My son got voted "Most Energetic" in his third-grade class. We all know what that's code for. I rolled my eyes and laughed. Four years later he has straight As and gets all his "wiggles out" on the football and lacrosse fields. He has an older sister and they could not be more different. In third grade she was able to and loved to lie on the sofa and read for over an hour without moving. We absolutely cannot hold boys and girls to the same standard because they are DIFFERENT!
one of my best friends growing up took Ritalin all throughout puberty for ADD. he currently lives in a van in Austin and has been a homeless meth addict for almost 8 years. when he first got hooked, he would relate the feeling to how much better he felt after taking Ritalin as a kid. it’s fairly obvious that his brain rewired itself to seek out a pharmaceutical solution to discomfort/stress. seeing as how both drugs are amphetamines, it’s not difficult to connect the dots.
Excellent points about the questionnaire. You are absolutely correct boiling it down to those two questions. Questionnaires of any value are not easy to develop and require reliability and validity testing. Was anything like that even done? It appears as if this is merely a sales questionnaire. Everywhere I look now in modern medicine it seems to me that corporate sales and marketing has invaded every corner of medicine under a paper thin cover of evidence and expertise.
I have said for many years that public education is not geared to boys. It's formed to accomodate how girls learn. Homeschool is a good choice for boys.
I suspect a lot of what would have been future success stories are being drugged into government institution conformity for the sake of convenience. As a former physician I remember looking over the medical records of children prior to surgery and in the course of a few years, it went from rarely seeing any medications listed to seeing a fourth on ADHD meds. Surely, we need to have higher standards for putting this many children on mind altering drugs for the rest of their lives.
Yes. Girls & boys can share behavioral traits but are, from centuries-long anecdotal evidence different as 'sugar & spice' v. 'snips & snails.'
My parents were conned by reading Dr. Spock for childrearing advice. Glad they had inquisitive, rational minds and rejected some blatant bad suggestions.
When i packed up my Dad's estate, i found another book in their library, "What Dr Spock Didnt Tell Us." This is the funniest book (1958 B. M. Atkinson, Jr) on childrearing you will ever read.
If only excerpts of this book were shown on the tv screens in the waiting rooms at the Pediatrician's offices, parents might feel better understood and not agree with doping their kids.
I sought diagnosis for our older son at age 4, not so we could medicate him (that was the last thing I wanted!), but so I could get people to take his behavioral issues seriously (he has *actual* ADHD, and has since infancy). It was the birth and subsequent behavior of his younger brother that finally gave me the confidence to say that this child was absolutely NOT 'normal' by any stretch of the imagination.
We actually sought homeopathic treatment, which ended up making a significant difference--about 60-70% improvement by the time he was 10. Enough that he was able, with maturity and earnest effort, to become a functional adult.
I suspect that, if the same behaviors were being diagnosed now, he would have been pegged as autistic as well. Now that I'm more familiar with autism, I can see that in his early behavior.
To me, that’s like asking what my diagnostic criteria for an imbalance of the humors - a very common medical diagnosis in the 17th century. I think it’s a fraud, so I have no criteria, and I would never encourage a child to be given daily cocaine for it.
I was curious, because I do know people for which some medication is helpful. For one in particular it helps her concentrate. She's able to tell when it's working and when it's not and needs to be increased.
I do agree though that having no scan and diagnosing on "how badly did this kid misbehave in sit-still boot camp" is not a good diagnosis. I'm hoping Dr. Amen's work is helping to pave the way for real diagnostic criteria.
Excellent post that I suspect can be applied to many if not most of the DSM diagnoses in a similar way. Some time ago I read this piece by medical historian Edward Shorter that helped me see just how bad things are out there.
My son got voted "Most Energetic" in his third-grade class. We all know what that's code for. I rolled my eyes and laughed. Four years later he has straight As and gets all his "wiggles out" on the football and lacrosse fields. He has an older sister and they could not be more different. In third grade she was able to and loved to lie on the sofa and read for over an hour without moving. We absolutely cannot hold boys and girls to the same standard because they are DIFFERENT!
one of my best friends growing up took Ritalin all throughout puberty for ADD. he currently lives in a van in Austin and has been a homeless meth addict for almost 8 years. when he first got hooked, he would relate the feeling to how much better he felt after taking Ritalin as a kid. it’s fairly obvious that his brain rewired itself to seek out a pharmaceutical solution to discomfort/stress. seeing as how both drugs are amphetamines, it’s not difficult to connect the dots.
It's absolutely frightening what is being done to young children. Thanks for speaking out.
Excellent points about the questionnaire. You are absolutely correct boiling it down to those two questions. Questionnaires of any value are not easy to develop and require reliability and validity testing. Was anything like that even done? It appears as if this is merely a sales questionnaire. Everywhere I look now in modern medicine it seems to me that corporate sales and marketing has invaded every corner of medicine under a paper thin cover of evidence and expertise.
I have said for many years that public education is not geared to boys. It's formed to accomodate how girls learn. Homeschool is a good choice for boys.
I suspect a lot of what would have been future success stories are being drugged into government institution conformity for the sake of convenience. As a former physician I remember looking over the medical records of children prior to surgery and in the course of a few years, it went from rarely seeing any medications listed to seeing a fourth on ADHD meds. Surely, we need to have higher standards for putting this many children on mind altering drugs for the rest of their lives.
Yes. Girls & boys can share behavioral traits but are, from centuries-long anecdotal evidence different as 'sugar & spice' v. 'snips & snails.'
My parents were conned by reading Dr. Spock for childrearing advice. Glad they had inquisitive, rational minds and rejected some blatant bad suggestions.
When i packed up my Dad's estate, i found another book in their library, "What Dr Spock Didnt Tell Us." This is the funniest book (1958 B. M. Atkinson, Jr) on childrearing you will ever read.
If only excerpts of this book were shown on the tv screens in the waiting rooms at the Pediatrician's offices, parents might feel better understood and not agree with doping their kids.
To see a review and excerpts:
https://www.missabigail.com/advice/marriage-family/2011/06/what-dr-spock-didnt-tell-us-1958/
I sought diagnosis for our older son at age 4, not so we could medicate him (that was the last thing I wanted!), but so I could get people to take his behavioral issues seriously (he has *actual* ADHD, and has since infancy). It was the birth and subsequent behavior of his younger brother that finally gave me the confidence to say that this child was absolutely NOT 'normal' by any stretch of the imagination.
We actually sought homeopathic treatment, which ended up making a significant difference--about 60-70% improvement by the time he was 10. Enough that he was able, with maturity and earnest effort, to become a functional adult.
I suspect that, if the same behaviors were being diagnosed now, he would have been pegged as autistic as well. Now that I'm more familiar with autism, I can see that in his early behavior.
Do you have thoughts on when you think that ADHD medication *is* helpful. What would be your diagnostic criteria?
To me, that’s like asking what my diagnostic criteria for an imbalance of the humors - a very common medical diagnosis in the 17th century. I think it’s a fraud, so I have no criteria, and I would never encourage a child to be given daily cocaine for it.
Interesting. OK.
I was curious, because I do know people for which some medication is helpful. For one in particular it helps her concentrate. She's able to tell when it's working and when it's not and needs to be increased.
I do agree though that having no scan and diagnosing on "how badly did this kid misbehave in sit-still boot camp" is not a good diagnosis. I'm hoping Dr. Amen's work is helping to pave the way for real diagnostic criteria.
Excellent post that I suspect can be applied to many if not most of the DSM diagnoses in a similar way. Some time ago I read this piece by medical historian Edward Shorter that helped me see just how bad things are out there.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4421901/