1 in 9 American Kids Were Diagnosed With ADHD, New Study Finds (npr.org) 175
"About 1 in 9 children in the U.S., between the ages of 3 and 17, have been diagnosed with ADHD," reports NPR:
That's according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that calls attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder an "expanding public health concern."
Researchers found that in 2022, 7.1 million kids and adolescents in the U.S. had received an ADHD diagnosis — a million more children than in 2016. That jump in diagnoses was not surprising, given that the data was collected during the pandemic, says Melissa Danielson, a statistician with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and the study's lead author. She notes that other studies have found that many children experienced heightened stress, depression and anxiety during the pandemic. "A lot of those diagnoses... might have been the result of a child being assessed for a different diagnosis, something like anxiety or depression, and their clinician identifying that the child also had ADHD," Danielson says. The increase in diagnoses also comes amid growing awareness of ADHD — and the different ways that it can manifest in children...
The study, which appears in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, was based on data from the National Survey of Children's Health, which gathers detailed information from parents.
Researchers found that in 2022, 7.1 million kids and adolescents in the U.S. had received an ADHD diagnosis — a million more children than in 2016. That jump in diagnoses was not surprising, given that the data was collected during the pandemic, says Melissa Danielson, a statistician with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and the study's lead author. She notes that other studies have found that many children experienced heightened stress, depression and anxiety during the pandemic. "A lot of those diagnoses... might have been the result of a child being assessed for a different diagnosis, something like anxiety or depression, and their clinician identifying that the child also had ADHD," Danielson says. The increase in diagnoses also comes amid growing awareness of ADHD — and the different ways that it can manifest in children...
The study, which appears in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, was based on data from the National Survey of Children's Health, which gathers detailed information from parents.
TL;DNR (Score:5, Funny)
Will check it later cause the first part of the sentence sounded intere
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Too Long; Do Not Resuscitate? What a killer comment.
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You can't just break down individual pieces like that. In this context, DNR clearly refers to the Department of Natural Resources.
They all have /. accounts (Score:2)
Nt
The quiet part should be said now (Score:3)
- ADHD in girls and women - looked at as quirky and cute
- ADHD in boys and men - looked at as a threat by default, judged beforehand, and shunned by others
and for the moms of ADHD boys (Score:4, Interesting)
For the moms, most ADHD drugs are just baby doses of methamphetamine.
The media and teachers avoid the uncomfortable discussion of calling them meth. Anyone who has this prescription has to show ID an sign for them at the pharmacy as they are controlled substance with prescription tracking at the state and federal government level.
Take two of the most common ones:
Adderall falls into the amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, lisdexamfetamine class
Ritalin falls into the methylphenidate class
https://my.clevelandclinic.org... [clevelandclinic.org] and https://www.healthline.com/hea... [healthline.com]
ADHD drug effects
Increasing attention span.
Reducing hyperactivity.
Controlling impulsive behavior.
Managing executive dysfunction.
Re:and for the moms of ADHD boys (Score:5, Insightful)
Having a methyl group doesn't make methylphenidate the same drug as methamphetamine. They have different mechanisms of action, much different safety profiles, and potentials for abuse.
Pseudoscience (Score:4, Interesting)
I've studied psychology and psychiatry. Been a patient of both for a very long time (autistic).
These so called "professionals" don't know shit. It's all guessing and subjective personal feelings. These people are often more messed up than the people they treat. You go to 10 of them and you'll get 10 different "diagnoses" (ie. guesses).
Not like it matters. The "medications" (ie. hard core physically addictive dangerous drugs) are all the same so it doesn't matter what they think, you'll be a guinea pig for their game of Russian roulette.
I can tell you one thing: If you see one of these people and they won't admit they don't know how any of this stuffs works, then run away! Their overconfidence will harm you.
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There are 3 main disciplines that study the human mind: Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology.
Nobody listens to the advice of Anthropology or Sociology when it comes to curing mental illness, and there's no big business in Anthropology or Sociology, they don't proscribe drugs either.,But I would argue psychology is the least reliable of the three, even though people seen to give it the most creedence and shovel money into it..
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But I would argue psychology is the least reliable of the three, even though people seen to give it the most creedence and shovel money into it.
Long as I Can See the Light, man, I'll keep giving it Creedence. But it sounds like you see a Bad Moon Rising.
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I'm sad there are no references to creedence clearwater revival in futurama.
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Yeah, not a single appearance of John Fogerty's Head!
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None of them are particularly reliable and their underpinnings are mathematical rather than physical. There are a few pieces like cognitive behavior therapy which I think amount to weaponized placebo and can be effective but the only science in these 'studies' is the science they borrow from physical aka real sciences. Basically, they are just like scientology.
Re:Pseudoscience (Score:4, Insightful)
There are 3 main disciplines that study the human mind: Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology.
All three cover aspects of human behavior but only one studies the brain. Concepts of "mind" probably belong as much to philosophy just like "soul" is theological. I have no idea what either of those are and doubt that humans have them.
Psychology is a big umbrella, including everything from what people would call "hard science" (evidence-based, empirical knowledge) like cognitive science (not the same-named therapy) to pseudoscientific just-so stories like evolutionary psychology. Calling it all the same label, "psychology," provides useful cover for charlatans.
Also, there's no money in proscribing drugs. You gotta prescribe them!
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Also, there's no money in proscribing drugs. You gotta prescribe them!
