ADHD a fake disorder, neurologist-turned-author says

reply to post by the owlbear


Well one thing is for sure. We need to reanalyze our drug prescribing patterns. We are destroying a whole generation of kids with these drugs. It started back in the 90's and early 2000's when I was in school and has gotten worse in the last 10 or so years. Kids have a hard time taking responsibility for their actions. Did they mess up? There is probably a drug for that. Ugh...

Krazysh0t
reply to post by macman

 

It does for me. It makes me boring as hell. I can't stand it.

Ditto. I'm a freelance artist, and it tanked me while I was on it. My technical proficiency was great, but my creative process, and just... desire to create disappeared. It just goes to show how everyone is different.

Wrong.

reply to post by Krazysh0t

really???
Geez, maybe I am one of the very odd ones. It helps me out SOOO much.

I think the symptoms of this disease are very real but my beef with the current "cures" is that they push pills before exploring other areas.

For instance, it has been found that children with epilepsy have higher instances of ADD and when put on the traditional Ketogenic diet(high fat, medium protein, low carb 65/30/5) that their seizures and hyperactivity decreased by a huge percentage.

For some reason this diet isn't recommended to adults who are diagnosed with the disease prior to medication. In my opinion, long term medications should be a last resort after other avenues have been exhausted.

It is my belief that there is waaaay too many carbohydrates in the current diets and it is causing issues ranging anywhere from cancer to obesity to in this case ADHD symptoms in adults. I think the ketogenic diet is wonderful and it has changed the way I personally feel yet somehow it isn't promoted or even mentioned anywhere for any reason. Really odd but not so much considering how much money carbohydrates make(bread, corn syrup, yadda yadda). We have been trained to believe fats are bad yet bread will save our life, completely ass backwards.

Anyway, for anyone who has this disorder you may consider trying the ketogenic diet. It takes about two weeks for your body to adjust to the state of Ketosis but once you do it will change your life for the better.

How is ADD / ADHD unreal?

I couldn't even focus on this thread.

(a joke no offense op. )

reply to post by AutumnWitch657


Well thank you for the valued input into the thread. I'm sure your one word post that is against the T&C will go far to enlighten people and educate them about this topic.

Well, young man; 'back in the day' we used to call those kind of kids 'high energy'.

It took a lot of extra time and patience to raise a kid like that. They were always up to something! And they would act before considering the consequences!

It was a whole lot harder to teach them emotional control,too!

Reinforcing why something was right versus something that was wrong took 10 times as long, but when they finally caught on, they excelled far beyond their peers!

We used to go out of our way to find constructive things for these kids to do to keep them out of trouble, and challenge their minds.

Back in the day, they became some of our greatest thinkers and developers of new technology.

You can't really blame today's parents for the way things are now. Heck, society almost requires both parents to work,and, let's face it, these kids are just too much for one daycare /teacher to handle with all the other kids that conform to the 'norm'.

The doctors decreed it an illness, gave it an alphabet name, and created a magic pill to lull those rapid-firing brain cells to sleep! Glory be!

Raising a high-energy kid has never been easier! Still keeping you too busy? Up the dose! What the heck; the extra money you get from having them on SSI is just an added bonus.

Add a couple more kids to the family, tell the doctor they have the same symptoms ( doesn't matter if they do, or not; nobody ever checks anyway) add their monthly income to your bank account, give them their meds....and life is beautiful again!

No more getting up at the crack of dawn because you high-energy kid needs half the sleep you do!
No more extra time spent in providing a structured environment.
No more time invested enforcing your rules; they're too drugged up to disobey.

That little pill can create the near-perfect child. Why would any parent not use it?!

( Better living through modern chemistry.)

reply to post by OrphanApology


You are right. We need to pursue more non-traditional methods of help for these issues. Medication is the lazy person's way out and frankly I think laziness is a chief motivator for why these drugs are over-prescribed. Think about it. Any non-medicated help takes effort to maintain and keep on top of. Even the diet that you suggested in your post requires effort. The person needs to think about what they ingest every time they eat. It's much easier (and lazier) for a person to just pop a pill or two and be done with it.

reply to post by nugget1


Well said. Star for you (wish I could give you more ).

I think my post below yours parallels your line of thought pretty well. You allude to the laziness indirectly by talking about how it is easier to just give the kids pills and I agree. This is a serious problem and much of the problem can be laid at the feet of parents who are unwilling to take the time to raise their children correctly. Also, if you don't have the time to raise your children correctly, maybe think about not having more of them... Or any at all for that matter...

