It may exist but more like one case in every ten that is diagnosed. You ignore the totally artificial enviroment of the elementary classroom. Boys are naturally more active than girls; they are taught by women who expect boys to behave like girls. In many schools, even recess has been abolished. This used to let high energy kids—and there are always some girls who fit this description also—throw off the excess energy. Add to this the change in the psychiatric industry, where psycholoanalysis has been abandoned in favor of the new drugs. Clinical depression is something real, but often patients are simply a matter of people who are unhappy and neurotic simply because they feel they ought to be happy all the time and, like being what it really is, they are not. So billions of upper and billions of downers. Many of these hyper kids would be better off have some wine coolers in their lunch than taken the R. medicine.
A psychiatrist who I recently spoke to mentioned that ADHD was routinely over-diagnosed in children. He said it was like a fad in diagnosis. Parents would complain, doctors would try medications, children would become drugged and “magically” behave more... and parents would then shut up.
He didn’t say that ADHD doesn’t exist. But he did say that he believed teachers and parents were calling for drastic behavioral changes, when none were actually necessary.
I believe parents should take more responsibility and learn about an illness and the medical consequences before approaching a specialist. Education will protect more children from a mis-diagnosis.
“It may exist but more like one case in every ten that is diagnosed. You ignore the totally artificial enviroment of the elementary classroom. Boys are naturally more active than girls; they are taught by women who expect boys to behave like girls”
This excuse is frequently used, but more likely the problem is DISCIPLINE - not “disease” or sex. I really don’t like the excuse of “boys will be boys”. Yes, boys might be more active, but that doesn’t excuse obnoxious behavior.
Of course, sometimes the definition of “hyper” has been dumbed-down, too.
Agreed, but the doctor in question is saying far more than that...he's saying it doesn't exist and it's ALL just a cabal.
You ignore the totally artificial enviroment of the elementary classroom. Boys are naturally more active than girls; they are taught by women who expect boys to behave like girls.
I assure you that I fully appreciate that. I'm also aware of the details of brain development that makes some people not able to learn in certain ways - such as by reading - at certain ages. The ban against any form of physical contact is problematic too. Boys especially tend to learn from tactile interaction and physical manipulation. I've met some young boys that don't seem to learn if someone is not touching them at the time (like a hand on the shoulder), or that don't seem to get things unless spanking is periodically involved - but are utterly unstressed by the spanking.
There are different ways of learning, and different ways of processing information. For example, some people process math visually, some audibly, some spatially/symbolically. Some few can switch between the methods at will.
Yep. The most common effect of long term therapy is...addiction to therapy - not improvement. Many become more despondent in general, but attach a positive value to the therapy, as it means they are doing something, and it offers hope...all the while it messes them up further. None of which is to say that no one benefits, or even that many don't benefit, or that it may not help one time and not another.
We also had P.E. class in addition to recess. We played “sock ‘em” (dodge ball) and other great energy burning games.