Tell that to the justice system, they have taken in billions and billions of dollars from the drug war. Cops, private prisons, and any company that sells something with "tactical" in the name have all made bank.
Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial (Score:2)
by Peter C. Gotzsche, to support your point: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-... [amazon.com]
"DEADLY PSYCHIATRY AND ORGANISED DENIAL explains in evidence-based detail why the way we currently use psychiatric drugs does far more harm than good. Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Peter C. Goetzsche documents that psychiatric drugs kill more than half a million people every year among those aged 65 and above in the United States and Europe. This makes psychiatric drugs the third leading cause of death, after heart disease
Re:Pseudoscience (Score:4, Interesting)
When 1 in 9 people have one alleged disorder and it becomes like 8-9 out of 9 when you add in the others... You are already perfectly 'normal' [whatever that means] and being conned into thinking you are broken and that somehow being broken is a good thing because it makes you special. It's a great line.
Re:Pseudoscience (Score:5, Informative)
When 1 in 9 people have one alleged disorder and it becomes like 8-9 out of 9 when you add in the others... You are already perfectly 'normal' [whatever that means] and being conned into thinking you are broken and that somehow being broken is a good thing because it makes you special. It's a great line.
In my area, that's exactly what happened. In my son's class, every male was diagnosed by the teachers as ADHD, and local doctors used that diagnosis to prescribe Ritalin. Most families complied. I refused.
In meeting, I asked if the lad had done anything to warrant chemical straitjacketing. "Well, no, but he's such a big boy it could make for problems if he goes rogue."
I told them is sounds like they want to chemically control him. "Well, no, it's because he has ADHD."
We went around a few times, but I refused to have him put on Ritalin.
And after looking into it a bit, it was obvious at least to me, that after the "male teacher as pedophile" movement ended up removing as many men as possible from schools, the now largely female force was very interested in having the male students not acting like male students. Young females are generally more tractable than rowdy boys.
When I was in school, and a young male was acting out, a male teacher could get him back in line pretty easily with a few words.
Today, with fear culture and safety culture in full effect, and the utterly weird assumption that a male in the school system is by definition a pedophile, we have a unholy mess. Interestingly, it turns out that female teachers often enjoy bumping uglies with the kiddies.
Finally - yes, we're in an age where people brag about their problems because it is a flex. Seemingly everyone is terribly traumatized, everyone needs therapy and antidepressants and neuroleptic drugs.
And that Ritalin? Turns out that it alters (damages) these young boys brains. I do know that of my son's friends in school who were put on Ritalin, they are kind of messed up now - depressed, on anti depressants, have zero drive, and are generally a waste of humanity to be blunt.
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Re:Pseudoscience (Score:4, Interesting)
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Imagine if coders instead of patching bugs, could prescribe everyone using it around them pills that would make them ignore these bugs. It is like that with teachers.
Never thought of it that way, but a good point you make.
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It seems clear to me that boys and girls have different educational needs when they are young children. It is very unnatural for boys to just sit there and listen quietly, and to work quietly on something involving reading or writing or drawing, for extended periods of time. Young boys tend to have a lot of energy and they need to burn it off in order to concentrate.
I read online that ADHD tends to show up mostly as hyperactivity in boys and mostly as inattention in girls, and further that this is more co
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It seems clear to me that boys and girls have different educational needs when they are young children. It is very unnatural for boys to just sit there and listen quietly, and to work quietly on something involving reading or writing or drawing, for extended periods of time. Young boys tend to have a lot of energy and they need to burn it off in order to concentrate.
I read online that ADHD tends to show up mostly as hyperactivity in boys and mostly as inattention in girls, and further that this is more common on boys than in girls.
It all seems to line up pretty clearly: these are kids being kids and needing an environment where they can be kids. We have built an education system that expects them to behave as adults too early in their lives. And also one that treats boys and girls the same, failing to honor their different environmental needs.
So......we diagnose them with disorders and give them drugs that have livelong symptoms.
Seriously.......public school is sorely misguided. If you can afford a good private school, and can find one, spring for it. You will be doing your kids a significant favor.
Exactly. Another thing about private schooling is that there is a much better chance of having male teachers. Altogether too many young boys, raised by single mothers, have virtually no adult males to role model from. Despite the present narrative, there is a huge need for positive males in a boys life. And while it's not as good as having a father in the family, it functions at least a little. Young ladies also benefit from a adult male presence.
Public schooling is not terrible in and of itself, it is j
Re:Pseudoscience (Score:4, Informative)
and the utterly weird assumption that a male in the school system is by definition a pedophile
Reminds me of a conversation I'd had with my male teachers back in high school when I'd mentioned wanting to become a teacher.
They basically told me if I wanted to work with little kids many parents would see me as a "threat" to their children, and if I wanted to work with high-schoolers the parents would see me as a "threat" to their teenage daughters. More than one male teacher told me, flat out, that they never failed a female student - even when she deserved it - because the near constant fear of a false allegation from a vengeful student ruining their lives and career was always something they had to worry about.
It sucked because I really wanted to be a teacher, until they talked me out of the profession.
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and the utterly weird assumption that a male in the school system is by definition a pedophile
Reminds me of a conversation I'd had with my male teachers back in high school when I'd mentioned wanting to become a teacher.
They basically told me if I wanted to work with little kids many parents would see me as a "threat" to their children, and if I wanted to work with high-schoolers the parents would see me as a "threat" to their teenage daughters. More than one male teacher told me, flat out, that they never failed a female student - even when she deserved it - because the near constant fear of a false allegation from a vengeful student ruining their lives and career was always something they had to worry about.
