Posted on 03/18/2014 10:29:27 AM PDT by Paladins Prayer
The child would daydream in class, his elementary-school teachers said. He often just didn’t pay attention the way they would have liked. This was before the age of prevalent ADHD diagnoses and Ritalin, so no remedy was at hand, either. If one had been, though, who knows what he might have been?
Perhaps not co-valedictorian of his school — which he was.
I was that child. And were I attending school today and especially if my behavior had been worse, it’s likely I’d have received that fashionable diagnosis. And why not? It seems everyone now could have ADHD.
This point is made by Dr. Richard Saul, who has been practicing behavioral neurology for 50 years and is the author of the new book ADHD Does Not Exist. In a March 14 Time piece he writes:
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
“How come Asian kids don’t have any of these trumped up maladies?”
They have:
A recent systematic review indicated that the estimated worldwide prevalence of ADHD symptoms is 5.3%, with 7% for children and 4% for Asians. The review also found that studies relying on evaluation of symptoms by parents had higher prevalence rates. In our study, the overall prevalence of ADHD symptoms from teacher evaluations was 4.3%.
In summary, our findings suggest a large discrepancy in the prevalence of ADHD symptoms in preschool children based on evaluation by parents or teachers. The results imply that compared to teachers, parents consider their children’s symptoms much more serious. Thus, using parents to diagnose ADHD symptoms based on DSM criteria may be inappropriate for ADHD screening. However, since the diagnosis of ADHD should be performed in multiple settings, alternative methods of evaluating a child’s behavior at home need to be developed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684776/
Autism is over-diagnosed, but full-blown autism is at least a real condition. ADHD is bogus. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t kids who exhibit the “symptoms” in question, just that those symptoms are due to parenting, not brain abnormalities.
all the drugs are for is to dumb down the smart kids to the lowest common denometer!
I was just wondering about the baby formulas fed to kids today. what effects have the changes to the formulas caused in our kids and are those changes corresponding to the rise in autism and ADHD which does occur occasionally.
Great post. I agree. I know of two fellows who had serious allergies in childhood that were mistaken for "bad" behavior. They suffered at school and at home. Food and pollen allergies can often manifest as hyperactivity and an inability to control one's small motor skills (handwriting goes all wonky during an attack) or sit still.
Children with food and pollen allergies suffer most in spring and fall, just when teachers are evaluatiing them the most. Give a child with mild milk, wheat and nut allergies the typical peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk, eaten near an open window, and watch him or her melt down due to the overload.
Of course,if one reads the article (i know, who does that?), you’ll find that the author is simply saying that the umbrella we call ADHD is really a bunch of other symptoms which can and should be addressed individually with medications/therapy.
So the umbrella doesn’t exist as such, it is just a convenient means to discuss a bunch of related symptoms.
A far cry from saying that ADHD doesn’t exist.
Another type of child who has valid brain function issues is the child who has had a surgical operation requiring general anesthesia during the first two years of life. The normal brain is growing so rapidly at that stage of life that even a few hours' interruption can cause some types of "hiccup" malfunction that seem like not paying attention.
what if you like it just a little bit?? LOL
..............jk
Obviously, you're a FRINO. ;)
Thank goodness, there are still some of those teachers.
“adhd has always been a war on boys”
Absolutely. I was a kid in the 1960’s in Kali. That State was trying to drug every kid with Ritalin. I don’t know a lazy 5 year old, but they sure wanted me on drugs. Thank God my dad was a medical officer in the Air Force and knew better. So, to combat me being a typical active child they thought deeming me ‘retarded’ would mean they could send me to special classes so they didn’t have to deal with me. That didn’t work, either. Dad got that nixed. Tests showed I had an IQ off the charts and they couldn’t send me anyplace.
Nonsense. You sound like Harry Reid calling the folks here with actual real life experiences liars because you don't agree that what has occurred to them has actually occurred.
“I was just wondering about the baby formulas fed to kids today. what effects have the changes to the formulas caused in our kids and are those changes corresponding to the rise in autism and ADHD which does occur occasionally.”
Funny that you bring that up as many of the formulas have soy in them which is a neurotoxin. Soy should NOT be consumed, particularly by children.
The problem is that we’ve dumbed “normal” schooling down the level of Special Ed and the smart kids are acting out, reading books on their during class, etc.
But at least no child is left behind. Sigh.
How come all these diseases didn’t exist 200 years ago? Credit the quack from Vienna.
True. Same applies to “fibromyalgia” as it’s really an umbrella term because the docs can’t figure it out. The bottom line is that many maladies are caused by nutritional depletion which is a huge issue in society right now. Low soil content, filtered water, processed food, stress....all contribute to being under nourished. Kinda weird in America that this could be the case but it is.
ya think????
But...but... it's settled science!!!
/sarc
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.