3 ms·

Stopped reading at "treatable with meds." I'm old enough to remember when ADHD was invented. To sell meds. Granted some people have difficulty concentrating,

Stopped reading at "treatable with meds." I'm old enough to remember when ADHD was invented. To sell meds. Granted some people have difficulty concentrating, I'm one of them. But I've only heard of people in the US getting medications for something which is basically a lack of discipline.

matheusmoreira 11mo ago
ADHD was not "invented". It is a neurodevelopmental disorder. The stimulant medications are effective at treating the symptoms when compared to placebo.
- u12 11mo ago
  And compare to therapy, meditation, lifestyle changes... etc etc?
  - protocolture 11mo ago
    Much more effective.
- SanjayMehta 11mo ago
  Explain why it only occurs in the "first world."
  - protocolture 11mo ago
    It occurs everywhere, its only diagnosed where people have access to suitable methods, and only treated where treatments are available.
  - matheusmoreira 11mo ago
    There's no need to explain when you're factually wrong. I'm brazilian and I have been diagnosed with ADHD by a neurologist. My existence falsifies your entire comment.
    - SanjayMehta 11mo ago
      I suggest you seek a second opinion, preferably from someone older than 55 years.
  - hshdhdhj4444 11mo ago
    It doesn’t only happen in the first world. It’s just that in other countries they call you stupid and fail you out of education destroying the lives and futures of millions of lives because those places have too many people in power, who like you, believe that if you don’t personally experience something then it mustn’t exist.
- SanjayMehta 11mo ago
  Selling ADHD: how the pharmaceutical industry, schools, and parents helped medicalize childhood restlessness — and how we can unsell it https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2 https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2
  - matheusmoreira 11mo ago
    Recognizing pharmaceutical industry bias does not mean you can throw the baby out with the bathwater by claiming they "invented" ADHD to sell drugs. The fact drug companies want to sell drugs does not imply ADHD is fake. The fact teachers can't cope with hyperactive kids messing up their classes does not imply ADHD is fake. Those attitudes are merely annoyances in a professional setting. It just means we have to undo the damage they cause. The amount of people helped by medications and therapy is substantial and cannot be ignored. Christ. These discussions remind me of one of my professors. He used to claim ADHD was a made up disease too. He also used to say vitamin D deficiency was a drug company scam. Then I was diagnosed with ADHD and hyperparathyroidism secondary to vitamin D deficiency. It's as if god himself wanted me to be living proof that he was full of shit.
hakanderyal 11mo ago
This mentality is the biggest part of the problem. "Lack of discipline", hah! With ADHD, with autism spectrum, whenever you label something that's caused by a different brain wiring, something that's caused by something pyhsical in the brain, you are doing unspeakable level of harm to those people suffering. I know, I'm one of them, I suffered from this mentality for 30 years. If you can "fix" your difficulty with contentrating with "discipline", all the more power to you. Don't assume it's the same with everyone else. Medicating vs not medicating is a worthy topic to talk about. Labeling the hardness people face as a lack of discipline is just cruelty, whether it stems from ignorance or lack of knowledge.
- sceptic123 11mo ago
  > The ADHD epidemic is less about the discovery of a disease and more about the construction of one. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the normalization of drugging children into classroom compliance — an act made possible only through the coordinated actions of pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals, school systems, and parents, all embedded in a culture that equates emotional and behavioral difficulty with biomedical defect.[1] While I think lack of discipline is over simplistic, I also think that labelling and diagnosing children is a simple and effective way for parents to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own failures. Parenting is hard, but admitting that is harder. I'm definitely not saying ADHD and Autism don't exist, I'm just saying that it's possible that ADHD diagnoses are higher than they should be. It's easier to externalise and medicate a problem than it is to look at your own behaviour as a parent. [1]<https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2 https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2>
  - hakanderyal 11mo ago
    I agree with this also. I'm not living in the USA, but from afar it looks like overmedication is a very valid concern that should be explored more. I draw the line at overly dismissal point of views, telling those who suffer to just put themselves into it and show some discipline. I'm 38 years old and been gaslit by well intentioned people for 30 of those. It needs to stop.
  - 11mo ago
lysp 11mo ago
Stopped reading at "treatable with glasses." I'm old enough to remember when vision impairment was invented. To sell glasses. Granted some people have difficulty seeing. I'm one of them. But I've only heard of people in the US getting glasses for something which is basically a lack of looking hard enough. ---- Your response was ablest, dismissive and quite offensive. 1. ADHD was first described in 1798 by Sir Alexander Crichton 2. It is a neuro-developmental disorder where there is dysregulation of dopamine and norepinephrine receptors in the brain 3. It is identifiable via MRI scans where size differences were noted in specific areas of the brain (Caudate nucleus, Putamen, Nucleus accumbens, Amygdala, Hippocampus) [1] 4. It is about 80% heritable [2]. So genetics for inheriting ADHD from your parents is about equivalent to genetics from height which is also around 80%. The "meds" increase the intensity of dopamine signals to a level that allows the brain to react to them, rather than being too low for them to be detected. [1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216105919.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216105919.h... [2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7046577/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7046577/
- SanjayMehta 11mo ago
  I don't even know what "ableist" means.
- SanjayMehta 11mo ago
  Comparing poor eyesight which is physically measurable in a reproducible manner with "ADHD" is a false equivalence.
  - lysp 11mo ago
    > 3. It is identifiable via MRI scans

matheusmoreira 11mo ago

ADHD was not "invented". It is a neurodevelopmental disorder. The stimulant medications are effective at treating the symptoms when compared to placebo.