I've seen kids that were diagnosed with ADHD before and was able to see them when it was time to take their medicine...and after they had taken it. Before they took their meds, they were good kids but couldn't focus on anything for more than a short while. They made ME anxious just looking at them. After their meds, they were normal kids. Active and happy...but they could finish a task before forgetting on the way to it because they got distracted. There were three of them in the same family and all the kids and the mom suffered from it. I don't know how the dad survived with his sanity lol.

ADHD is real. It is definitely over diagnosed and probably over medicated, but talk ike this only hurts people that would benefit from medicine.

justreleased
How is ADD / ADHD unreal?

I couldn't even focus on this thread.

(a joke no offense op.

)

ADHD IS real. VERY real. It is a new term to say a high-energy person has a disease, market it, and reap the profits.

The human body is not synthetic, yet we nourish it with synthetic ingredients and expect it to function at peak performance.

I challenge all of you who claim to have ADHD, or have a child with ADHD to go on a fruit/ vegetable/ whole grain( NON GMO, of course!) diet for 30 days and tell me you find no difference.

I'll bet not a one of you will be willing to fore go your 'convenience' foods, soda and fast foods to prove me wrong. You'd rather starve- or pop a pill.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by Toadmund

 

Like I said in the OP, I have been diagnosed with ADD (in addition my dad has as well). I know for a fact what it can do to you and your life. I still function just fine with it and don't think medication is the answer. I don't believe you.

What you don't believe them just because you do fine without meds? Sounds a bit childish if you ask me.

What works for one may not work for another. Remember that.

Just because something doesn't work for you doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. Benadryl works for my sister with allergies but it makes me sick as a dog. So should I think she is lying because it doesn't work for me? Flexeril knocks my husband on his rear but for me it does absolutely nothing, even my doctor is surprised. Should I say they are lying? Get where I'm going. Not all meds work the same for everyone.

Your logic makes no sense.

As for ADHD being fake. I think it exists but I also think it is misdiagnosed far too much in children. I do think it is diagnosed in kids to get them on some pill which of course benefits the schools and pharmaceutical companies. I read recently that some schools get money for kids who are on such meds. Sick if you ask me. I will have to locate that and post it when I have some free time.

My brother was diagnosed ADHD as a kid and now he is far from ADHD. He is the complete opposite. My mom refused to let him be put on meds and he did just fine. She said it was him being a boy and growing up. Now my nephew on the other hand clearly would benefit from some form of medication because every other method does not work. My sister however is in denial that anything is wrong with him but that is an entirely different story. It is affecting him in school now and at home. Sometimes I agree meds work but they aren't for everyone.

Just remember not everyone has the same reaction to a medication. I have bi polar disorder and refuse meds because they all make me feel very uncomfortable and like a zombie. I have horrid side effects that make my symptoms worse so I choose not to take meds. I take something that works just fine for me and has but due to T&C and I can't really go any further on it.

macman
reply to post by Krazysh0t

 

really???
Geez, maybe I am one of the very odd ones. It helps me out SOOO much.

I am so sorry to hear that.

It has dumbed you down to my level- average mind.

The 'ADHD' people are the creative thinkers of our future!

There are techniques to learn more stable emotional control and rapid-firing thought control. I'm sorry you were not taught these. I know the emotional swings are horrendous!

The social adjustments can be very hard to deal with, but I think the rewards are worth the extra effort.

You are a special person. Your body can not function and remain healthy on the American 'artificial food' diet.

A pill has the magical ability to make you just like the rest of humanity. Why would you NOT want to embrace your unique gift?

nugget1
I challenge all of you who claim to have ADHD, or have a child with ADHD to go on a fruit/ vegetable/ whole grain( NON GMO, of course!) diet for 30 days and tell me you find no difference.

I'll bet not a one of you will be willing to fore go your 'convenience' foods, soda and fast foods to prove me wrong. You'd rather starve- or pop a pill.

There's a lot of clinical evidence supporting that, especially if the diet also includes a healthy degree of animal fat and protein (though no dairy). I know my kids respond amazingly to it. Their diet consists primarily of organic fruit and veggies, game (mostly moose and caribou) and wild caught salmon, and ancient grains. It isn't a subsistence diet because we do buy most of the fruit, veggies, and of course the grains, but it's a lot closer to a subsistence diet than the average child is fed. It's beyond ridiculous to poison children with chemical cocktails then feed them another poisonous chemical pill to offset the symptoms of the original posioning.

My son has ADHD--diagnosed by a psychologist (the one that can NOT prescribe medication)--and it is truly a severe case. Those of us who live with it (I have ADD...not professionally diagnosed, but believe me, I don't need a psychologist for this one) know full well that it is not made up. Yes, it is a collection of symptoms, as all disorders are, but that does not negate the severity of the issue.