It sucked because I really wanted to be a teacher, until they talked me out of the profession.
Exactly - yet for some reason we seldom hear about pedophile female teachers or otherwise. Are they less guilty than a male teacher who has no desire to have sex with students? Even some advanced stuff like 3-ways https://www.fox13seattle.com/n... [fox13seattle.com]
No doubt the pedo teachers will claim that they are the real victims. https://cbs12.com/news/nation-... [cbs12.com]
https://nypost.com/2023/04/14/... [nypost.com]
This one claims that she was coerced to enjoy sex with boys. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new... [nbcnewyork.com]
Golly gosh, we sure f
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Having a disorder is nor a popularity contest. The definition of disorder involves your functional ability.
Consider something more physically visible: If we all break our arm tomorrow it doesn't make us all "normal". It means we all have a broken arm.
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Autistic people are often given sedatives as a drug.
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Yeah! Let's just go back a few years to calling everyone lazy!
What do you mean, a few years? People are lazy now. I have some executives who are too lazy to take their laptop back and forth from home because it's too much of a burden. They demand to have two machines.
We have people whose machines are having issues and can't be fixed remotely who, when told they need to come into the office so we can see what's what, refuse to do so either a) they want someone to come to their home or b) it's not their day of the month to come into the office.
Then there are those who
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Yeah! Let's just go back a few years to calling everyone lazy!
What do you mean, a few years? People are lazy now. I have some executives who are too lazy to take their laptop back and forth from home because it's too much of a burden. They demand to have two machines.
We have people whose machines are having issues and can't be fixed remotely who, when told they need to come into the office so we can see what's what, refuse to do so either a) they want someone to come to their home or b) it's not their day of the month to come into the office.
Then there are those who can't show up on time. I don't mean walking in a minute or two late, which is bad enough, but thinking 15-20 minutes is acceptable.
And let's not get into all those, including on here, who think going to a store is a major event. If they have to get their fat ass off couch and stop looking at their two inch screen for more than five minutes, it's a travesty.
These are grown ass adults (supposedly) who are literally too lazy to put in the least amount of effort. So yes, people are lazy.
As someone who lives by the mantra "if you're not 10 minutes early, you're late"... I think you're setting a low bar for lazy.
Being late = poor discipline.
Going to the store = dealing with the truly lazy people who run the store and dealing with long lines and overworked clerks.
Two machines instead of carrying a laptop = clever, efficient, esp. since computers are cheap and tech makes it easy to use my mobile phone effectively between locations.
Not getting up from their two inch screens... sounds like depre
For comparison- France (Score:5, Informative)
This article contains an interesting comparison about how ADHD diagnoses are made, and the effect of different child-rearing cultures. It is from a few years back, but discusses why French kids arenâ(TM)t diagnosed with ADHD [psychologytoday.com]
Finland (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ed... [theatlantic.com]
Normally, students and teachers in Finland take a 15-minute break after every 45 minutes of instruction. During a typical break, students head outside to play and socialize with friends while teachers disappear to the lounge to chat over coffee.
Pellegrini and his colleagues ran a series of experiments at a public elementary school to explore the relationship between recess timing and attentiveness in the classroom. In every one of the experiments, students were more attentive after a break than before a break. They also found that the children were less attentive when the timing of the break was delayedâ"or in other words, when the lesson dragged on.
There was also some article which I can no longer find where a Finnish teacher said that she can't teach if the kids weren't allowed to take breaks and play regularly.
give kids some room (Score:2)
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Sure, but also treat kids that actually suffer from ADHD. Approximately 5-10% is expected to suffer from the condition. So 1/9 is a little overdiagnosed, but compared to previous numbers I heard of 1/4, 1/9 is actually a relief, seems overdiagnosis is finally returing to the realm of sanity.
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They are sick, and the reason for their behavior is a chemical imbalance in their brain.
IANAD but *pretty* sure you couldn't be more wrong if you claimed they were also a duck
Mind is not a solved problem and is enormously complex. There is far more to it than "magical chemicals".
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Indeed, YANAD. You are right, we have not decoded the brain, but know more than you seem to think.
There is a chemical imbalance in the brain of ADHD people, and that is exactly what Ritalin and other drugs counterbalance. The part of the brain responsible for focus is then reactivated and focus is possible again for a short while. You should do some reading.
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Again, a degree of innacuracy in understanding there.
There is some evidence that a variety of drugs "helps", (for a given self-reported estimation of help), a larger than 50% sample of the subject group. This ignores long term adverse effects, commonly niether tracked nor reported.
Chemical treatment is, at best, a shotgun approach to managing what is *not* a chemical issue - These drugs interrupt function. This is very much how most disorders are treated. Working our way through a variety of treatments to f
Re:give kids some room (Score:5, Insightful)
Father of four here. Three bios, our youngest was adopted.
The youngest has a chemical imbalance that makes him act differently. He's super smart, super sweet, and super empathetic... and has been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. As he has grown he has been taught to identify how his body feels before and after he melts down; before and after he takes the medications; before and after he eats. He's learning how to regulate, and it's been a long road with a longer road ahead. When compared to my biological children, it's clear there is a difference. When comparing notes with other families, it's clear what is working and what does not work.
Although I'm sure your perspective feels as though ADHD etc. are over diagnosed, please shut up because you obviously don't know what you're talking about.
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Really? I'm not the one making unsubstantiated claims here but ok then.
