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A Million Kids Misdiagnosed with ADHD?
Jamie was one of several people who submitted links to a story proclaiming that as many as a
million kids were misdiagnosed with ADHD simply for being the youngest and therefore least mature in their classes. Worse still, I wonder how many of those kids are permanently put on drugs.
I maybe a special case. But I was diagnosed as a kid with ADHD. However I refused to take the medicine all of my life(I still have ADHD). But not being medicated didn't affect me. I always had top grades, and now enjoying finishing my PhD.d In physics. Anyway I am not advocating abstaining medication. But my point is, that drugging the kids is not always the solution.
My fiance's son was recently accused of having ADHD by the social-workers masquerading as "teachers" at his school. See, unlike his older siblings, he doesn't LIKE school. It's not fun to him. He'd rather be outside running around, or shootin' zombies on the PS3, or just hanging out with Mom.
However, in today's Brave New World of elementary school, being "unhappy" is NOT ALLOWED and is a symptom of ADHD and depression. The "teachers" (and I will put quotes around the name because they were nothing more than armchair social workers) were hell-bent on getting him on ADHD. Not a single one of them was a medical doctor. But, they had all their ministry of education created "information sheets" that gave them a nice formula for identifying potential ADHD cases in the classes. And like the dutiful little Nazis they were, they religiously hunted down every kid that just wasn't happy enough for "further evaluation."
Fortunately, our family doctor did not agree. He put a stop to this nonsense. Maybe he's one of the few, but our doctor said "Maybe he just doesn't like going to school?" Someone give that man a candy apple for stating the bloody obvious.
Like it or not, ADHD is an industry. A LOT of money is being made off the over-prescription of Ritalin. Children are being unfairly "accused" of ADHD simply because they don't fit some happy shiny ideal that no child should ever be if they are truly healthy.
I HATED school when I was a kid. The popular vernacular for elementary school in my day was "jail." I guess nowadays I would have been dragged off and drugged up for daring to crack a frown at the teacher.
Sometimes a tough call.
I'm 35 now and got diagnosed with adhd 2 years ago.
I've been through some counseling and training via a "adhd for adults" program and started taking meds.
Man, has my life changed! For the better that is.....
Suddenly the things I do (or don't do) make a lot more sense. I've started learning and understanding my own behavior a lot better. The medication (Concerta supplemented with Ritalin) make me feel and act a lot more "normal" (whatever that is). I can now actually watch a complete movie without getting distracted and bored within 10 minutes. I can focus on my work and jobs a lot better, get things done a whole lot more..
So, for me getting that diagnose now in this stage of my life is almost a revelation...
But!
When I think of my childhood, I wouldn't have wanted that.
Yes, I was a annoying little son of a....Got bored very fast, always busy, with, well.. being busy.
I'm sure a lot of teachers would have executed me on the spot if they had the chance to do so. Later on I became a true wildchild. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll? Hah, that's what pussies do so to speak..
But I enjoyed every moment of it, wouldn't have wanted to miss that for a second.
Of course, I would never have known if I'd had started taking meds at a much younger age. But still... Looking back, I don't regret it.
I was just a kid, being a kid, though on natural steroids..
I'm glad they let me be.
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
My stepson has been tested twice for ADHD and both times they came out negative. The tests were recommended by his 1st and 3rd grade teachers (he is going into 7th now). He is one of the youngest kids in his class. However, he is in the gifted and talented program, has a high IQ and is currently reading books about the String Theory. We seek out teachers that can handle a child that is, probably, overall, smarter than they are. If we encounter a teacher who asks him to be tested, we show them the original 2 results. Then they can either suck it up or ask to have him moved to another class.
Alan
when my son was 4, he was in a very good pre-school. In the middle of the year he was moved up to the next age group ( 5 and 6 year olds. Luckily a girl was moved up at the same time. A month after the move, my wife and I were called in for a conference because the teacher had concerns about my son's behaviour. In the middle of the meeting, I asked a question about the age distribution in the class. The director and the teacher both looked at each other. You could almost see the light bulb going on. Of the 20 kids in the class, 10 were older 6 year olds, 8 were older 5 year olds. The other two were my son and the girl who had moved up from the 3 and 4 year old group. She was also having "issues". The meeting closed quickly with apologies.
