The Truth About ADHD

While working in an outpatient child psychiatric treatment clinic several years ago I was appalled when the school year began. 

I lost count how many parents came in with their children because the teacher told them the child had ADHD and needed Ritalin.  This was very alarming.  First of all the teacher is diagnosing an illness and recommending a medication.  They have no training or education to do this!  Secondly, the docility of the parents who dutifully followed the teacher's instructions and brought the children to be medicated with what is none other than speed was frightening. 

Having worked in the school system the year previous I could imagine some of the teachers I had observed doing this.  They wanted children who were quiet and compliant.  Bright, precocious children with lots of energy and questions were often squelched and silenced to make teaching the class easier for the teacher.  I imagined it was these same teachers sending parents to the doctor with their children to have them medicated in order to make them more compliant. 

Now, as a child and family therapist in a homeless shelter, I am seeing so many children living in very traumatic and stressful situations being diagnosed with ADHD and medicated.  It's disturbing that at no point is the fact that they are homeless and have been living in households with domestic violence, abuse or substance abuse taken into account.  Many of these children are anxious because of their living situation, not ADHD.  Yet they are placed on various forms of speed in an attempt to "treat" them.

There are some interesting videos online about the diagnosing and treatment of ADHD which are extremely relevant to understanding ADHD.

A video on Youtube.com contains a conversation by a panel of psychiatrists at NIH who discuss the fact that they don't have a set criteria for diagnosing ADHD and the diagnosing reliability is highly questionable.  It's amazing to watch the doctors struggle and final admit that they cannot answer the question about what constitutes a child with ADHD.  At one point Dr. Vonnegut states that he relies on the teacher or the parent to diagnose the child!  He then states that "the diagnosis is a mess" and the "the profession keeps changing the diagnosis". 

Another video on Youtube.com discusses "The Myth of Adult ADHD" and the medicalization of psychological problems.  Dr. John Breeding, a psychologist, also discusses the diagnosis of ADHD versus the concept of "failure to adjust" on this video.  His discussion about ADHD is divided into three parts.  Part Two discusses alternative ways to view an active, busy child.  This is a much healthier, more appropriate way of viewing some of these children. 

 

Comments

[Concerned adult]

John Breeding is a Scientologist whose flavour or religious interest denies validity to ANY mental illness. They play on the unfounded fears of the public that psychiatry is a confused practice that victimizes unsuspecting people who are having difficulties in life. The scientology "Dr's" are engaged in what can only be described as a propaganda campaign .

It is a scientific fact that ADHD is a legitimate condition and it is one of the most studied of childhood and adulthood learning disorders. Noted differences in Brain architecture and functioning are visible with an MRI.

Maybe consider where your prejudice is coming from. Or go ahead and deny and discredit the experiences of the individuals and families involved and further the prejudice and mistreatment. Your choice.

[Kellen]

Dr. Breeding's religious views are not the topic here. Nor do I agree with him that all psychiatric disorders are without merit. I do find his comments about ADHD to be of merit.

My "prejudice" about ADHD comes from working with children in my office. As I've stated before, I have seen too many children who are very anxious as a result of their home environment, but they are labeled "ADHD" and placed on serious, Class II medications. That is my issue and concern, that we are medicating these children rather than treating the actual problem - the familial dysfunction.

It is not a scientific fact that ADHD is a legitimate condition. This "fact" has been seriously debated within the psychiatric community since the 1970's. Psychiatrists have a very hard time identifying the behaviors which constitute a diagnosis of ADHD and the criteria has been changed through the years. (You can see this being discussed in the video link above.)

I welcome your comments, but respectfully disagree with you.