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ADHD is BS...

Sparrow

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I dont think people with ADHD have a disease. They are just people with a certain personality type. What are your thoughts on this?
 

teslashock

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Yeah they're just schizophrenic or something.
 

Words of Ivory

facettes de la petite mor
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It's not bullshit, it's just over-diagnosed.

It is a condition, but the problem from from the fact that hack doctors from all over the world are constantly diagnosing every single kid that isn't motivated and interested in their school education as suffering from it, so much so that its use as a medical term has become redundant.
 

Sparrow

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Seems like a perfect plan for pharmaceutical drug companies to make big bucks. Doctors prescribing meds to children at such a young age to mask their personality is f*cked up to me. Call me paranoid! I dont even trust my dentist...
 

Words of Ivory

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Call me paranoid!
You're paranoid.

It's a bit like people who call themselves OCD simply because they like to organise their music collection in an alphabetical fashion. Trust me, if you're OCD, you'll know it.

I know one or two individuals who are ADHD diagnosed, and validly so. One of my friends, a woman named Mary Beth, would regularly walk off in the middle of a conversation, and come back five minutes later, completely oblivious to the previous conversation and the fact that she left in the middle of it.

That's genuine ADHD.

Some kid who looks at the wall in class because his maths teacher is utterly boring? Not so much. But it doesn't seem to stop the doctors from analysing them so.
 

ReadingRainbows

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ADHD is a real chemical disorder. How they treat it is completely up to the patient/guardian and the doctor.
 

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Seems like a perfect plan for pharmaceutical drug companies to make big bucks. Doctors prescribing meds to children at such a young age to mask their personality is f*cked up to me. Call me paranoid! I dont even trust my dentist...

Well, ones personality is entirely based off the way that ones brain functions. Perhaps you can call the act of medicating a child with ADHD, 'masking his personality' but you could also say that about any other mental disorder. For instance: medicating a child with bipolar disorder is going to drain him/her of a certain amount of emotion, medicating a child for schizophrenia is going to relieve that child of the voices in their head - voices that influence them in extreme ways. I don't see what's wrong about medicating these things properly.

If you're talking about falsely diagnosed disorders, or completely false disorders, or false medication, or the drug company created side-effects of that medication, then that's another matter entirely. But ADHD is legitimate enough for me as I've known people with it... The inability to process information, in the way that a person with ADHD does, is certainly not caused or found withing any specific personality type. Perhaps people with ADHD would fit into certain categories easier though.

At least you believe in paranoia.
 

Usehername

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It's not bullshit, it's just over-diagnosed.

:yes:

This is a classic "treat the symptom" error. The causes of the symptom are what matters, and a chemical root is true ADHD. As in, there is a hard diagnostic test. But it's cheaper and easier to just write a 'scrip for the symptoms.
 

ragashree

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:yes:

This is a classic "treat the symptom" error. The causes of the symptom are what matters, and a chemical root is true ADHD. As in, there is a hard diagnostic test. But it's cheaper and easier to just write a 'scrip for the symptoms.

:yes:

This reallly goes for most mental health conditions, in fact. I really don't see why so many people fail to understand what's wrong with this reasoning. Do we prescribe potent influenza antivirals to everyone with a runny nose?
 

angelhair45

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I wonder this myself. Not that I don't think it's real, but if the over diagnosis is because certain types act similar to those with ADHD.

I think my niece who seems to be ESFP is just being herself, but they don't appreciate her true personality and are attempting to "fix" her with medication. Her mom is a teacher so there is a pressure there to be the perfect student.
 

Lethe

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It's a bit like people who call themselves OCD simply because they like to organise their music collection in an alphabetical fashion. Trust me, if you're OCD, you'll know it.

I know one or two individuals who are ADHD diagnosed, and validly so. One of my friends, a woman named Mary Beth, would regularly walk off in the middle of a conversation, and come back five minutes later, completely oblivious to the previous conversation and the fact that she left in the middle of it.

That's genuine ADHD.

Some kid who looks at the wall in class because his maths teacher is utterly boring? Not so much. But it doesn't seem to stop the doctors from analysing them so.

Good explanation, Words of Ivory. :D The main difference between having a "disorder" and a mere character trait is that former often feels out of your direct control. Even if you want to stop, you can't snap out of it whenever you please. I have qualities that would easily fit into the OCPD criteria, but I can manage, and even alter those habits with little effort. Someone who has OCPD may find it extremely difficult to change their behavior, despite any given incentives.

This person also explains AD(H)D well:

As I have said in the past, and most ADHD authorities point out, ADD involves an unusually high level of distractibility on a chronic (on-going) basis, not just getting distracted sometimes by distracting things.

[...]

Put another way, ADDers get distracted by boring stuff just as often as they do by exciting stuff.

If you have ever brought home a brand-new DVD release that you have been dying to watch and ended up cleaning the dust bunnies you noticed under your TV stand instead, you know what I’m talking about. I needed to be reminded a half-dozen times not to use up all of the already minimal time we had for "date night" because I was trying to get a laptop to play the DVD onto the TV so that I could show her some of the new features in Windows Media Center. Instead of eating popcorn, laying on the couch, and watching the movie I desperately wanted to see (and which she has no interest in, but agreed to watch for me) I was trying to find the online manual for my laptop. Instead of fun, I was troubleshooting keys, software, and S-video cables.

