5 ms·

ADHD is vastly overdiagnosed and many children are just immature, say scientists

46 points by duncan_bayne 11y ago

brazzledazzle 11y ago
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.
- Snhr 11y ago
  Sometimes I'll start something and then a day later I'll realize that I only just started something and try again, the cycle continues until I beat myself up over not getting anything done and it just gets miserable sometimes. The worst is with things that I don't want to do but I need to do because it becomes like this constant fleeting thought where I know I should do something but I'm doing this other thing so I don't get stressed about doing the thing that I don't want to do and not doing it makes me even worse because I know I need to do it. That's the best way I can explain it. Oh yeah, being interested in one thing one day and completely hating it the next day makes it hard to really plan for any long term goals when you're not sure what you'll even want to do tomorrow, in a few hours, next week, next month. It's like your head is disconnected from your body and you're watching a bored teenager live your life for you. Watching him annoy the people you enjoy being around because you can't seem to get him to do anything that causes the slightest amount of stress. If you're too stressed thats when angsty teenager drowning in his own emotions comes in and flails at everyone around him and you can't even get yourself to say what you want to say because everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like you're blaming someone else for something when you're just trying to be like hey, I need you to calm me down I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I feel worse for the people around me sometimes than I do for myself because I still have a hard time admitting I have ADHD and not that I'm just lazy and don't want to do anything. That's the true nightmare.
  - brazzledazzle 11y ago
    >Oh yeah, being interested in one thing one day and completely hating it the next day makes it hard to really plan for any long term goals when you're not sure what you'll even want to do tomorrow, in a few hours, next week, next month. The older I get the more this taxes me. Not because I have more responsibility, but because the aggregate of my failures grows larger with each passing year. I can only imagine how someone in my position who also suffers from chronic depression must feel. >It's like your head is disconnected from your body and you're watching a bored teenager live your life for you. Exactly this. Said better than I ever could. >I feel worse for the people around me sometimes than I do for myself because I still have a hard time admitting I have ADHD and not that I'm just lazy and don't want to do anything. That's the true nightmare. Even when you come to terms with it this is the hardest part. Even if you confide in them it doesn't help because rare is the person that believes it's real or can even empathize enough to properly determine if they do or not. I thought I'd be mad at those I confided in that didn't believe in me but I'm not. If anything I feel worse for them because before they just thought I didn't care enough or was lazy but after they basically have a confirmation that you're so lazy or selfish that you got a doctor to sign off on a free pass. Which is funny because a free pass is the last thing you need. Even when you explain it they rarely seem to understand that you need to be held more accountable than a normal person.
- notthegov 11y ago
  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-found-out-meth-is-almost-identical-to-adderall http://www.vice.com/read/a-neuroscientist-explains-how-he-fo...
  - HCIdivision17 11y ago
    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.
rurban 11y ago
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.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- duncan_bayne 11y ago
  They'll probably claim the researchers themselves are suffering from ADHD and should be medicated... ;-)
tempodox 11y ago
In our performance-optimised world, being a child is just a pathological state that needs to be cured.
jenkstom 11y ago
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.
- WeaselNo7 11y ago
  Out of curiosity, how did you find your symptoms affected your relationship with your family? If it's too personal, ignore this!
- soylentcola 11y ago
  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.
akeck 11y ago
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.
timrpeterson 11y ago
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.

46 points by duncan_bayne 11y ago

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.

Snhr 11y ago
Sometimes I'll start something and then a day later I'll realize that I only just started something and try again, the cycle continues until I beat myself up over not getting anything done and it just gets miserable sometimes. The worst is with things that I don't want to do but I need to do because it becomes like this constant fleeting thought where I know I should do something but I'm doing this other thing so I don't get stressed about doing the thing that I don't want to do and not doing it makes me even worse because I know I need to do it. That's the best way I can explain it. Oh yeah, being interested in one thing one day and completely hating it the next day makes it hard to really plan for any long term goals when you're not sure what you'll even want to do tomorrow, in a few hours, next week, next month. It's like your head is disconnected from your body and you're watching a bored teenager live your life for you. Watching him annoy the people you enjoy being around because you can't seem to get him to do anything that causes the slightest amount of stress. If you're too stressed thats when angsty teenager drowning in his own emotions comes in and flails at everyone around him and you can't even get yourself to say what you want to say because everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like you're blaming someone else for something when you're just trying to be like hey, I need you to calm me down I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I feel worse for the people around me sometimes than I do for myself because I still have a hard time admitting I have ADHD and not that I'm just lazy and don't want to do anything. That's the true nightmare.
- brazzledazzle 11y ago
  >Oh yeah, being interested in one thing one day and completely hating it the next day makes it hard to really plan for any long term goals when you're not sure what you'll even want to do tomorrow, in a few hours, next week, next month. The older I get the more this taxes me. Not because I have more responsibility, but because the aggregate of my failures grows larger with each passing year. I can only imagine how someone in my position who also suffers from chronic depression must feel. >It's like your head is disconnected from your body and you're watching a bored teenager live your life for you. Exactly this. Said better than I ever could. >I feel worse for the people around me sometimes than I do for myself because I still have a hard time admitting I have ADHD and not that I'm just lazy and don't want to do anything. That's the true nightmare. Even when you come to terms with it this is the hardest part. Even if you confide in them it doesn't help because rare is the person that believes it's real or can even empathize enough to properly determine if they do or not. I thought I'd be mad at those I confided in that didn't believe in me but I'm not. If anything I feel worse for them because before they just thought I didn't care enough or was lazy but after they basically have a confirmation that you're so lazy or selfish that you got a doctor to sign off on a free pass. Which is funny because a free pass is the last thing you need. Even when you explain it they rarely seem to understand that you need to be held more accountable than a normal person.
notthegov 11y ago
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-found-out-meth-is-almost-identical-to-adderall http://www.vice.com/read/a-neuroscientist-explains-how-he-fo...
- HCIdivision17 11y ago
  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.

rurban 11y ago

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.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
duncan_bayne 11y ago
They'll probably claim the researchers themselves are suffering from ADHD and should be medicated... ;-)

tempodox 11y ago

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

jenkstom 11y ago

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.

WeaselNo7 11y ago
Out of curiosity, how did you find your symptoms affected your relationship with your family? If it's too personal, ignore this!
soylentcola 11y ago
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.

akeck 11y ago

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.

timrpeterson 11y ago

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.