[andyl]

A few years ago teachers complained that both my boys were too intense on the playground, 'diagnosed' with ADHD. Docs were eager to prescribe meds to make them conform.

There is something in our society wants to redefine normal behavior as pathology. Maybe to get you hooked and build revenue streams, maybe just to make you more pliable.

Fuck that.

Yes there are legitimate cases. But I've only experienced people who want to mis-apply the meds.

[aidenn0]

Count me as a legitimate case.

That being said, all the research I've done into it on my own shows that the ability of the system to diagnose ADHD is crap. As in huge numbers of both false positives and false negatives. The over-diagnosis is a huge problem, and it results in not only large numbers of children being prescribed stimulant medication mistakenly, but it causes parents of kids who could benefit from such medication to rightfully have second thoughts when a doctor recommends it.

In particular a lot of those who make ADHD referrals kind of have this mapping of "Problem Kid" => "Likely ADHD" when that doesn't seem to be a particularly good mapping.

There are even significant downsides to kids with ADHD taking stimulant medication, but in that case, it appears that the likely benefit does outweigh the likely harm.

Now that I'm a parent, I also wonder if the increased diagnosis of boys is partly due to the differences in the school system. I see more homework and deskwork at a younger age than when I was a kid, but combined with less of a "boys will be boys" tolerance for destructive behavior than when my dad was a kid. Of course I have no numbers on this, so it may merely be nostalgia thinking that that is the trend.

[eruditely]

You've only experienced people who want to mis-apply the meds? What criteria for mis-apply are you using here? "Docs were eager to prescribe meds to make them conform", awkward appeal to malicious agency. It is doubtful that doctors were "Eager to make them conform".

"Something to redefine behavior as pathology... maybe to get you hooked and build revenue streams", ah yes. That's it. Never mind the much higher incident of high school drop out, repeated grades, 1/4th as likely as other kids to pass college, more likely to go to jail, and get in a car crash.

[yequalsx]

My girlfriend is a psychiatrist and we've had discussions about over medication. One thing she said to me stuck with me and may be of help to you in your current situation. She says stimulants work right away (unlike medication for depression) and she said that if the drugs do work you'll see this within a few days. If they do work then talk with a psychiatrist about long term plans and long term health affects of the medication.

The teachers are not professionals and their opinions do not constitute a diagnosis.

[buzaga41]

but what is "work"? Seems to hit the point of 'make conform'

[fit2rule]

The only purpose for pharmaceuticals as a solution to this problem is to establish a viable industry. These drugs are not ever a solution - if they were, you could grow them in your own home. As it is, however, you have to join the right club, sign up with the right team, be a member of the right cult - to get your meds every month.

Legalized drugging of culture, is all it is. Utter, literal brainwashing.

(A real solution wouldn't require a prescription.)