Yes, you are making unsubstantiated claims. But okay then.
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Bullshit. They are absolutely normal and I reject your false dichotomy that the only alternative is that they are stupid. These children have different personality quirks, so do the other 8. None of them are abnormal and these kids are generally higher IQ than the other kids you suggest are 'healthy.' They are not sick or imbalanced, which by the way are demeaning adjectives when you are talking about someone's normal and healthy state of being.
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The thing is that ADHD can significantly limit people scholastically and later on in life professionally and many require some form of treatment of help to make up for this limitation. For some its medication, for others there are coping mechanisms. Regardless though not addressing the very real problem these people have at all will often lead to lower quality of life and less opportunity for them.
So in other words I'm sorry you're feeling put out by the above posters language but ADHD is not just a "normal
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Typo: "treatment or help"
Re:give kids some room (Score:4, Interesting)
I have ADHD. I've found that not having ADHD can significant limit the cognitive capacity of people both earlier and later in life. Their minds are incapable of extreme focus and understanding of highly involved systems and while they do excel at quick sloppy thinking they fail at maintaining high mental computational rates over the longer term. Honestly, I think these people should seek professional help, perhaps even medication to make up for their extreme deficiencies.
The worst part is they are so slow and sloppy that they can't understand us and it makes them difficult to follow as well. They keep not making sense and there are more of them so they think WE are wrong and we think we must be too. But in time one realizes that no, it isn't you, they don't make sense because they are missing obvious logical flaws and just can't think very deeply. The others think they make sense because they lack the capacity to even parse logic well enough to be having the same conversation.
But don't stress it skam240. In another generation we'll have replaced all those socialites and the attractive people they win over with gorgeous sex and entertainment robots, which already make more sense, and harvested enough eggs from a years worth of your aborted female fetuses to supply the genetic diversity needed to perpetuate ourselves indefinitely.
Kidding aside I work in STEM and everyone, I mean EVERYONE who is a legitimate rockstar is on the spectrum and/or ADHD. Not all are diagnosed but you quickly recognize the look of a brain operating on too much information to focus on annoying coworkers chattering at them.
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I have ADHD. I've found that not having ADHD can significant limit the cognitive capacity of people both earlier and later in life. Their minds are incapable of extreme focus and understanding of highly involved systems and while they do excel at quick sloppy thinking they fail at maintaining high mental computational rates over the longer term.
Bingo! Although between you and me, with ADHD being a goto diagnosis - usually by unqualified people, and prescriptions written on their sayso - I don't think either of us suffer from ADHD, we just have an ability that most do not.
I'm just happy that I missed the age of wholesale drugging - especially of young males - in order to keep them tractable and not create any problems in class. So many of the Ritalin generation young males aren't all that when they become adults.
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Wrong. There may be valid reasons for why they have a lower IQ, but this has been studied extensively and ADHD children and adults on average have a much lower IQ than the mean.
I would challenge you to find a study that says otherwise.
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Wrong. There may be valid reasons for why they have a lower IQ, but this has been studied extensively and ADHD children and adults on average have a much lower IQ than the mean.
I would challenge you to find a study that says otherwise.
You show me your studies first.
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Uhh so do you have an ADHD kid that is not performing as you would like them to, or.... ?
ADHD seems like it is extremely normal. Lots of people can't pay attention and get distracted. Seems like a prime hunting instinct, which was probably very, very valuable ~500-1000 years ago. It should come as no surprise that ~10% of kids still carry this crucial "hunting gene". Their descendants will be the ones to keep society alive if/when the big tech collapse comes.
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Uhh so do you have an ADHD kid that is not performing as you would like them to, or.... ?
Yes, so ?
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If 1 in 9 is diagnosed you could argue that ADHD is just... normal.
That's exactly the mistake we should avoid. They are not normal. If you consider them as normal, then the explanation for their behavior is just that they are stupid (or another demeaning adjective). It is harmful for their development and will ban them from many social groups.
They are sick, and the reason for their behavior is a chemical imbalance in their brain. This should be recognized and openly shared. There is no shame in being sick.
They are not sick and there is nothing wrong with them, I would suspect that the vast majority of these are simply cases of kids being kids. Slapping them with some diagnosis is what is harmful to them, first by telling them there is something wrong when there isn't and later by giving them an excuse to not develop as people.
We need to let go of this recent neurotypical/neurodiverse bullshit that has sprung up and just use plain words, normal and abnormal, or maladaptive if you insist on sounding pretentiou
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If 1 in 9 is diagnosed you could argue that ADHD is just... normal.
That's exactly the mistake we should avoid. They are not normal. If you consider them as normal, then the explanation for their behavior is just that they are stupid (or another demeaning adjective). It is harmful for their development and will ban them from many social groups.
They are sick, and the reason for their behavior is a chemical imbalance in their brain. This should be recognized and openly shared. There is no shame in being sick.
They are not sick and there is nothing wrong with them, I would suspect that the vast majority of these are simply cases of kids being kids. Slapping them with some diagnosis is what is harmful to them, first by telling them there is something wrong when there isn't and later by giving them an excuse to not develop as people.
We need to let go of this recent neurotypical/neurodiverse bullshit that has sprung up and just use plain words, normal and abnormal, or maladaptive if you insist on sounding pretentious.
No, they aren't sick. And yes, the whole demand by some to diagnose everyone as mentally ill in some manner is horrible.
