Is ADHD a mental health crisis, or a cultural one?

Maclean's ^ | Feb. 24, 2014 | Kate Lunau

[rickmichaels]

Any visitor to North Carolina and California will know that the two states have their differences. The former is a typically “red state”; California is staunchly “blue.” Each has certain geographic, ethnic and cultural peculiarities, different demographic makeup, family income levels, and more. Yet perhaps the most surprising divide, one many wouldn’t expect, is that North Carolina appears to be a hotbed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD—especially when compared to California. A child who lived in North Carolina instead of California in 2007, according to U.S. academics Stephen Hinshaw and Richard Scheffler, was 2½ times more likely to be diagnosed.

In their forthcoming book The ADHD Explosion, Hinshaw and Scheffler—a psychologist and health economist, respectively, at the University of California at Berkeley—examine the causes behind the startling and rapid rise in diagnosis rates of ADHD, a neurobehavioural disorder that has somehow become epidemic. In the U.S., more than one in 10 kids has been diagnosed; more than 3.5 million are taking drugs to curb symptoms, from lack of focus to hyperactivity. While ADHD typically hits middle-class boys the hardest, rates among other groups are steadily rising, including girls, adults and minorities. Kids are being tested and diagnosed as young as preschool. In North Carolina, as many as 30 per cent of teenage boys are diagnosed. Scheffler says, “It’s getting scary.”

[lurk]

Cultural/spiritual.

People and kids need good nutrition, structure, discipline, love, consistent sleep and two parents devoted to each other and their family.

Limits on sugar, TV and electronic devices is crucial.

Guess what kind of environment ADHD kids come from?

[hal ogen]

I call it BAD...Bad Attitude Disorder.

[3D-JOY]

Totally agree. When children are allowed to believe that the family exists to make them the NUMBER ONE they stop being a giver in a family setting. Discipline, diet, sleep, and family cooperation all suffer.

There are exceptions and they need treatment, but think how the diagnosis frees the families from being the cause! What an excuse for bad behavior all around!

society is “sick” in many ways.

[cva66snipe]

They're mistaking ADHD for a group of learning disorders triggered by such things as sinus allergies, chronic ear infections etc. IOW the more humid North Carolina like Eastern Tennessee is a hot bed for allergies which lead to Vestibular Damage which can mimic ADD ADHD symptoms both in behavior and learning issues at it effects concentration as well.

They need to get Audiologist and Speech Pathologist trained to test for C.A.P.D. involved in the study and the ADD ADHD numbers will likely drop like a rock.

[SatinDoll]

Tests have proved that ADHD has a peculiar outcome: the usual self-pruning of neural networks that are not used at the child’s maturity is delayed sometimes for as long as 5 or 6 years. In other words, it is a means to grow brain power.

Keep kids moving. Exercise is important to work off all that energy. Make serious efforts to discourage the use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol before age 25, as use can effect behavior due to premature destruction of neural networks.

Note: read this quite some time ago. Don’t ask for a reference as it was destroyed the last time my CPU was hacked.

[RedMDer]

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[Sacajaweau]

We got all the wiggle worms (ADHD) on drugs.

Then we went for the shy and quiet ones (autism).

I think most of the cases are normal kids.

One of my friends was told their daughter had ADHD and the school wanted her on meds. He told the school to go to hell. She's a doctor today.

Another wiggle worm boy about7...school said ADHD...Mother said you're nuts. Put him in another school.

And more recently, diagnosed with autism....grandma finally went in with the daughter and told the school they were nuts. He's shy...he's young....so what...he's quite normal.

[GOP Poet]

haha. good point. i can be very ADHD. Yet when I eat right, take care of stress levels, meditate, exercise, make smaller daily to do lists, and be present with others the ADHD seems to disappear. When I do the opposite of everything I listed I am the QUEEN of ADHD.

[cva66snipe]

Limits on sugar, TV and electronic devices is crucial.

A true ADD ADHD child you can give caffeine too and it will alter their behavior as in calming them which is why Ritalin is used. A child with CAPD can drink cokes etc in moderation and it usually won't show significant behavioral changes either way. On the other hand place a C.A.P.D. child in an environment of electronic devices especially ones that saturate the area noise wise or have a strobe or flashing effect and you will likely start seeing ADD ADHD symptoms including behavior change.

An ADD ADHD child can handle the stimulation the CAPD kid or adult can not. ADD ADHD can be treated chemically CAPD outside of treating the primary underling cause doing the neurological damage such as allergies, ear infections etc doesn't require medications.

[PistolPaknMama]

Whatever happened to "Go outside and find something to do!" Kids used to play, and play hard, and used their imaginations to invent new surroundings and situations. Like we used to play war and cops and robbers and build forts and tree houses. Now everything is almost sterile via government school, ipads, computers, television. All the things that made up "being a kid" has just turned into a mind numbing existence and there's a real kid in there that wants out.

The sad thing, for me at least, is that most of these boys are just being boys, but the psychobabblers have to give them a designer ailment so they can treat them ad nauseum. That's how they get paid.

[Chickensoup]

my daughter was dx’d with ADHD. It was big tonsils causing her sleeplessness thus an inability to manage herself.

[cva66snipe]

That would do it. I'm 56 and I was thought to have ADD ADHD as a child. I don't. I had chronic sinus allergies as a kid and was also born with some sensory processing issues which involve the Inner Ear and the sensory interpretation portion of the brain. I didn't learn this until I was nearly 40.

[ChildOfThe60s]

A huge Effin load of crap. Period.

This is lazy, incompetent bureaucrats, teachers and parents using the pharmacological approach to behavior modification.

To put it simply, drug the kids into submission.

And these drugs are destroying the lives of these children when they reach adulthood.

I have dealt with the school system and seen this sh1t first hand. This is nothing less than criminal child abuse.

Hope I’m not being too subtle.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rickmichaels. Soma Coma ping.

[yldstrk]

it’s total bullshit created to sell medication

Adderral has ruined many lives

[Wuli]

ADHD is not in and of itself a single condition anymore - the raft of “symptoms” that can be applied to a finding of
ADHD include many things that may be caused by many other independent - non ADHD causes, and ADHD is not from any one single cause and often the diagnosis is wrong with behaviors might be found with ADHD but in reality, in many cases, can be JUST a behavioral issue

people are often diagnosed as having “ADHD” when they actually have vision problems, speech problems, bi-polar disorder and a whole raft of independently treatable issues

but, the kid “acts up” all the time in school

the school forces the parents to have the schools psychological consult diagnose the kid, and wham bam
the school says its ADHD and demanads the kid be put on ritalin