
ADHD is vastly overdiagnosed and many children are just immature, say scientists - duncan_bayne
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12189369/ADHD-is-vastly-overdiagnosed-and-many-children-are-just-immature-say-scientists.html
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brazzledazzle
This seems to be well known at least by doctors. I've read multiple books that
recommend waiting as long as possible to medicate (middle school to high
school) and simply focus on non-medication strategies. Besides many kids
growing out of it there's also concern about long term medication side effects
like stunting their growth.

I beat all of the standard "ADHD isn't real" comments this time. Let's see if
I can preempt them all in one go: No, just because you were misdiagnosed
doesn't mean it's not real. No, just because you were on medication throughout
high school and don't need it now doesn't mean it's fake. Yes, telling someone
they just need to try harder, need discipline or were spoiled as a child is
not unlike telling a person with depression to "cheer up".

ADHD isn't an issue with attentiveness, it's a disorder of motivation, time
sense and impulse control. Everyone thinks it's a bunch of lazy people making
an excuse to play video games all day but that's just a possible consequence.
Given the choice between literally doing nothing while staring at a blank
screen and doing something you don't want to do you'll need to fight yourself
to the point of exhaustion just to do it. Your conscious self is essentially
not in charge. Your most reliable tool to motivate yourself is fear. ADHD
isn't some kind of vacation from responsibility, it's a nightmare.

~~~
notthegov
You just described humanity.

My view of ADHD is biased because my only experience with it is a psychiatrist
who earns millions a year prescribing it, several girls who believe they need
it for college (two attempted suicide) and then several male friends all of
whom abuse it.

There is a side effect of stimulant abuse that makes you confidently
delusional.

Does ADHD exist? Can stimulants cure lack of focus or should they? Does the
abuse of Adderall increase the risk of suicide?

Is it ok for an obese doctor to have 20 supercars and 3 homes because he tell
thousands of emotionally vunerable patients that they must take what is
essentially meth everyday for the rest of their life to be "normal"?

I am all for pragmatism if it works, but people have poor self-control and my
experience of ADHD only involves sociopaths and suicidal rich girls. So excuse
my problem but I don't believe in chemical imbalances being cured by myopic
pharmacutical companies and non-thinking doctors who act more like automons
and technicians than "learned men" of science.

People love to label themselves and explain the challenges of being human by
ascribing various syndromes. We should resist that temptation and find ways to
solve our problems without taking a drug that is the same as meth-

[http://www.vice.com/read/a-neuroscientist-explains-how-he-
fo...](http://www.vice.com/read/a-neuroscientist-explains-how-he-found-out-
meth-is-almost-identical-to-adderall)

~~~
HCIdivision17
I work with someone with ADHD. It is plain as day when the medication starts
to wear off. They can focus and program with diligence in the morning to early
afternoon, but then later have a difficult time following longer trains of
thought. It's not mere laziness - this person buckles down for even the most
tedious of tasks, but rather their attention sorta slides off the topic. If
you took the way a person's eyes slide off something shielded by a SEP-field,
or the opposite of how your eyes are drawn to police flashers.

It's hard to describe, but it's certainly not just a goofy bandaid. They
develop a routine around the process: harder or deeper problems in the
morning, and small quick tickets/tasks in the afternoon. Or: as the day wears
on, the work gets more granular (and thus more resilient to inturruption).

Mind, this is from my outside viewpoint. What actually goes on in their head
can only really be described by them. But quite a few months of routine give
me this impression.

~~~
stuxnet79
You have just described my routine except I don't take medication. I don't
doubt that ADHD is a thing, but I'd like to know exactly where the line is
drawn in the sand. Because from what I've heard of what ADHD medication does I
could definitely stand to benefit from it.

~~~
HCIdivision17
There aren't lines; every case is so specific to that person's needs I don't
think it's fair to pigeon-hole too much. For me, my coworker's change in
demeanor was enough. You may find that medication smoothes the swings for you
(and for all I know, my coworker would swing even harder without the medicine
- I think that was mentioned once). Or not.

See a doctor and try it out in a safe dosage. If you find it helps, great! If
not, well, maybe something else will work. Or perhaps you're just quirky.

It's hard to tell sometimes :)

There was a comedian who said something along the lines of: "I got got glasses
the other day, and it shocked me. How could instantly improved eye sight not
be at the top of everyone's To Do list?!" So when people talk about medication
like it's a debate, I get confused. How could instantly improved mood and
cognition not be at the top of everyone's list? (I'm a hyprocrite in that
respect, but I'm just onery and enjoy the struggle.) If you don't want it, but
the medicine helps, work your way off it slowly enough that you train your
body to compensate (a number of people have told me that it's geometric: you
can cut a third, then another third, then another until finally it's a
negligible amount, but linearly tends to give poorer results).

But most importantly: do what improves your life. I wear glasses, and I've
never felt shame for it. No reason to feel bad about a biochemical imbalance -
that's even more complicated!

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jenkstom
I had a very different experience. I was diagnosed late in life, and the
struggles to do simple things would blow up my depression. This created
massive amounts of anxiety, and that led to a rough time at home with my wife
and daughter. I will never be able to fix the damage to my daughter, she is
now riddled with anxiety from having parents that couldn't cope very well with
life. Thankfully she is a brilliant kid, and now that we are older and wiser
we can guide her a lot better with dealing with these issues.

Buy my third child is showing signs of ADHD, and I have nothing but compassion
for him. I have no interest in OVER medicating him, and have made significant
life changes so that I can take my younger children on as many outdoor
activities as possible.

In short... overmedication might be an issue. Not having good life-coping
skills might be an issue as well. But sensationalist headlines that let
headline browsers reinforce their "ADHD doesn't exist" misconceptions can
cause harm. Just because it's a recent discovery doesn't mean that it isn't
real, and that we can just abandon these kids.

~~~
soylentcola
Thank you for your post. I'm not married nor do I have kids but the rest of
your post is very familiar. It was suggested that I be assessed for possible
ADD/ADHD when I was younger but my father was very much against the concept
and refused. Later on, in my mid 30's I had been speaking to a doctor about
several ongoing issues and it was also suggested that I speak to someone about
ADD/ADHD.

I was diagnosed fairly quickly and currently take a small daily dose of
stimulant medication. I've no interest in abusing this medication or taking
more than absolutely necessary because stimulant drugs do indeed carry side
effects. That said, with a dosage that strikes the right balance between
benefits and side effects, it has made a huge difference WRT the primary
symptoms as well as the secondary problems my inability to focus had caused
(depression and anxiety).

I could waste days contemplating how things would have been different if I'd
treated this earlier but at this point I think that would be
counterproductive. I'm just glad I'm addressing it now.

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tempodox
In our performance-optimised world, being a child is just a pathological state
that needs to be cured.

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akeck
My undergrad gen-ed requirements included a theory of learning class. I took
it around 2008. For my semester presentation, I did a review of ADHD research.
The various articles I read said the percentage of the population (in the US)
with ADHD was between 4% and 8%, but my relatives, who are school teachers,
said at the time that 80-90% of their students were being treated for ADHD.

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timrpeterson
Something tells me you will see this report on FB all day today. Nothing goes
viral like controversy over a health matter.

Nvm, whatever celebrities are doing goes more viral.

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rurban
Ouch, big business mistake. The Ritalin manifacturer forgot to pay those
Taiwan researchers, who think they could turn around the world as they see
fit. Now they can only retaliate afterwards. We'll see what they'll come up
with now.

~~~
duncan_bayne
They'll probably claim the researchers themselves are suffering from ADHD and
should be medicated... ;-)