I can guarantee you this. I would not be an engineer today if I did not have stimulants when I was a kid in elementary school on through high school. By college I needed it less as I started to grow out of it. The fact is that kids with ADD could do fine without it. However, our schools are run in a manner that is not conducive to teaching people with ADD. So parents have to choose between having a depressed delinquent child who likely will never have the chance to even try to reach their full potential, or drugs.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
I wonder if Doctors over diagnose ADHD for the same reasons they over diagnose depression.
Friend of mine is Doctor working for the UK National Heath Service and he's told me about how they can be offered cash incentives for prescribing certain drugs, particularly antidepressants. Consequently you go to the doctor with any vague symptoms there is a good chance you will walk away with low dosage Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors(SSRI).
The cash incentives avoid being bribes in a cunning way. If a doctor prescribes enough of a certain pill he gets invited to conferences where they apparently give them more information about the drugs they prescribe. Of course this is out of work hours and the drug companies feel they should compensate the doctors for their time, usually cash in hand with jaw dropping amounts and somehow the after parties end up in hotels with coke and hookers. ''Prescribe our drug and you can come to the next party! ''
I wish I didn't believe him but first hand I went to the doctors with a headache and lethargy and walked away with a months worth of venlafaxine though I never took them after reading the side effects list. 3 years later I passed all the tests to join the Intelligence Core in the British Army but failed the medical because I had apparently previously been diagnosed with depression.
Can't really say I'm all that surprised. The more responsible/seasoned parents out there pretty much called b.s. on this long ago and actually discipline their kids instead of medicating them.
I presume most of these diagnoses are based on kids simply being kids. They're packed with energy and ready for playtime at a moment's notice. The early years of schooling is/was geared towards training them to control that behavoir. What the heck happened?
My wife and I have two sons, ages 5 and 3. We long suspected our 5yr old of having/developing ADHD. We held off any official diagnosis or medication until the last few months, and the difference is quite noticeable. You need to understand that you're making a big mistake by equating ADHD with "kids need discipline". It's not that at all. Our 5yr old son can be behaving perfectly well (no discipline needed) yet still generally annoying the crap out of us (to be perfectly honest) when he's completely off meds. And don't get me wrong -- of course we love him dearly, and he's incredibly bright -- but before any medication, he could have difficulty holding his own attention long enough to complete a sentence, repeating a sentence fragment several times, then forgetting how to finish the phrase. "Daddy? Daddy, I want to go to ... I want to go .... can I..? ..." This is just one example of one symptom of his ADHD and I won't go into his entire behavior history and how the diagnosis was confirmed by our pediatrician.
For many kids with ADHD, the correct type/dosage of medication is like throwing them a lifesaver in rough waters. From your post, I'll assume you're not a medical professional, nor do you have children or close friends with children with ADHD. Though I shouldn't let online comments get under my skin, I'll tell you I take umbrage at your suggestion that I'm merely not providing discipline to my kids. I can assure you they get plenty of playtime, structure, discipline and so on. But when you're doing everything else right, and the ADHD remains, the logical step is to seek treatment of one kind or another. Medication may not be right for everyone, but it helps many.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
I have two questions:
- What would happen to him if he didn't take the medication?
- When was the medication invented?
I was diagnosed with ADHD in my adult years (mid 30's). Also dyslexia.
Anyways, I spent most of early school years being extremely frustrated. People didn't seem to understand the points of what I was saying. I didn't play well with others. I could do better if I applied myself. Don't seem to pay attention. etc.
In my teenage years, nothing really changed.
In my 20's I discovery herion and that it makes me feel so good that none of the frustration of dealing with people matter.