u12 11mo ago
And compare to therapy, meditation, lifestyle changes... etc etc?
- protocolture 11mo ago
  Much more effective.
SanjayMehta 11mo ago
Explain why it only occurs in the "first world."
- protocolture 11mo ago
  It occurs everywhere, its only diagnosed where people have access to suitable methods, and only treated where treatments are available.
- matheusmoreira 11mo ago
  There's no need to explain when you're factually wrong. I'm brazilian and I have been diagnosed with ADHD by a neurologist. My existence falsifies your entire comment.
  - SanjayMehta 11mo ago
    I suggest you seek a second opinion, preferably from someone older than 55 years.
- hshdhdhj4444 11mo ago
  It doesn’t only happen in the first world. It’s just that in other countries they call you stupid and fail you out of education destroying the lives and futures of millions of lives because those places have too many people in power, who like you, believe that if you don’t personally experience something then it mustn’t exist.
SanjayMehta 11mo ago
Selling ADHD: how the pharmaceutical industry, schools, and parents helped medicalize childhood restlessness — and how we can unsell it https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2 https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2
- matheusmoreira 11mo ago
  Recognizing pharmaceutical industry bias does not mean you can throw the baby out with the bathwater by claiming they "invented" ADHD to sell drugs. The fact drug companies want to sell drugs does not imply ADHD is fake. The fact teachers can't cope with hyperactive kids messing up their classes does not imply ADHD is fake. Those attitudes are merely annoyances in a professional setting. It just means we have to undo the damage they cause. The amount of people helped by medications and therapy is substantial and cannot be ignored. Christ. These discussions remind me of one of my professors. He used to claim ADHD was a made up disease too. He also used to say vitamin D deficiency was a drug company scam. Then I was diagnosed with ADHD and hyperparathyroidism secondary to vitamin D deficiency. It's as if god himself wanted me to be living proof that he was full of shit.

hakanderyal 11mo ago

This mentality is the biggest part of the problem. "Lack of discipline", hah! With ADHD, with autism spectrum, whenever you label something that's caused by a different brain wiring, something that's caused by something pyhsical in the brain, you are doing unspeakable level of harm to those people suffering. I know, I'm one of them, I suffered from this mentality for 30 years. If you can "fix" your difficulty with contentrating with "discipline", all the more power to you. Don't assume it's the same with everyone else. Medicating vs not medicating is a worthy topic to talk about. Labeling the hardness people face as a lack of discipline is just cruelty, whether it stems from ignorance or lack of knowledge.

sceptic123 11mo ago
> The ADHD epidemic is less about the discovery of a disease and more about the construction of one. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the normalization of drugging children into classroom compliance — an act made possible only through the coordinated actions of pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals, school systems, and parents, all embedded in a culture that equates emotional and behavioral difficulty with biomedical defect.[1] While I think lack of discipline is over simplistic, I also think that labelling and diagnosing children is a simple and effective way for parents to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own failures. Parenting is hard, but admitting that is harder. I'm definitely not saying ADHD and Autism don't exist, I'm just saying that it's possible that ADHD diagnoses are higher than they should be. It's easier to externalise and medicate a problem than it is to look at your own behaviour as a parent. [1]<https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2 https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2>
- hakanderyal 11mo ago
  I agree with this also. I'm not living in the USA, but from afar it looks like overmedication is a very valid concern that should be explored more. I draw the line at overly dismissal point of views, telling those who suffer to just put themselves into it and show some discipline. I'm 38 years old and been gaslit by well intentioned people for 30 of those. It needs to stop.
- 11mo ago

lysp 11mo ago

Stopped reading at "treatable with glasses." I'm old enough to remember when vision impairment was invented. To sell glasses. Granted some people have difficulty seeing. I'm one of them. But I've only heard of people in the US getting glasses for something which is basically a lack of looking hard enough. ---- Your response was ablest, dismissive and quite offensive. 1. ADHD was first described in 1798 by Sir Alexander Crichton 2. It is a neuro-developmental disorder where there is dysregulation of dopamine and norepinephrine receptors in the brain 3. It is identifiable via MRI scans where size differences were noted in specific areas of the brain (Caudate nucleus, Putamen, Nucleus accumbens, Amygdala, Hippocampus) [1] 4. It is about 80% heritable [2]. So genetics for inheriting ADHD from your parents is about equivalent to genetics from height which is also around 80%. The "meds" increase the intensity of dopamine signals to a level that allows the brain to react to them, rather than being too low for them to be detected. [1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216105919.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170216105919.h... [2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7046577/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7046577/

SanjayMehta 11mo ago
I don't even know what "ableist" means.
SanjayMehta 11mo ago
Comparing poor eyesight which is physically measurable in a reproducible manner with "ADHD" is a false equivalence.
- lysp 11mo ago
  > 3. It is identifiable via MRI scans