ADHD doesnt exist

Everybodys talking about the big "Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder" that has now become a "worldwide Epidemic". If a child cant sit still all day, if it cant suppress its natural urge to play and move, the child is labelled "mentally ill". If a child is unwilling to be indocrinated by boring and useless information all day it is labeled "mentally ill". And then medicine is prescribed, parents asked to accompany their child to a therapist, weird treatments developed and Billions of Dollars wasted because the child wont CONFORM to the collectivist indoctrination-centers we call "school".

How ridiculous is that? If you show a kid "suffering" ADHD something interesting and relevant, he/she will get interested. If you let the kid move a little more, play a little more, enjoy a little more, it will get relaxed. Maybe a bit less ultra-violent-video-games and rapid-movement movies for the six year old. Maybe a bit less sugar for the youngster. And get some Humor into the classroom for goodness sake. As a teacher you need to look at the kid before you look at the Schoolbook. Too many teachers are underpaid and undereducated, staring at books and curricula instead of making a heart-to-heart connection with the kids.

Its not active, energetic and playful kids that need curing, its the deadbeats who think it is an illness to be alive.

[edit on 21-8-2010 by Skyfloating]

reply to post by Skyfloating


While I agree that psychiatic drugs (especially those for ADD/ADHD) are overprescribed, it is incredibly ignorant to use this as a basis to claim that the conditions simply don't exist. Though they are the minority of children on such drugs, there truly are children with ADD/ADHD. These can be socially and educationally crippling disorders when left untreated.

Using the logic you employed above, would you claim that staph infections don't exist due to antibiotics being overprescribed? What about urinary tract infections? Those are often treated prophylactically.

To see this sort of poor logic coming from a moderator is a bit troubling, to say the least.

[edit on 8/21/2010 by VneZonyDostupa]

reply to post by VneZonyDostupa


Woa, I actually fully agree with you!



OP is using faulty logic. Not only has the personality type for adhd/add existed probably since the beginning of man, it seems to be rapidly increasing. IMHO, this is a result of genetic susceptibilities and environmental exposures to a variety of synthetic chemicals and heavy metals over the time period of the developing psyche. I saw a study that linked adhd to preservatives and artificial colors/sweeteners. Once they were removed from the diet, the kids symptoms greatly diminished.

ADHD is surely real, but the falsehood lies in saying it's only treatable by pharmaceuticals, and that the diet isn't a major influence on these particular genetic expressions.

Originally posted by VneZonyDostupa
While I agree that psychiatic drugs (especially those for ADD/ADHD) are overprescribed, it is incredibly ignorant to use this as a basis to claim that the conditions simply don't exist.

Im not using overprescription as the basis for the claim that ADHD doesnt exist. My basis for saying ADHD doesnt exist is that being active and playful and not paying attention to a teachers monologue for hours is not a mental illness to me.

To see this sort of poor logic coming from a moderator is a bit troubling, to say the least.

Are you saying that people who differ from your worldview should not help out to Moderate Discussion Boards?

Originally posted by unityemissions
I saw a study that linked adhd to preservatives and artificial colors/sweeteners. Once they were removed from the diet, the kids symptoms greatly diminished.

Ive also seen that some "ADHD" is sweetener and sugar related.

reply to post by Skyfloating

Im not using overprescription as the basis for the claim that ADHD doesnt exist. My basis for saying ADHD doesnt exist is that being active and playful and not paying attention to a teachers monologue for hours is not a mental illness to me.

That is not the basis for determining ADD or ADHD diagnosis and to dumb it down to this is a huge disservice to the topic. I'm also very disappointed in the "research" that did or did not go into this thread.

[edit on 21-8-2010 by LadySkadi]

Originally posted by LadySkadi
I'm also very disappointed in the "research" that did or did not go into this thread.

You dont need any research to see that many of the kids labeled as "ADHD" are entirely fine...they're just not interested in sitting in a chair and shutting up for 7 hours straight.

I totally agree.

As the Mom of a fidgety, imaginative, passionate, impulsive seven year old, I can attest that most of the little boys that frequent my house are much the same. I use the term "spirited", I think that applies in every sense of the word.

I struggle everyday to help my child fit in with what society and school thinks is appropriate without squashing that part of his spirit that makes little boys so endearing. Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails can be quite charming.

I think the tide is turning though, I think people are realizing the unrealistic expectations that we are placing on children to be little adults as well as the horrible long-term implications of medicating children for our own convenience.

www.slate.com...

I hope that we get over this dysfunction - born, I truly believe, at the convenience of the American educational system and corporations everywhere in an effort to better manage people rather than inspire and set fire to human curiosity and ingenuity.

Otherwise, I don't see much of a future. Who will push the envelope? Who will invent? Who will challenge current belief systems? Who will question?

[edit on 21/8/2010 by kosmicjack]

reply to post by Skyfloating


Skyfloating.....

It's always a great pleasure to see you in the Medical Forum!

On the one hand.....

I don't agree with you when you state that ADHD "doesn't exist".

