ADHD: all in your "head" so to speak or a diagnosable, medical condition? Or a combination of both?
What I mean is are you of the belief that ADHD is as a result of poor parenting, too much tv and other various non-medical causes, or do you think it has a biological , and perhaps genetic cause? Or, do you feel that both medical and non-medical causes come in to play?
Have at it.
My opinion to follow in an not so distant future entry.
Poor parenting? No. Not that there aren't parents whose kids are wilder than they would be with a firmer hand, but no. Food additives, too much tv, all of that? No. Genetics? Probably, in the same way that other personality features seem to get transmitted.
ReplyDeleteI'd say, though, that part of it is cultural. Children are not built to sit through the things we require them to sit through. Some adapt better than others, but the demand itself is bound to make an issue out of something that might not be one under different conditions.
Also, I have no idea where the threshold between personality trait and actual problem is on this one, but I suppose it's probably defined by that same set of demands, which makes me a little uncomfortable, quite honestly.
I have no idea if that made any sense, but there you go.
Considering that I have it.. I think its a medical condition. Do I think its over used to explain kids being kids. YES! Do I think a lot of kids are given drugs they don't really need because parents don't want to deal with them? YES!
ReplyDeleteI think its a real condition, But I also think its a used as a scapegoat for parents, Teachers, And other who don't want to have to deal with some kids.
From my perspective it's a wildly overdiagnosed ACTUAL disorder. I suspect about 50% of kids diagnosed as ADHD probably have other issues, including food sensitivities, learning disabilities, and/or crappy parents who don't discipline them. Which makes it even rougher on the kids who DO have a dopamine/ norepinephrine imbalance or other neurological condition underlying the ADHD. I blame lazy adults, particularly school officials and doctors who look at the presenting symptom and automatically ASSUME ADHD, rather than taking the time to see the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteAnd the same for other disorders: bipolar, depression, etc.
Partly real; there's certainly a continuum, a range, of how people focus or unfocus their attention and how active or passive they normally are. Mostly it's overused, to keep the little boogers unnaturally calm for benefit of teachers who can't abide little boys behaving like little boys.
ReplyDelete