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ADHD does not exist [article says symptoms are real, but are caused by other things]
New York Post ^ | January 4, 2014 | Kyle Smith

Posted on 01/04/2014 11:11:27 PM PST by grundle

In private practice, Saul found himself wondering, what other problems do these patients have besides being easily distracted? One girl he treated, it turned out, was being disruptive in class because she couldn’t see the blackboard. Correct diagnois: myopia. She needed glasses, not drugs.

A 36-year-old man who complained about his addiction to online games and guessed he had ADHD, it turned out, was drinking too much coffee and sleeping only four to five hours a night. Correct diagnosis: sleep deprivation. He needed blackout shades, a white-noise machine and a program that shut all his devices off at midnight.

A young man who asked, “Can’t you just ask me a few questions and write me a prescription?” simply left the office when Saul started probing too deeply into whatever was ailing him.

One by one, nearly all of Saul’s patients turned out to have some disease other than ADHD, such as Tourette’s, OCD, fragile X syndrome (a genetic mutation linked to mental retardation), autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, learning disabilities or such familiar conditions as substance abuse, poor hearing or even giftedness. A boy who was disruptive and inattentive in math class (but no other) was, simply, bored by the material and needed to be advanced a grade to regain his concentration.

In a few cases, there was simply no diagnosis. One adult who thought she had ADHD and had been prescribed stimulants by another doctor got a different take from Saul. He advised her to instead return to her habit of exercising regularly and cut back on work hours.

“I now realize it wasn’t ADHD,” she told him later, pleased with the progress she made as a result. “It was just life.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


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To: MayflowerMadam
Kids who have “ADHD” now, used to be called brats. A few pops on the bottom was an effective cure.

Most ignorant statement on this thread. I grew up with an attention problem ... still have it. My dad could have beat me to a pulp (and did at times) and it wouldn't have changed a thing. And as has been mentioned already on here, it's not always about behavior .... it's about an inability to stay focused. I was not a disruptive kid ... pretty mild mannered, actually. I simply had problems making the good grades for lack of focus.

61 posted on 01/05/2014 8:14:04 AM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: billyboy15

Can’t explain it. Is it our foods? Is it something else? Who knows? But you can’t tell me it doesn’t exist ... I’ve experienced it first hand. And the medications available have come a long way since that Ritalin crap was used.


62 posted on 01/05/2014 8:18:31 AM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: grundle

There is a clinical test for ADHD. Most of the country doesn’t use it - they use the behavioral/observational diagnosis.

The clinical diagnosis has shown that at least 50% of behavioral diagnoses are wrong.

This article is a simple collection of anecdotal evidence - which proves absolutely nothing. It does serve to illustrate the over diagnosis inherent in the behavioral approach.


63 posted on 01/05/2014 8:19:38 AM PST by MortMan ("Marriage" as a legal concept is the state piggy backing on the Church.)
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To: goodwithagun

LOL. I have two sons, both adopted and both with very complex neurological issues. My older son is quite gifted verbally and the younger has very marked auditory processing and verbal issues.

As young boys they would get into disagreements. The older son would run verbal circles around his younger brother. The younger couldn’t defend his position verbally: he didn’t stand a chance. Eventually he would become frustrated and just haul off and deck his older sibling.

That usually ended the disagreement.

The older boy flees environmental stimulation. He couldn’t go into a school cafeteria because the cacophony of sounds would cause him to curl up in a ball. Public restrooms were a terror. I would go in and make sure they were empty, let him come in and do his business, let him exit, then I would flush the toilet for him. The sounds echoing off the tiles walls were terrifying.

The younger boy is the opposite. The more chaos and racket the better. So he tries to create that environment at home. TV blaring while the stereo and computers are running. Stir the dogs into a frenzy on top of that. And get your brother yelling, too.

That’s where a lot of the arguments started.


64 posted on 01/05/2014 8:27:37 AM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: al_c

I can explain it easily enough. DISCIPLINE and the KNOWLEDGE the student is responsible and accountable for all their behavior.

It worked before and it will work again. Get the F’n lawyers, hand wringers and bed wetters OUT of the classroom and make these children (and their parents) understand from day ONE in the school systems that bad behavior will NOT be tolerated.


65 posted on 01/05/2014 8:27:54 AM PST by billyboy15
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To: willywill

My momma fed us chocolate gravy on bread, then turned us lose on the schools.

Other kids showed no interest in learning because they thought the only work out there was to be a dirt poor farmer like their dads. They were too poor to leave the area.


66 posted on 01/05/2014 8:38:12 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: Nik Naym; dr_lew
Then there were kids like me who was constantly moving from place to place.

In one school the class was Literature, then English. Got pulled out and soon at a new school where the semesters were reversed. English, then Literature.
Got two doses of Lit, no English at all.