The whole ADHD scam is merely a way to diagnose young males as mentally ill as an excuse to drug them into compliance, so that the now female dominated school system doesn't have problems.
Coupled with that need to compartmentalize all humanity with some disorder, their demand to drug children with a drug that alters and damages their brains, they are helping to create more messed up
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I'm glad to know your kid doesn't have ADHD. Some do.
Re:give kids some room (Score:5, Interesting)
If 1 in 9 is diagnosed you could argue that ADHD is just... normal.
That's exactly the mistake we should avoid. They are not normal. If you consider them as normal, then the explanation for their behavior is just that they are stupid (or another demeaning adjective). It is harmful for their development and will ban them from many social groups.
They are sick, and the reason for their behavior is a chemical imbalance in their brain. This should be recognized and openly shared. There is no shame in being sick.
Is it? Is an otherwise normal child that cannot sit still sick?
ADHD has morphed from a real issue to an attempt to completely control especially young males.
I would 100 percent have been forced on Ritalin. I fidgit, I do not sit still, I bore easily, and back in school, I daydreamed out of boredom. You would have called me sick, in need of chemical straitjacketing. Just like every male child in my son's class was diagnosed as ADHD. Their outcome was that yes, they were compliant and obedient and didn't act out or be rowdy. Today, the ones my son keeps in touch with aren't doing that well. I refused to put him on Ritalin. It should be used for real cases of ADHD, not so that little Johnny stops fidgeting. It can and does alter the brain chemistry of young males, and not in a good way.
Meanwhile, as an adult, I still fidget, I can't sit still. My mind doesn't stop. But I am driven, not unhappy, and have done quite well for myself, socially and financially. No, I am not bog standard, but the idea that my energy needs tamped down so that I don't bother people is not my shortcoming, but theirs.
Sick? Perhaps.
And maybe 1 in 9 of those were reasonable. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Neither of these is considered diagnostic for ADHD.
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The questionnaires aren't used for diagnosis. Even the DSM isn't really used for diagnosis. Diagnosis is done by psychiatrists looking for patterns of behaviour and thought that are common in a condition, because that's all they can do. The questionnaire is a fluff piece designed to make patients feel involved.
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Biology recognises only the female gender, everything else is a variant and biology recognises an effectively infinite number of those.
So, in a nutshell, no, you're just wrong.
There's no such thing as an ADHD pill bottle. You're inventing fictitious complaints and it's not appreciated. Nor is it useful.
Only understanding is helpful, and I'm afraid that's totally beyond your mindset.
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People have a little thing called "moods."
The DSM (manual used by "the whole profession") doesn't consider mood or emotion as a diagnosis for ADHD.
But when your whole profession is funded by pharma companies, I suppose everything "looks like a nail."
The DSM has over 300 mental illnesses defined, only a tiny portion of which involve any kind of medication as treatment. Thanks for demonstrating how ignorant you are about "the whole profession".
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The DSM has over 300 mental illnesses defined, only a tiny portion of which involve any kind of medication as treatment. Thanks for demonstrating how ignorant you are about "the whole profession".
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/... [go.com]
More than 10% is it still a disorder? (Score:5, Insightful)
If more than 10% of the population has a "condition" is it still a disorder? I am very pro LGBTQ+ etc and they represent ~4-7% (I've seen as high as 9% but that's not a common number). 1/9 is ~11.1% of the population. How is 4-7% of the population LGBTQ+ normal/accepted but 11.1% of the population ADHD (that last D is a "disorder") a disorder? That's a tall glass of water to drink. Is being red-headed a disorder? Red heads are ~4-6% of the population.
I don't mean to directly compare the two groups, just make a point. I expect a "disorder" to be, I would expect, 1% of the population or less. I think 10% is a sane cut-off. If we're above 11% that's just part of human nature.
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Exactly and how many of the other 8 qualify for "something?" I'd venture all of them. People being called ADHD have a couple broad scopes of common strengths/weaknesses and ways of thinking. That isn't an illness, it is just a person who thinks differently than you do.
Now, stop making excuses for your kid; employ discipline and do the hard damn work of parenting. Don't be fair, be consistent to the point of absurdity. The kid's behavior will improve by leaps and bounds. If they tend to get tunnel vision, th
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Exactly and how many of the other 8 qualify for "something?" I'd venture all of them. People being called ADHD have a couple broad scopes of common strengths/weaknesses and ways of thinking. That isn't an illness, it is just a person who thinks differently than you do.
Exactly. And humans need people who can think differently. They need them badly.
Now, stop making excuses for your kid; employ discipline and do the hard damn work of parenting. Don't be fair, be consistent to the point of absurdity.
There is something to be said for physical activity. If a child is prone to acting out, then work them out. Both my son and I played Ice Hockey. When you are done with a game, you are pretty calm.
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The thing is that being gay or otherwise on the spectrum doesn't disrupt one's ability to do virtually anything that a straight person can do. On the other hand, ADHD is in fact a very real limitation to many who have it that can have very serious negative effects on what they get out of school and / or what they'll be able to do for a living.
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No they didnt. Many of them flunked out of school and many others performed significantly worse than they would have with help. This is what has always happened with the unruly kids in class.
I'm not saying everyone with ADHD needs to be drugged by the way but they do at least need coping mechanisms.
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I had no idea they all flunked out. My brother flunked out because> people started telling him shit like that.
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I had no idea they all flunked out. My brother flunked out because> people started telling him shit like that.
The ever widening spectrum has some simple and normal activities being classified as ADHD.