On the other hand.....

I believe ADHD is massively over-diagnosed & often used as an excuse for poor parenting of children.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not


[edit on 21-8-2010 by Maybe...maybe not]

reply to post by Skyfloating


Like everything it's a matter of degrees. As a onetime teacher, I have seen kids that can't concentrate on a task and are not a discipline problem or rambunctious. They were just zoned out.

What do you suggest; Let them stay in the Fog and not learn when they could be helped.

However I do agree that Ritalin is over prescribed but I also have seen it turn a kid that would have been diagnosed as retarded into a scholar.



[edit on 21-8-2010 by whaaa]

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by LadySkadi
I'm also very disappointed in the "research" that did or did not go into this thread.

You dont need any research to see that many of the kids labeled as "ADHD" are entirely fine...they're just not interested in sitting in a chair and shutting up for 7 hours straight.

You aren't listening or choosing not too. What you are describing is the labeling of children, rather than the determination of whether or not a mental illness/chemical imbalance is real and present. The over-diagnosis is a separate problem. That does not negate that ADHD/ADD is a real and verifiable disorder (that can be managed with care) in many cases, but it DOES exist.

reply to post by kosmicjack


Tell me about it. I was disciplined for being too imaginative, disciplined for being too active, disciplined for being too self-determined, disciplined for laughing, disciplined for loving...if I were in school today Id be one of the "mentally ill" ones.

Sorry Sky. ADHD is very real. It's genetic. My mother has it, I have it and 2 of my 3 kids as well. Growing up was a real chore. To control the body with the mind. Now a days they put the kids on drugs. How are they going to learn to control themselves? They wanted to up our daughter drugs and we told them NO! Personally I'd go drug free but I'm not the only parent in this house.

Originally posted by LadySkadi
in many cases, but it DOES exist.

In the cases Ive seen it doesnt exist. Ive seen perfectly normal kids diagnosed as ill and made docile with pills.

If in any case a disorder does exist, then treat it. But being active and having interest in other things than the teacher is not a disorder.

Originally posted by Maybe...maybe not
I believe ADHD is massively over-diagnosed & often used as an excuse for poor parenting of children.

And poor teachers as well. They want the kids to be zombies. Parent usually take teachers at their word. Hey, they're the professionals. Don't. The kids are your and just because some administrator would like to make teaching easier doesn't mean it should happen.

My son was ADHD.
He couldn't sit still. Was always tapping fingers, wiggling feet or legs, moving arms -- always something.
Doc did prescribe Ritalin - which made him worse.
I put him on high B vitamins. Calmed down within a week.
I wasn't aware of food dies and other chemicals in those days.
MSG is also a big player here. It is a neruotoxin.

"Decreased Levels of dopamine have been recently linked to ADHD:

www.forbes.com...

The link between MSG and ADHD now becomes even clearer - since glutamate in animal studies decreased dopamine."

www.msgtruth.org...

Originally posted by whaaa
Let them stay in the Fog and not learn when they could be helped.

If they improve, thats fine. But if "improvement" means they shut up and sit down and let themselves be indoctrinated, thats no improvement.

Originally posted by Maybe...maybe not

I believe ADHD is massively over-diagnosed & often used an excuse for poor parenting of children.

Or poor schooling.

Or soul-sucking working environments.

Or poor nutrition.

Or lack of exercise.

The reality is that humans have taken many, many milleniums to evolve and the world significantly changed in like a hundred years. There is bound to be a biological repercussion for such rapid change.

We are meant to roam. We are meant to explore. We are meant to move.

Instead, we spend our lives sitting. And having a box inform us instead of searching for answers and experiencing the world ourselves.

Originally posted by whaaa
reply to post by Skyfloating

 

Like everything it's a matter of degrees. As a onetime teacher, I have seen kids that can't concentrate on a task and are not a discipline problem or rambunctious. They were just zoned out.

What do you suggest; Let them stay in the Fog and not learn when they could be helped.

Well, in defense of some of the kids who zoned out, a lot of times these children have learning disorders, and may also be right-brained and/or gifted.

I have central auditory processing disorder, was right-brained, and academically beyond the class. I would zone-out because the material was lame, and it was much more beneficial to my educational experience to day-dream and create my own internal systems of figuring out the world.

Some of those that zone out aren't --duh-- they can also be the very bright.

I wasn't really adhd, though, I had a creative personality that switched back and forth between hyper-focus when interested in the material, to internally self-learning when not challenged.

Schools suck these days.

Originally posted by kosmicjack

We are meant to roam. We are meant to explore. We are meant to move.

Instead, we spend our lives sitting. And having a box inform us instead of searching for answers and experiencing the world ourselves.

Star from me to you!!

That's why I skipped out on 40+ days yearly in middle and high-school until getting my GED. No truancy, no being held back. They'd put me in the isolated box with a pile of home/class work, and exams that I'd plow through, acing most of the material.

I spent the rest of my time being a hoodlum and really getting an education on how the world works.