<p>Just looking for away to make this 8.5 hour car trip go faster. </p>
<p>I think it is. That's not to say there aren't legitimate cases, but I just see some parents thinking that there must be something wring with their kid if he isn't doing well in school.</p>
<p>Almost every mental disorder that allows an excuse to underperform is over-diagnosed.</p>
<p>True…I think a lot of times these things are diagnosed by the family physician as well - who is NOT trained to diagnose psychological disorders and who does not spend nearly enough time with each patient in the little appointment time slots that they get. But they diagnose based on a few common questions and are all too happy to write out a prescription. </p>
<p>The fact is, not everyone learns the same way. People might not have ADHD - maybe they just need a more hands-on approach to learning as opposed to sitting and listening to someone talk. But the school system is designed to favor how females generally learn, and not how males generally learn, (females being more verbal and males less so with more motor capabilities), which is why it is most often boys who are labeled hyperactive. </p>
<p>Sure, some may truly have this problem and need assistance, but many just don’t fit into our standard way of learning.</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>I think it is overdiagnosed.</p>
<p>In the old days, there was no such thing.</p>
<p>^ Yeah. Back when I walked 5 miles to school uphill both ways I’d never heard of ADD.</p>
<p>And people wonder why America is falling behind in… well everything. (Except student confidence)</p>
<p>I once read that one of the probable reasons for ADHD diagnosis was the mismatch of parent to child personality. An active parent with an active child is much more forgiving of certain behaviors (and considers them normal) vs a more reserved parent with an active child.</p>
<p>And yeah, I walked uphill both directions too! and only 3 TV channels, and one phone in the house…come to think of it maybe that’s why there is ADD today and not back then.</p>
<p>Yes. As other people have said, I believe there are legitimate cases of it, but I think there are also a lot of parents who want to justify the fact that their kid does badly in school or misbehaves in public.</p>
<p>Overdiagnosed? Perhaps.</p>
<p>But it is definitely a real problem.</p>
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<p>Yes there was - and back in those uh, “good”, old days, before diagnosis, students with ADHD probably got themselves into trouble because they didn’t “fit in” and were simply shunned.</p>
<p>We’ve come a long way.</p>
<p>^yeah, now every imperfection is a disease and parenting is non existent.</p>
<p>Some times when I go to bed my legs feel active still. I guess I have restless leg syndrome and need medication</p>
<p>Yes. Now the unmedicated students often feel a need to find drugs to compete. I think it was The Onion which had a funny (if it wasn’t so true) spoof–on Harvard awarding an honorary degree to Adderall for its contribution to the university’s excellence.</p>
<p>After years of letting the kiddies live in front of computer games, parents demand doctors to cure their kids’ inability to focus on the written page.</p>
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<p>Please read my original post. I said that ADHD is real but perhaps overdiagnosed.</p>
<p>Yea, it is overdiagnosed, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Most doctors’ philosophies are that since there isn’t any real test to prove whether or not you have ADHD, you just have to go with what the patient says, and if there is even somewhat of a chance that they might have ADHD, then you give them medicine.</p>
<p>ADHD is horribly overdiagnosed. The same goes for ADD and for any condition for which doctors must rely on patient testimony. A small part of the reason why is because people fake ADHD for the meds, but more often the reason for misdiagnosis is, as gouf78 mentioned, parent-child personality mismatch. If a parent doesn’t function in the same manner as their child, they won’t consider whether or not their child could just, well, function differently. They just think there’s something wrong, and in this age, many jump to medication as an answer.</p>
<p>I personally was misdiagnosed once as ADD. Am I? No. I just wasn’t being challenged enough in school. The school switched me into more challenging classes, and the “ADD” disappeared near-instantly. The medicine they made me take for about two months before giving up and switching me into harder classes, on the other hand, didn’t do a single thing.</p>
<p>I hate it when people say stuff like “My ADHD is acting up!”. It seems like everyone I’ve met who claimed to have ADHD seemed oddly proud of having this disorder, and when they talk about their symptoms they say things like “well I was having trouble paying attention in class”. I just think, don’t most students have these problems? </p>
<p>I remember watching a series of documentaries about this in my psychology class, and I remember thinking that all of the kids who had parents that were certain they had problems were just acting like any ordinary kid I’ve ever met.</p>
<p>I definitely think that there are cases where someone has ADHD bad enough that he/she needs medication, but I think that overmedication is prevalent with many mental and physical disorders. The ADHD could be reduced with therapy of other kinds.</p>
<p>^like parenting</p>
<p>I think it is a legitimate condition but there are probably lots of cases where declaring ADHD as the problem is the lazy diagnostician’s way of dealing with kids who exhibit behavior outside the norm. Perhaps in some cases of legitimate ADD or ADHD the parents and child can work on behavioral coping strategies to improve learning and decrease impulsiveness but I do think that if the ADHD behavior is so “out there” that the class can’t function, and/or the kid cannot sit down long enough to get through a lesson and have anything sink in (or constantly is zoned out in daydream mode) resulting in failing grades, then you really have to do something. If medication works to get the desired result in increasing the ability to learn then so be it. </p>
<p>And I think it’s not just a question of medicate or don’t medicate. I remember reading somewhere a few years back that they think ADD and ADHD may actually be 7 different neurological syndromes but they tend to get lumped into one syndrome based on symptoms. It was said in this article that this would explain why the medications don’t work the same for everybody.</p>
<p>yes I was diagnosed and it turns out (according to other opinions) im just depressed, have anxiety, have a habit of procrastination and a really low attention span caused by video games and TV. Somehow I still have a 3.5 in college, ADHD is not real.</p>