You seem to blame parent who can not deal with hyper kids or the random thought patterns of their children, but in saying that, you truly show your ignorance as to what honest, severe cases are like.

Luckily, I have a wife who took the initiative, did the research, and realized that one of the main causes of his symptoms is an allergy to artificial food coloring. We have painstakingly removed all said food coloring from his diet (which isn't easy or cheap), and this has helped quite a bit, but it still has not cured the symptoms, especially the hyperactivity.

See, his hyperactivity is very difficult to deal with, and it got to the point in public schools that his teachers didn't know what to do to properly deal with his uncontrollable fidgeting, standing up, speaking out, and overall restlessness. With all of that comes an almost OCD need to constantly be touching things, and I mean almost everything he walks past he has to touch. It is a sub-symptom of the ADHD, and it is very hard to control.

Needless to say, my wife now homeschools him because the public school system could not handle him properly--I mean, really, taking away his recess is the best idea to them to get rid of his hyperactivity? The school systems are so far behind on understanding this that it forces many families to start homeschooling. My son, only in the third grade at this point, would almost throw up at the thought of going to school because he was always getting in trouble (due to many things that he truly can not control).

We deal with this on a daily basis, all without medicating our son. We don't trust the medications (or the doctors to prescribe the right ones if we did trust the meds) and we don't want our son's personality to change, because we love him the way that he is.

My point is that anyone who says that ADD/ADHD are not real disorders has no idea what they're talking about. It is an absolute truth that these disorders are over-diagnosed and used as a crutch by many, many inept parents, but for those of us who truly to deal with this day in and day out and opt not to use medication, but instead to treat it naturally, I have zero respect for anyone who tells me that it is not real.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Here's the thing, just about every person who has disagreed with the OP (and I guess me) have claimed to have ADHD or know someone with it. What do you think the odds of 100% of the people disagreeing with me actually having or knowing someone with it? Maybe just MAYBE the person they know (or themselves) were also misdiagnosed. I mean all these people (you included) claim to know ADHD people then without missing a beat say that you think it is over diagnosed. Well in order to agree with that, you have to actually locate people who are misdiagnosed. Also, how do we know that (like the article in the OP said) that this isn't just a collection of symptoms that when compiled together people label ADHD? Just because you (or someone you know) has a few of these symptoms and can be hard to deal with, doesn't automatically mean they have this mental illness.

Bronchitis and a chest cold share many of the same symptoms, but I don't take Bronchitis medicine when I get a chest cold. I take Mucinex.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


I work with yp as an agency worker in 10+ care homes and I will say from years of experience that his book is not worth reading or even talking about.

Concerts xl rittilin among other mood altering substances assists in settling adhd provided its administration is at the same time of the morning/evening every single day.

If you knew yp's with adhd then you know that mornings and bed times are difficult. Rittilan speeds them up to tire them out whilst the other brings their energies down. Approx 1 hour after administration the yps behaviors generaly become manageable.

Hope it helps

I always found it interesting what people determined was a "disability" and what was a "gift" or "talent". The determination is context based and relates to our societal structure.

ADHD has a set of properties and values metaphorically in the form of a shape that either fits or doesn't fit in "society" if it doesn't fit its a disability if it does...well then its a "gift" or "talent" or whatever.

I exhibit some of the properties and values of mild ADHD and have found a way to manage it and make it extremely useful...I sometimes consider it a superpower because it allows me to see things others miss. Music or anything with rhythm guides my focus and I can usually control it with which type of music I listen to. When I "skim" read I comprehend better than when I read at normal pace. When I read at normal pace I tend to have to re-read as my mind trails off into "outer-space". When I skim read it just feels like a constant flow of information that is easier for me to digest.

If superheroes couldn't turn their powers or special abilities OFF and ON (control) they would exhibit disability like symptoms. Imagine The Flash trying to go for a nice stroll down the beach if he couldn't control the On/Off status of his speed? Imagine Superman trying to function if he couldn't turn off his laser eyes or ability to fly...

There is a movie called "Knives Over Forks" that every one of you should watch- both the 'pros' and 'cons' on this issue.

It gives the results of many years of scientific research, and will change your beliefs about food.

It is available on Netflix, but I caution you; if you watch this documentary, you will have no option BUT to change your belief system about modern medicine and disease.

It covers heart disease, diabetes, cancer and others.

It is the analysis of scientific data; no agenda, no propaganda. Just the facts.

Caution: If you are afraid of the truth, or don't want to take personal responsibility for the choices you make in your life for yourself and your family, please do not watch. It will be a waste of your time; time you can never get back!