In my 30's, after 15 years of being a junkie and trying to stop being a junkie, I get to start seeing a shrink at the methadone clinic. We figure out that I'm ADHD (well, he figured that one out) and dyslexic (i started to notice something was wrong), got me on meds, and I had no problem getting off methadone and staying clean since then.
My life would be different now if I had found out about my ADHD (and dyslexia, and well, depression) back in my youth and if I had gotten medication for it. How different, no idea. Probably better in the long run, even though I don't really have any complaints.
By society's "norm" i'm a waste. disabled, living off the government.
By my goals, I have a my own place, a cat, computers, internet. I'm a slacker, taking this life off.
So, if i probably would of known about my problems, and taken meds, I'd probably be married, have 2.5 fat kids, probably have 3 cats, some crappy IT job, lots of bills, stress and ulcers. And worse, I'd probably work for microsoft.
Seriously, I can't say what my life would of been like, but I can safely say this:
My life has been better since I started taking meds for the ADHD.
Be seeing you...
I'm finally considering going on something for my Masters. I made it through all of mechanical engineering just on account that I was 'smart'. I've been able to get good reviews at work even though I feel like I only work 2 hours a day. The rest I spend on slashdot and fark or elsewhere on the internet. But somehow the ADHD has kept it such that I'll work in spurts and and surf and still get more work done than my peers.
It seems that /. has a different group consensus on ADHD (thankfully) but there are some places that think it is made up. That it's just 'kids being kids'. If you spend an hour with me in a 'boring' situation that I don't have my internet pacifier, I start making up things to do. Below is something that I wrote for another website on ADHD:
ADHD indeed does suck. On Welbutrin right now, but at times it makes me near manic. I mean I'm VERY productive but short term memory is nill (I can't remember where I would set a screw driver) and wouldn't work on something for more than 10 minutes at a time. (Opposed to 30 seconds at a time and switching jobs), I honestly would forget words and speaking came out like I had tics, but it's helped a bit.
My adult test for ADHD is sex. As long as I have a 'task' which is her pleasure. I'm all into it. I'm concentrating on something. There is however, no such thing as relaxing. Because as soon as I'm told to 'relax' and it's my turn, ADHD kicks in. "Ooh MyTurn.This feels good, hrm I wonder what that car sound was, cars I wonder where I parked my car, oh yeah in the garage next to that BMW, I wonder if I could get a free test ride. shiat losing erection, she looks like it's her, think sexy thoughts think sexy thoughts. Hrm, last time I had sex, that was last weekend, last weekend oh that was before I went to work, work I wonder if that simulation was finished running, crap I have a meeting on Monday, Monday that's labor day, no work labor day, labor day, stupid unions, probably the only thing they've ever given us, union contract expiring at work".
Repeat. There is a reason sex can take up to 45 minutes and NO it is not fun.
The only exception is when I either haven't had it in a LONG time (Long distance GF) or it's the first time with someone. Even the second time my brain goes "heh, already done this. What else is can I think about."
Only thing worse is when I've been cramming for a final on a subject and the brain tries to incorporate the two. Clutch friction plates, rotational intertia, wave motion, hell I have a sex.c file somewhere in my brain. "No baby, it's not you, I just can't figure out the switch statements for this subroutine."
THAT is ADHD.
The Welbutrin is so so. I think it severely affects my short term memory. When I'm taking it I can't multi-task because I'll forget what the other task was, so it does sort of force me to work on one thing. However at times it makes me talk like a stroke victim because I can't even speak.
I think it's important for ADHD kids to learn to deal with their differences (note: imho ADHD is not a disorder, or a problem, or a deficiency, we're just a particular set of personality traits that do not do well in modern social norms that require most people to sit still and perform repetitive tasks all day every day) without medication.
There is at least one personality researcher that believes the same thing. I believe I heard David Keirsey refer to these types of medications as behavioral modification through narcotherapy, and claimed that there is a strong correlation between personality types and the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD.
He has an interesting article on his site called Drugged Obedience: http://www.keirsey.com/drugged_ob.aspx