I would for certain have been labeled and chemically straitjacketed if I was born a couple decades later.
I don't sit still, I fidget and like to walk around. I bore easily, and my noggin automatically shits to analyzing other problems. But I can do stuff normies can't. Thank god I was never Ritalinized.
I even question the ethics of whole scale chemical straitjacketing normal young males. And we are now findin
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But I can do stuff normies can't.
Similar here. I waste a lot of time, like posting on /. and so on because it is really hard for me to focus on mundane. Would have gotten ADHD in school for sure if that was a thing back then. However, I am capable of hyper-focus and insight that appears magical to other people. When they ask me how, I come up with BS story that I've read about a problem like that before and recalled how they solved it. Every time. That why I absolutely need to read /. :)
Yeah, I'm hyper analytical. and the focus is also hyper. So at work I tend to speak in pronouncements after some silence of listening to what is said. I dream answers to problems.
Slashdot is a good resource for me. Sometimes presumptive normies claim that the length of my posts indicate something is amiss in my head. But I touch type at a thought rate, so it's no issue.
Oddly enough, rather than find my tendencies a problem, I love the abilities. So do people who are forewarned or get used to me in wo
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Truly, it's amazing 11% of the population managed to function just fine before we started drugging them for inattentiveness.
Yah, when you look into the Ritalin scam, you will see that there are reasons that young boys especially are put in chemical straitjackets. And it is damaging their brains. I suppose in this day and age, their depression and lack of drive/incentive is mereely another weird flex for the people who brag about conditions.
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Disorder has nothing to do with rarity. That isn't any part of the definition. The definition is about function:
noun: disorder - "an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions."
LGBTQ+ people aren't a disorder. They are perfectly functioning people. ADHD suffers on the other hand have actual trouble functioning normally. Incidentally in the LGBTQ+ world there are "disorders" associated with being defined in a certain way. For example a disorder associated with "T" is gender dyspho
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At one time, homosexuality was considered a disorder by the psychiatric community.
It comes down to what you consider negative traits, since you can group any group of "undesirable" traits together and call it a disorder.
My brother was diagnosed ADHD back in the 90s. All it did was make his misbehavior far worse because now he had something to point to, something to blame rather than something to control. After that, he spun completely out of control and quit school, did meth, went to juvy, then jail.
Diagn
Re:More than 10% is it still a disorder? (Score:5, Informative)
At one time, homosexuality was considered a disorder by the psychiatric community.
At one time it was. VERY BRIEFLY. And no the "psychiatric community" didn't consider it largely a disorder. It was published in the second edition of the DSM and very widely criticised by the community for its inclusion. To show how much the community disagreed with it, DSM-II was published in 1968, and in 1973 they re-released a second edition of DSM-II, published exclusively to removed homosexuality considering the wide backlash the psychiatric community gave to its inclusion. That's how much of a "mistake" it was considered, they didn't even publish a new copy of the DSM but literally edited an existing one with a minor correction to remove it.
In any case, the past is hardly relevant. What is considered a disorder has a clear definition, and rarity doesn't come into that definition, not in the dictionary, not in the DSM. The formal definition: A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. You can see how personal preference doesn't fit into that category.
The definition has been changed over the years but it has always included an element of mental dysfunction. The fact that being gay didn't mean you had a functional problem was a large part of the reason for the backlash against the *VERY BRIEF* period where this all important book considered it a disorder. Note I said book, not psychiatric community.
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My point is a disorder is based on the whims of the clinicians of the time.
Re:More than 10% is it still a disorder? (Score:4, Insightful)
Disorder has nothing to do with rarity. That isn't any part of the definition. The definition is about function:
noun: disorder - "an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions."
LGBTQ+ people aren't a disorder. They are perfectly functioning people. ADHD suffers on the other hand have actual trouble functioning normally. Incidentally in the LGBTQ+ world there are "disorders" associated with being defined in a certain way. For example a disorder associated with "T" is gender dysphoria - the feeling of distress due to gender identity mismatching sex at birth. One of the treatments is transitioning, so being transgender is literally a cure to a disorder.
Incidentally it is worth noting that the DSM which defines a list of recognised mental disorders does not recognise sexually as any kind of disorder. For that you'd need to talk to a priest.
Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.
I'm quite sympathetic to people with gender dysphoria. And if someone wants to go through the surgery, then so be it.
Now that being said, what is the source of this dysphoria? I watched a documentary about three people who underwent sex reassignment surgery. Transitioned male to female. Then changing their minds, they transitioned back to male - minus their penis of course. That was kind of disturbing, especially with the person who had a lot of plastic surgery to feminize their face. And after stopping the hormone treatments, they reverted mostly back to male.
Now in those cases, it obviously wasn't a cure, and it made for a bit of a mess for them.
Was it a mental disorder? I'm inclined to say no, but there are complications. Simple homosexuality - a definite no, not a disorder. People don't decide what they are sexually attracted to. I like tall slender women with long legs, small to average breasts, long hair and nordic faces. I know this because I pay attention to my bodies reaction when I see a woman with those characteristics.
So a person who finds themselves attracted to a person of the same sex likewise didn't choose.
But the situation becomes more complex with people wanting to ersatz physically become the opposite sex.
No matter, they should never be mistreated.
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Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.
It helps when the diagnosis was correct. The fact that it sometimes isn't is the source of the issue. For true gender dysphoria transitioning is the cure. The trick is that actually nailing down if the gender dysphoria is real is like all matters involving psychiatric care, difficult and just like with people who are misdiagnosed with ADHD can be all too frequently wrong.
