[joesmo]

ADHD isn't real. It didn't exist in many previous generations. Surely, the behavior of children hasn't changed much over the last few generations so how come this "disease" didn't exist previous to the current couple of generations and how come it still doesn't exist in many places on the planet? Could foreign kids somehow be better? Of course not. As the article points out, this is a ploy by pharmaceutical companies to get children hooked not only on ADHD drugs but on drugs in the future.

What do these kids do when they turn 18? I asked on pediatrician I respected what she does for the children. Does she taper them off? Does she transition them to other doctors? Does she transition them to other medicines? Nope. "That's not my problem," she said. Of course not. In a culture where doctors are not responsible, where making hundreds of dollars an hour is "not enough" to have them actually perform their duties in full, duties such as making a full investigation into their patients' cases, and spending more than 10 or 15 minutes before "diagnosing" them with a condition they do not have and putting them on drugs for essentially the rest of their lives, only in such a culture is ADHD real.

When it comes down to it, it's the responsibility of the parents to keep their kids off drugs. The body doesn't care wether you're snorting amphetamine or Adderall because Adderall is amphetamine. Parents who allow their kids to be "diagnosed" with ADHD and allow them to take drugs are encouraging their children to take drugs. They are unconscionable parents. Any child can make a mistake and start doing drugs, but now we have whole classes of drugs that are encouraged. Some drug abuse and addictions have become ingrained in life. Do you think the children will stop because they've now turned 18? Do you think they'll stop at Ritalin or Adderall when those things stop working? Addiction knows no bounds.

How many more lives will have to be ruined before people realize the psychiatric industry and the doctors pushing these drugs are only doing it for the money, money they do not need? Talk about about scummy drug dealers. Yeah, we're looking at the multi-billion dollar corporations, the "psychiatrists," the DSM writers, and the rest of the doctors who can't even be bothered to spend ten minutes with a patient before deciding on a horrific fate for them. When will people learn that the medical industry cannot be trusted, that the hippocratic oath is bullshit, and they need to be responsible for their own selves and their own children? Those parents allowing their kids to be put on this should be put in jail next to the child murderers they irresponsibly strive to be.

[silencio]

My parents didn't want me on ADHD meds - which is hysterical because my father very obviously has undiagnosed symptoms of ADHD too - so I didn't get any and had to rely solely on behavioral techniques and societal pressure until I picked my own damn therapist. Me at 16 in college with dinky checklists compared to me at 25 right now with the same checklists and Adderall is like night and day.

As much as I love my parents, I occasionally get angry when I think about what could have been compared to what happened because they didn't like the idea of me being on drugs (like I wasn't on other drugs). Not missed opportunities that were impossible to begin with, but a lot of reachable goals and dreams I had that I tried working my ass off towards and it just wasn't happening because I spent just as much time struggling with myself as I did working towards said goals. I'm trying to play catchup still, years later. I suspect there are some goals that I will never be able to do anything about now because there was some age/time component to it.

Speaking of other drugs, there are plenty of them - yes, maybe even "dealt" by "drug dealer" doctors that are actually terrible - that significantly improve quality of life. Drugs are not inherently bad. It's a constant balance of whether or not the tradeoffs are worth it, that's all. Like right now I'm juggling 6-7 different meds and their side effects to fix my bronchitis+asthma right now because I do not want to end up in the ER or worse, dead. Is that so terrible? Am I a drug addict for not wanting to suffer when I have a choice to not suffer? Even if you want to label me as such, what, are you a firm believer in survival of the fittest? Because if we can keep people from suffering and dying, I would do it. Screw that fittest bullshit.

[unclebucknasty]

I'd encourage you not to be too hard on your parents when looking back. Very difficult decision to make and it took a lot of guts to buck the system and pressure to medicate; opting instead for behavioral approaches.

Giving a growing brain a psychoactive drug is serious business.

Also, of course, you are looking back with perfect hindsight. What if you'd had a serious adverse event, psychosis, or otherwise negative outcome? No one could have known, and that was a risk your parents had to weigh. In fact, your brain now is different than then. Perhaps your parents helped you to dodge a devastating bullet by withholding psychoactive drugs at a younger age.

[joesmo]

You didn't get any drugs as a child other than the ones you put yourself on? It's a tragedy.

[sliverstorm]

PTSD didn't exist in previous generations either.

Well, except it did- but our name/diagnosis has changed.

Shell shocked, battle fatigue, combat exhaustion, stress response, hysteria, ...

[joesmo]

Likewise, ADHD used to be called "being a child," and still is in most parts of the world.

[sliverstorm]

Similarly, ergot poisoning used to be called "witchcraft".

Anyone with half a brain should understand that Big Pharma is just trying to cover up the existence of witches. Clearly all this "medical" stuff is bullshit, especially anything that has anything to do with the mind.

Oh, and brain damage from syphilis is another interesting one. Once upon a time we still understood that some people just go crazy with age. Now doctors are trying to spread this bullshit about how a sexually transmitted virus can destroy your brain- just proof that the doctors are being paid of by the Church, I say.

[buzaga41]

Ok, so ergot poisoning is comparable to `being a child`? I conclude you think of `being a child` and it's symptoms negative but science just haven't caught up to prove that `being a child` is actually a manifestation of some serious shit going on inwards yet, I'm with you.

[rsync]

"Likewise, ADHD used to be called "being a child," and still is in most parts of the world."

I think it's more nuanced than that. Specifically, "being a child" in a very sedentary, physically restrictive world.

Strong, healthy, young males should not be driven in a car to sit at a desk for 8 hours and then driven home to sit in front of a TV. That describes a fair portion of first world male children and it is (obviously) a recipe for pathology.

[buzaga41]

Watch out for the downvotes bomb, this is real taboo topic these days...

But yeah, I'm with you, I'm yet to find any convincing evidence ADHD exists and I think the consequences of this unscientific+dogma approach is a damn tragedy. All the pain and suffering that it causes, the pressure and agony parents go through because, obviously, they want the best for their child, this is not quantified(I bet the money is though)

I'm curious to what will history say about this.

I was a problem child and it makes me cringe that I could have been put on this kind of shit since young, it's absurd.

[com2kid]

Read the other posts in this thread.

People diagnosed with ADHD are three times more likely to be in a car accident. 56& of people diagnosed with adhd who are untreated have substance abuse problems.

Either ADHD is real, or psychologists have found the world's best car insurance filter.

Then there is evidence of structural brain differences,

http://www.kennedykrieger.org/overview/news/brain-imaging-st...

I've seen multiple adults who grew up in previous generations where ADHD was just "being lazy" who have spent their entire life depressed, knowing that they never lived up to their potential because they quite literally could not focus.

It isn't a lack of willpower, it is a physical lack of ability. The fact that the physical lacking is in a missing neurotransmitter doesn't make it any less real.