Neal Boortz and ADD

www.boortz.com ^ | various | Neal Boortz

[Houmatt]

To say that mental health professionals have no credibility is naive.

Honey, really, you are way, way out of your league on this one.

I can name for you countless cases where mental health professionals have made gross misdiagnoses and destroyed people and their families for personal and financial gain.

Other than the obvious example of the American Psychological Association publishing in their journal the ridiculous claim children suffer no long term effects from sexual abuse, there was also the book The Courage To Heal. The book's authors, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, make the astonishing claim that EVERYONE has been sexually abused. If you say you have not, you either have repressed memory or you are in denial. I cannot tell you how many lives have been destroyed by that worthless waste of trees that is not fit to line birdcages with.

[thoughtomator]

I don't accept that as a sensible answer at all. I grew up in this information age society, and I exhibited nearly every symptom that is listed for ADD. Somehow, without being drugged up, I ended up becoming a normal human being with excellent mathematical and language skills. The same is true for most of the people I grew up with.

Normal childhood is being diagnosed as a disease. Humanity has been declared abnormal and subject to forced medication.

How children act today has no relationship to farms and 12 hour workdays. It is clearly traceable to television, an educational system which fails to either teach or challenge, and an abdication of parental responsibility.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The ability to focus appropriately seems to be the issue. Many autistic kids never learn to speak or read or perform basic self-care tasks, but will focus for hours on end on something like opening and shutting a cabinet door. Interrupting them form such tasks is difficult (sometimes causing them to become violent) and doesn't result in shifting their focus to some normal/productive activity. Frankly, it is much easier to focus on a simple repetitive task than on a task that requires some active thought and making choices. I was diagnosed with ADD at age 37, and know this from personal experience, in addition to having read a lot of research about it. If my boss asked me to get out a phone book and count the number of last names with more than 5 letters on each page, I'd have no trouble concentrating for hours on the task, without the aid of any drugs. But ask me to do something that requires thought, and in which the train of thought is frequently broken by tiny obstacles and the need to make choices or get some outside information to proceed, and I have real difficulty, which is greatly helped by Ritalin. The most annoying thing is the time lag between when concentration is broken and when realization that it has been broken kicks in, and for me this is where Ritalin has a clear positive effect.

[r9etb]

I have long been saying ADD is just an excuse for bad behavior. And then Neal Boortz comes along and validates it.

If you're feeling validated by a Neal Boortz claim, that's a sure sign you need to do more research.

[TheWillardHotel]

> It took YEARS of practice and still takes
strong willed CONSTANT disipline...


Welcome to the real world. Life is a struggle. Get used to it.


ADD/ADHD is a horrible fraud.

[thoughtomator]

Do some research. The age limits for good reading and fluent foreign language acquisition are very well established.

Except there are plenty of people who have learned to read or acquired a foreign language later in life and have done very well. Scratch another rationalization for kiddie crack.

If you assert it to be true, then you produce the research to back the claim.

[GovernmentShrinker]

See my post #137. It's not just ADD that's more prevalent in boys.

[iranger]

"I agree that, in general, children watch way too much television We are also the same ones that rolled a weed and smoked it, why would we do that...who are truely the smarter creatures?"

Sorry, this is not my quote which you are attributing to me.

[kegler4]

"What the school doesn't tell the parent is that the child's school record follws him eternally. Prospective employers will all know that the kid was drugged in order to function. Special Ed kids are generally ineligible as far as honors classes go, and are stigmatized for their entire adulthood."

Sheesh, not where I come from. My employers have never seen my school record because state law forbids it. I took Ritalin as child in the 60s and was never turned down for a job. I also took honors classes. And my daughter, who took Ritalin for 3 years, is taking almost every honors class her school offers. So where do you get YOUR info?

[SauronOfMordor]

This very complex issue is unfortunately being dominated by nutty extremists on both sides. There IS such a thing as ADD, and it IS being massively pseudo-diagnosed by adults who are lazy and/or stand to make a profit from either selling the drug or selling "special education" services".

The local school tried to get us to Ritalinize my middle daughter. We took her out and homeschooled her instead. The problem instead turned out to be hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). A change in diet (cutting out refined flour and sugar at breakfast time, and putting in lots of protein) worked wonders. I have a feeling that a decent number of kids diagnosed as ADD might just be the victims of bad diet

[clamper1797]

either I'm a liar or you're an idiot ... I chose the latter

[GovernmentShrinker]

Who has learned a foreign language FLUENTLY and WITHOUT AN ACCENT later in life? Ever listen to Henry Kissinger speak English? He came here from Germany as an adolescent. Same thing with reading -- sure people can learn to read later, but they can never learn the effortless reading that early readers usually acquire, which enables one to read for relaxation and to skim quickly through vast amounts of complex material.

[iranger]

"who are truely the smarter creatures?"

I have no doubts. Furthermore, I'm partial to Ben Franklin's famous quote: "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

[sharktrager]

You bet that a spanking will cure ADD. It may in some cases, but not anywhere near all.

[Houmatt]

If you're feeling validated by a Neal Boortz claim, that's a sure sign you need to do more research.

I am not sure what you are insinuating there, but I never claimed Boortz was an expert. He just happened to say in a public forum something that I have felt for a long time. For another, albeit better known, figure like him to echo my sentiments of the farce that is ADD/ADDHD/ODD is not a bad thing.

[Zavien Doombringer]

true to that, it was a mistake...and I don't know how that got there....

[TheLion]

Bump for later!

[FourPeas]

I can assure you, there is no ADD, ADHD or ODD that a good old fashioned spanking cannot fix.

Were this the case, my son would have absolutely no difficulties concentrating. Sadly, it's not.

[Conservababe]

My problem with medical diagnosis of behavioral problems in children is the abundance of persons hired just for this purpose.

I say this because my state has a traveling team of 'who knows what' medical experts affiliated with the state universities.

They visit daycare and preschools frequently and ask for referrels to a child that might need evaluation.

One day a note was left for my daughter picking up my two year old grandson from the principle of the school which is a private Christian one. The note said that this child needed to be evaluated and that all paperwork would be confidential.

My daughter and son-in-law went immediately to this principle. When asked why she wanted a referrel, she said that our child was possibly autistic because he rocks from side to side while listening to music. She admitted no other problems or symptonms were exhibited by him. My son-in-law laid the form in front of her and she had to admit that she was 'misinformed' that the evaluation was private. If they had signed permission, the information was public knowledge and would follow him.

They refused. They took him to their own fine pediatrician. He laughed and said that these people wouldn't have a job unless they drummed up business somehow or somewhere, but it could be serious if they had not brought him in for a visit. Evidently, a parent can be prosecuted for medical neglect if they refuse testing.

The pediatrician said he was a fine, healthy boy and probably musically inclined.

People, be very careful

[kegler4]

"Everytime there is a thread relating to Ritalin, I like to add this little piece of info:

Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland, wrote in her book, Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir, that Ritalin was the drug that caused her mother so many problems."

Yes, but this and some of the other replies about "zombies" conveniently overlooks the fact that every single drug out there, including aspirin, affects different people in different ways. And that's a medical fact. If Ritalin makes a person a zombie or completely changes the personality, it should NOT be taken. It did neither to either me or my daughter. And I was watching her closely.