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Sometimes transitioning helps. Sometimes it doesn't. I'd be hesitant to call it a cure.
It helps when the diagnosis was correct. The fact that it sometimes isn't is the source of the issue. For true gender dysphoria transitioning is the cure. The trick is that actually nailing down if the gender dysphoria is real is like all matters involving psychiatric care, difficult and just like with people who are misdiagnosed with ADHD can be all too frequently wrong.
These people went through extensive psychiatric consulting and were approved as suitable for having their genitals removed, and hormone therapy.
What may have happened is that the people wanting that knew how to manipulate the shrinks - it isn't difficult.
Regardless, they came to regret their choice to transition. Now, they are genetic men with a constructed vagina.
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Actually, as we are learning, most of T+ is social contagion and when physical "treatment" is applied to T, it is ruining countless young-people's lives.
[Citation Required] Worth noting that precisely no where is physical treatment applied to T as a first course of action. You don't just go "Hey doc chop my dick off" and get a reply "OK!" *grabs scissors*.
And the data is showing things like suicidality might go down temporarily in some, it often goes right back up later in life.
Is that a surprise to you? Imaging living a life where you are constantly harassed and abused for what you are. Do you think you'd be happy? It comes as a shock to zero people that people who are not accepted, suffer continuous verbal assaults and bullying, and have a societal stigma associated to them are
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You're proving that "disorder" is subjective. I don't think that genetic variation in sex is a disorder, unusual or not.
I agree with the OP that a "disorder" that affects 11% of the population probably doesn't deserve to be called a "disorder."
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Yes, more than 1/10 breaks their legs at some point in their lives, that doesn't mean it shouldnt be treated,
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10% is a totally arbitrary cut-off.
I'd say being in the bottom 11% of IQ is going to affect your functioning negatively.
I'd also say that at least 12% of people are rude or selfish enough that it affects them negatively.
The DSM continues to grow every year... (Score:3)
...yet we still persists in claiming there's such a thing as neurotypical
That's the real mental disorder. We're all insane monkeys screaming BS delusions at each other and claiming to be the best monkey at monkeying about.
Bad monkey. No bananananana...
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I'm neurotypical, you're a weirdo.
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I occupy a higher branch than yours and I fling faeces with greater gusto
Thus, I am the better monkey. See?
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I'm neurotypical, you're a weirdo.
From what I can see from reading your posts, you are simply below average in every metric, and that includes mental disorders.
The problem (Score:2)
...is that virtually all diagnostics, categorisation, and treatment is based on symptoms that massively overlap between conditions. Indeed, it's very unusual to have one condition because the condition isn't the thing that actually exists.
This will persist until medical practitioners forget symptom-based approaches and look for causes.
Sure, they can't look for causes using 1.5T MRI scanners. Those can't detect anything beyond catastrophic injury. But the scanners authorised for medical diagnosis is 7.3T, th
Make 1 out of 9 meals drugs, for better health. (Score:2)
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If you give methylphenidate to someone without ADHD, they get hyper stimulated. If you give it to someone with ADHD, it allows them to focus normally.
In fact, a small test prescription is the primary way an ADHD diagnosis is confirmed.
It's not handing out meth to random children for not liking school.
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Now, now, please stop injecting facts into this conversation.
Twice as high as the overall ... (Score:5, Informative)
... statistics would suggest.
Disclaimer: Officially diagnosed ADHD candidate here.
ADHD is a real thing and certainly no pseudoscience. However, it _is_ a mixed bag with various interpretations of and even proven causes for the condition. The core component of ADHD is genetic and heritable. ADHD runs in families. However, so does generational trauma which is know to cause and even trigger ADHD dispositions. There are also environmental factors that cause ADHD, such as exposure to various degrees of lead-poisioning during childhood development. Gen X and older people who where exposed to leaded fuel fumes in their childhood have a higher risk of ADHD-like symptoms for instance.
There is also a notable correlation with insecure attachment and various forms of childhood trauma or neglect, know and proven to cause and trigger the development of ADHD symptoms due to chemical and hormonal shifts during brain development.
That younger generations on average show more ADHD symptoms than older generations isn't that much of a surprise to me, given that roughly half of the younger population seems even nerdier than me at my nerdy teenager peak due to entire child and teenage lives taking place mostly on the internet and online social media.
Science btw. as of now unanimously agrees that ADHD is a misnowner and an unfitting term describing only a subset of external symptoms rather than the executive brain functions (or the weakness thereof) that are the fundamental cause of weaker impulse control and similar negative traits of ADHD. Science also unanimously agrees that it's to late to change the term and appropriate to stick with it as it has become a universal term to describe the disposition.
As an ADHD candidate myself I can attest that finally closing in and locking down the diagnose after 10 years of testing for and discarding other conditions is a god-send and a relief of epic proportions. And while ADHD sure does run in my family as I and my uncle have come to discover in the last 10 years - which, btw. does explain quite a lot of special traits of various family members - I also see strong correlations to collective generational trauma, going back to previous generations exposure to WW2 and the trauma associated with it.
On top of that ADHD correlates with a stronger need for emotional support and reaffirmation in relationships, a thing I think we can all agree on our times sorely lack. Many negative ADHD symptoms and effects can be mitigated or even eliminated simply by living and working in a social group that has presence of loved ones and friends as a value in itself. In that regard, negative ADHD symptoms and the universally correlated baseline anxiety that ADHD candidates feel harder and more pressing that "normal" people is somewhat of a "healthy" "natural" reaction to the constitution of our social world in modern times.
