to follow the path of a school-lesson they can be easily able to spend hours at the comp, playing a game - calm and concentrated.

This, of course, makes it different to fix. You have to find the under-stimulating situation to find the symptoms. That is one of the reasons why some people tend to say it is imagined. They make their tests in an artificial lab environment, in a new and interesting environment - not really a surprise that the probant is concentrated then - if under-stimulation is the clue.

Personally I find the under-stimulation theory striking. But as I don't know much about psychology that's not much worth

 

Heh, Foradasthar, I understand you - I've nearly always hated to sit there until break. And hell, really disliked most kinds of classes. But I didn't claim ADHD

 

I'm sorry, but I don't think that boredom can be classified as an illness or a disease. I've been bored plenty. So what? Deal with it.

This is, of course, not to say there isn't ADHD. If, as mentioned before, you simply "can't" concentrate, then you have a medical problem. But lack of motivation is not a medical problem, it's a character problem. Trying to solve that with drugs is foolish, IMHO. Ragusa's post interested me; if ADHD is defined as under-stimulation rather than inability to focus, then I can't understand using invasive treatments over non-invasive ones. At least not without a cynical outlook (drugs make people money and save a great deal of effort on those involved in the child's life).

 

I beleive that it is a combination of diet (all the chemicals and additives today!) and social environment. Some people can't operate in more than one on one situations, need extra attention or simply hate the environemnt they are in.

I do disagree with some of the medication used. Modified heroine is hardly a good thing for kids to take. (This is how I had it explained to me, so don't sue me.)

I was in a class with a kid diagnosed as having it, but I reckon part of it was his crappy teacher and boring schoolwork. There were other troublesome kids too that were do so diagnosed. Hmmmm.

None of my 4 kids has it. Perhaps I'm lucky? I am fairly sure that diet and/or allergies play a large part.

 

it probably exists. but im figuring it's being diagnosed way more than it should be. And even if the person does have it, it's probably due to an environmental/cultural factor instead of something biological.

I bet if you looked at how many kids in North America were diagnosed with ADHD per capita vs. any non-North American place, the numbers would be entirely different.

 

I have a suspicion that my brother has it. He's a total $£^$*&. He thinks it's funny to make my 20 month old son cry by shouting at him. He likes to scream and shout for no apparent reason, and is always doing stupid things just to get attention.

edit: He's 17 BTW. So it's either that or schizophrenia.

 

Hey Shell...have you tried kicking his ass? That might help. At the very least, YOU'LL feel better!

Seriously though, it might be that. How are his grades? Can he do any one activity (playing video games, reading, etc.) that require any kind of concentration for 30 minutes at a time or longer? Less? If longer, he's probably just looking for attention or maybe he has a mild form of ADHD. But if he seriously can't sit still and focus for more than a few minutes, it may be worth looking into if you can.

 

Here's my ADHD story...

When my younger brother was very young (in first grade, I believe) his doctor diagnosed him with ADHD. He was doing fairly poorly in school, having a hard time concentrating, and was overly (almost uncontrollably) energetic. The end result was that he was put on Ritalin for a time. He hated it, my parents hated it, even his teacher said that it changed his personality too much. He went from being Aaron to being a fairly listless version of Aaron. When they finally realized that anyone with ADHD couldn't possibly sit and play video games for as long as he did... they took him off of it,and just regulated him a little more. Amazing that all he needed was a little more parental control. And that a doctor would diagnose ADHD before suggesting a little more parental control.

 

I believe it exists, but not everyone who is classified having it does really have it. They just want it to get some slack in school or something. My friend has ADD, its not the same as ADHD, but some days when your with him you can really tell. Like he will have trouble sitting still, paying attention in class, taking long tests and etc.