Same for Math and other classes. If you fell behind by being sick, you were left behind and never could catch up.

Wonder how I ever graduated! But I did learn a love of literature and history.

Years later, on my own, I caught up with Math and algebra, science and by my own study, electrical engineering.

67 posted on 01/05/2014 8:48:22 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: billyboy15

Once again ... it’s not just about bad behavior. I was not a behavior problem in my youth ... just couldn’t focus. And I see that same thing in today’s classrooms too ... and in my own kids. My wife is a teacher and has some really good kids in her class. Some focus fine, others don’t. She does not push parents to have them checked for ADHD, in fact that is against the law. And my kids are good kids ... never any behavior issues at school. High marks in that category even. But their inability to stay focused does cause them some problems.

Bad behavior is bad behavior ... not ADHD.


68 posted on 01/05/2014 9:29:56 AM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: dennisw

Thank you for that. Just sent it to my daughter. The first half of that story is my now 6 yr old grandsons first 4 yrs.
Finally at 4 she found a doctor who would treat him. For some reason they don’t want to diagnose the ailment and treat it before 5 yrs. Poor little guy and everyone else was totally miserable.


69 posted on 01/05/2014 9:35:41 AM PST by sheana
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To: sheana

You are welcome...
A wealth of niacin information at Andrew F Saul’s website http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html
\http://www.doctoryourself.com/

I take niacin for heart and circulation. The big names in niacin are Abram Hoffer who lived to 91 and Andrew F Saul. Here is their book http://www.amazon.com/Niacin-Real-Story-Abram-Hoffer-ebook/dp/B0074NDA1W

Andrew F Saul has a few youtube videos such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFN0cv5cpZQ


70 posted on 01/05/2014 10:09:03 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Is chocolate gravy a New Mexican thing? People look at me like Im an idiot when I even mention it.

Childhood nectar!


71 posted on 01/05/2014 10:10:18 AM PST by Delta 21 (If you like your freedom, you can keep your freedom. Period.)
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To: al_c

Don’t you love it? You aren’t spanking him hard enough! Why don’t you turn off the TV? Obviously his father is out of the picture!

I love online diagnoses. While there are many parents looking for a quick fix instead of actually being parents, what my family is experiencing has nothing to do with the ignorant statements I’ve listed above. We are learning to be amazed at what our son’s ADHD brings to our family in the form of his genius imagination. There are definitely frustrating times, and I have to remind myself often that our son processes things differently. I’m looking forward to great things from him.


72 posted on 01/05/2014 10:12:47 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people's than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: willywill

ADD / ADHD rates also skyrocketed when schools started getting rid of recess and limiting physical activity in PE.


73 posted on 01/05/2014 10:15:01 AM PST by tbw2
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To: dennisw

Yeah hubby takes niacin. Just had never heard of it being used for ODD, ADHD, and Bipolar.


74 posted on 01/05/2014 10:17:49 AM PST by sheana
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To: grundle

ADHD is a good scapegoat when adults claim this and aren’t willing to face what the real problem is.


75 posted on 01/05/2014 10:18:55 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Delta 21

Molé negro, as I recall. Don’t know if really traditionally Mexican though.


76 posted on 01/05/2014 10:19:32 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: goodwithagun

Special Education doesn’t mean a child is dumb. It means they need help in some way. It might be physical or occupational therapy. I know lots of former Special Education students who are very sucessful adults including college grads. Special Education in the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s was not a day care. But rather there were teachers who had a gift to help students most teachers in regular classrooms simply do not have. Mainstraming was a cruel HOAX.


77 posted on 01/05/2014 10:19:51 AM PST by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: cva66snipe

Special ed today is a joke. It is a babysitting service and the teachers pawn off the students in the name of mainstreaming in an effort to lessen their class loads. At the same time the regular ed teachers aren’t trained to deal with this (because they’re not spec ed teachers) and the students fall behind. In my school, most of the special ed students are low income whose parents were special ed. They don’t care as long as their kids get free breakfasts and lunches.


78 posted on 01/05/2014 10:29:25 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people's than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: Bryan24

What you are describing sounds more like C.A.P.D. and not ADD or ADD/ADHD. CAPD relates to what you read and hear and to how it is processed. Skipping lines or paragraphs reading is part of it.


79 posted on 01/05/2014 10:41:07 AM PST by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: Rutabega
Wow, thanks for the information! I have an almost five year old who I joke is either going to be a super genius or criminal because she is so clever. She has had sinus issues her entire life, but allergy medicine tends to make her even more wired. She has the ability to completely focus on things, so I never really considered that she was a candidate for ADHD, though her concentration abilities are more limited than my other three kids.

The sooner you can get her on allergy shots the less the damage done. I have to take both the shots and antihistamines.

80 posted on 01/05/2014 10:44:45 AM PST by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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