I take my creativity and my adventurous streak as premium positives of my condition and mitigate my weaker thought- and impulse control with a chill and mellow approach to everyday life where I can, a minimalist lifestyle and sometimes with medication, which does help realign my self-perception and impulse control for a few days up to roughly a week.
ADHD certainly is _not_ pseudoscience. It exists and it can be proven. There are some advantages to the ADHD brain and there are some plausible evlutionary hypothesis why roughly 4-8% of the population show ADHD symptoms (every society needs creatives, adventurers and natural risk-takers for instance). ADHD however can be and also and very often is a major PITA, needs conscious management and requires that those affected come to terms with the cold hard fact that they are very unlikely to live a "usual" life and will have to deal with the downsides of often having an excessive creative streak and propensity to lateral thinking.
You have to play the cards you are dealt I guess.
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Great summation but missed out one of the strongly correlated causes: Childhood diet.
Malnutrition/poor diet in the formative years is strongly correlated with all manner of developmental issues, (ADHD, bipolar, sociopathy, etc)
It's a fascinating topic but, given how Mind develops, not something we should expect to be pinned down outside of the individual because *every* mind is broken in it's own, special, manner
And? (Score:2)
Maybe that's fine, assuming they meet the diagnostic criteria.
Nobody runs around saying "there's too much heart disease being diagnosed", or "people pop too many heart pills". (Or at any rate, it's not a thing; it's not a reflexive thing that people do to sound smart and cool.)
C'mon Slashdot, "trust the science", lol
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Maybe that's fine, assuming they meet the diagnostic criteria.
Nobody runs around saying "there's too much heart disease being diagnosed", or "people pop too many heart pills". (Or at any rate, it's not a thing; it's not a reflexive thing that people do to sound smart and cool.)
C'mon Slashdot, "trust the science", lol
In fact most heart disease is considered to be both preventable and a consequence of choices made. There are cultures extant today who have what would be considered extremely low rates of cardiovascular diseases, it primarily comes down to lifestyle and diet.
So the fact that people aren't going around saying that it is over-diagnosed is true, but it is also true that it is completely unnecessary for the rate to be so high. In heart disease the problem is lifestyle, in ADHD, the problem is confusing the rang
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In fact most heart disease is considered to be both preventable and a consequence of choices made.
But... what about the 0.000001% of outliers who buck the trend! Surely they prove it's NOT realted to chugging enromous volumes of junk food and struggling to make more than 1000 steps a day!?
Maybe there's a pill for that!
ADHD on the rise... (Score:2)
Brought to you by Novartis, Pfizer and the entire pharmaceutical industry.
Sit down, shut up and don't move (Score:2)
That is what is expected of young children in elementary school. If they act like children, playing and talking, they're often labeled "ADHD" but schools.
Parent Hypoactivity Disorder (Score:2)
Of course. They are children. Full of curiosity and energy. It's not the children who have a condition. It's the parents who can't keep up and blame it on their kids.
Couldn't possibly be true, right? (Score:3)
Or do we ignore how horrible life is, and think we can regulate away a tool that people actually need?
Look up the COMT gene. What it does. There are high and low activity variants. What if we're just treating the high activity variant for the modern world? Something that was helpful in ancient times, but isn't as much now.
Yes, people abuse things like amphetamine. And it's my opinion that other people function better with the right amount.
And in general, other people want to blame their own life's pain on everyone else... And force them to live the way they personally believe 'everybody' should. When they should just mind their own business and fix themselves instead.
I'm not sure (Score:3)
I'm not convinced that ADHD is a real "disease". I think many of the people suffering from it just think differently (myself included).
Why is the rate of ADHD skyrocketing? Is it real? (Score:3)
If boys have to sit in school, and have lessons that are slow, boring, and non-engaging, then we get gym, which is slow, non-engage, and boring, and we can't “play” at recess, what did you think was going to happen? We over corrected education to more “female” appropriate, but then screwed the males, and at the same time got mad at boys for having energy. You don't have ADHD because you can't sit still for 6 hours. You don't need medicine to help you sit still, you need an active, engaging and exerting system.
We over feminized education, and then male rates of ADHD / ADD jump, and instead of asking why, we just over medicated the boys, and got mad at them for wanting more. In my younger daughter's class, she's always mentioning how the boys are disruptive, but they're not disruptive, they require more than tampon commercials and lectures about they're broken, sexist, pre-rapists. They don't have ADHD, they have a low tolerance for boring bullshit, but then can't get it out at gym or recess, and get in trouble because they're boys with hormones.
My brother ended up being a successful trade person, who doesn't have ADHD anymore, but in reality, he never did, what he had was broken feminist based education system, that failed him. I once got in trouble for being dominating in gym class, because it was unfair to the “girls team”. Don't ask why ADHD rate spiked, ask why education failed. Maybe it's time to split schools up so we have girls and boys schools, because the system doesn't work the way it is.
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There was interesting suggestion that boys should start school one year older than girls, because of the slower development. This way the boys would be on the same level as girls, which should affect behavior and grades.
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Agreed. The days of "playing" are not controlled. Boys are supposed to unnaturally "sit down, shut up and don't move" at a primary school age when they should be up, moving about and playing. Drug them if they don't "behave".
Add to that, most primary school teachers are women who expect boys to act docile.