Posted on 01/17/2014 6:33:22 PM PST by Lorianne
After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.
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Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping youngsters succeed in school and beyond.
But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and called them “a national disaster of dangerous proportions.”
“The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it’s not. It’s preposterous,” Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. “This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And we put them and their young brains on speed pills.
THIS is the absolute source of all the spree shootings and school shootings. They are almost all speed freak pill poppers. It isn’t guns.
I have ADHD.
I take 12 year old Scotch to level out....
/s
maybe
I dunno
Not really
Bi-Polar?
total BS it’s nothing more than dumbing down inteligent kids to the lowest dumb shit in the class!
The overlooked common denominator (cough) is of course public education.
Stop drugging those Absolutely Disinterested & Dissatisfied with the prison of Public Education.
Long ago, back in my former life as a teacher, I saw that same thing several times. I had a kid who was pretty bright but never accomplished anything. Not hyper but never attentive. Never completed assignments, test, homework. One day, he started volunteering answers in class, taking notes, and his grades quickly shot up. No, he didn't seem stoned, he seemed alive finally.
I had several just like him over the years. I see less like that, so I am sure the meds are doing well for them.
I talked to his mother a few weeks later and she mentioned that he was on the med and asked me how he was doing. I was able to tell tell her when he began.
I had another kid who was just like him a couple years later who didn't want to take any medicine. He accomplished little in his classes.
Exactly. My senior year, I ended up with the two most dreaded teachers in the school, in English and Math. I was the top student in both classes, and for me the work was nearly effortless. After a while the math teacher even had to tell me to stop answering so many of the questions he posed in the classroom, so other students might have a chance to catch up (I usually ended up having to answer anyway, because so few others in the class were able to keep up with the level of work he demanded).
In college, the discussion days for my History course usually devolved into me vs the TA, with everyone else staring blankly, and I lost at least two roommates because I never had to study extensively even for difficult courses, and they couldn’t manage their studies with me relaxing around the house.
It always drives me crazy when people start spouting off about how the whole ADD thing is a scam or con and a way just to push unneeded drugs on kids. It’s not, or at least not only that. Some of us really need them.
My son was diagnosed with ADD at age 6. Medication got him through high school, although we still had a few rough patches. He quit taking it in his mid 20s and is now married, has a daughter (who has also been diagnosed as ADD), a steady job, and a mortgage. My 2 daughters were diagnosed with it but since it was mild and not causing problems in school, they never took medication for it before. My husband was diagnosed with it 20 years ago and takes daily medication, and I was informally diagnosed with the inattentive form, which I self treat with copious amounts of caffeine, lol.
I can spot an ADD person immediately after meeting and talking with them. It’s very apparent, and if medication helps their condition, I won’t begrudge them taking it. ADD is very real, and the people who claim it isn’t are full of it!
In other news.....researchers have found a cure for ADHD.
They found that cellulose has a dramatic effect upon the prevention and cure for the dreaded disease.
This amazing product can be found in wooden paddles wielded by men (dads) and applied to the backsides of little brats.
Isn’t this an amazing discovery?
Love this story. They kept trying to send my very high IQ son to vocational school in high school. He took the GED his sophomore year and his lowest score was 96 percentile. It sort of rocked them a bit and he went off to college. He worked on his social and warrior skills in college. He realized he needed to expand his skill sets. I see it over and over again, square peg round hole.
Which is why my grandson is in private school. We all pitch in on tuition. At that they had him take two years in one and are still adding more material.
Public school system has no place for those students who fall outside of a narrow band or who don’t fit in the “learning disabled” category. My son has said that if he were in school today, they would drug him.
I sometimes think that the school system actually kills the drive to learn.
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