In other words, I got distracted by something boring. That, my friends, is what it is like to have ADD.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – Distracted By Boring Stuff

Imagine when you're taking an important exam, and suddenly become distracted by the guy who's consistently tapping his foot, or the girl in the corner who's yawning every two seconds. 15 minutes wasted. Or you thought of a great (though irrelevant) idea, and decided to brainstorm on that instead. 30 minutes wasted. Now, when the professor declares the time is up, your attention has completely wondered off, and you don't remember ever wasting 45 minutes on nonsense.

.... Then imagine going through this everyday, especially when you're sick and tired of being "ADD".
 

Idioteque

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It's not a disease, it's a functional limitation. Wich for me means that starting and/or finishing projects take way, waaay too long, being distracted easily, probably not paying attention, have a hard time articulating because of a constant chaos or "buzz" in my head, have to read instructions over and over and OVER because I forget easily, losing track of time and sometimes be extremly short-tempered. The fact that you claimed ADHD is just part of "personality", without any reasoning or evidence pissed me off, partly because that's a stupid thing to do and partly because ADHD constantly fucks with my life. ADHD is a neurobehavorial development disorder you know.. you might want to read up on things first before throwing worthless theories out there.

On the upside though, individuals with this kind of functional limitation are often extremly creative and imaginative, so yeah maybe that made me an N.. or just made me a bigger sensotard, I don't know.
 

InsatiableCuriosity

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From a teaching perspective I have found that engagement and linear vs abstract thinking in the way that students are taught can make the difference in attention being maintained. I have a friend who is ISTJ and had often wondered what relationship functions had on distractability. When the friend refused to come to see The Matrix because he found the abstraction too boring and difficult to follow I realised that Linear concepts are boring to Abstract thinkers who learn in leaps of association driven by relative imperatives, and Abstract concepts with no deliberately scheduled purpose are boring to Linear thinkers. Each scenario increases distractability.

When we eliminate the distractability caused by poor nutrient intake, and situational distractability, we are left with a much smaller portion of the population with true difficulties. One of the problems with medicating these distractable people is that many have unique creative capacity and, like many who suffer from bipolar disorder, there is a tradeoff in reducing the distractability with meds.

Some feel that a lot of their creativity is sacrificed to achieve "normalcy" by reducing that distractability. What is the answer?? I don't know - but I do know that many adults who have bipolar disorder perefer to live with the disorder rather than blunt their creativity. Children really don't get that choice.
 

Idioteque

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From a teaching perspective I have found that engagement and linear vs abstract thinking in the way that students are taught can make the difference in attention being maintained. I have a friend who is ISTJ and had often wondered what relationship functions had on distractability. When the friend refused to come to see The Matrix because he found the abstraction too boring and difficult to follow I realised that Linear concepts are boring to Abstract thinkers who learn in leaps of association driven by relative imperatives, and Abstract concepts with no deliberately scheduled purpose are boring to Linear thinkers. Each scenario increases distractability.

When we eliminate the distractability caused by poor nutrient intake, and situational distractability, we are left with a much smaller portion of the population with true difficulties. One of the problems with medicating these distractable people is that many have unique creative capacity and, like many who suffer from bipolar disorder, there is a tradeoff in reducing the distractability with meds.

Some feel that a lot of their creativity is sacrificed to achieve "normalcy" by reducing that distractability. What is the answer?? I don't know - but I do know that many adults who have bipolar disorder perefer to live with the disorder rather than blunt their creativity. Children really don't get that choice.

That's why I was hesitant to meds first.. But now I am thinking of trying. I'll generate ideas in my "chaos mode" and actually be able to make something out of them in "focused mode" (on meds). I haven't tried any medicin yet though.
 

InsatiableCuriosity

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That's why I was hesitant to meds first.. But now I am thinking of trying. I'll generate ideas in my "chaos mode" and actually be able to make something out of them in "focused mode" (on meds). I haven't tried any medicin yet though.

Just check the safety of going on and off meds too frequently or suddenly. There is no real answer at the moment but I have a couple of questions for you:

Was your distractability a problem for you before you were told it was? What I mean is - did it put you in any danger? Are you able to hyperfocus when you have a strong interest in something? If so does time disappear for you while you are engaged in that hyperfocussed task?
 

Idioteque

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Just check the safety of going on and off meds too frequently or suddenly. There is no real answer at the moment but I have a couple of questions for you:

Was your distractability a problem for you before you were told it was? What I mean is - did it put you in any danger? Are you able to hyperfocus when you have a strong interest in something? If so does time disappear for you while you are engaged in that hyperfocussed task?

Yes, I frequently had trouble starting and finishing essays for example, spent all the time in school just daydreaming and drawing in my books.. I noticed myself that I had extreme trouble concentrating, listening to the teachers etc. so I decided I wanted to contact a psychologist (or whatever they are). Talked to her and did the tests, turns out I had ADHD.. my dad has the same issues so I guess I got it from him.

Yes, I often go into hyperfocus. Mostly when I listen to music, I try to notice all details, finding out how it's structured, thinking about what they had done to make that kind of noise.. it also happens when I read about stuff that provokes my curiousity. And yes, I lose track of time and get really frustrated if someone else interrupts.

Oh and about meds, I was thinking about taking those wich are effective over a 12 hour period, so that I can focus at work and then go chaotic in the nights
 
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