6 ms·

I appreciate the attempted compliment. It's nice to consider myself interesting and clever. Unfortunately, it's not so nice when I'm unmedicated to lose my tra

I appreciate the attempted compliment. It's nice to consider myself interesting and clever. Unfortunately, it's not so nice when I'm unmedicated to lose my train of thought constantly, be totally distracted by small noises (think Doug the dog: "SQUIRREL!"), be totally manic and creative for two to four hours only to be beset by a terrible fog of malaise for the next few days or even week. But with a boost extra norepinephrine and dopamine, however, I can actually function as a human being and feel like I have control over my life. Whatever peculiar chemical mixture I have, whether you'd like to call it ADD (or ADHD-PI) or some sort of minor bipolar disorder or depression or hypomania, has very real consequences on my life. Without medication, I am miserable. With it, I feel some semblance of what I would presume "normal" feels like. It doesn't fix all of my problems - my memory recording and recall skills are still very poor and my ability to manage my time is a challenge, which has taken years of practice to compensate for - but it stabilizes me emotionally and mentally so that I can actually focus on living my life vs. using all my faculties up struggling to do basic things like dishes or laundry. Now I'd like to turn the discussion back to you: what's with your hostility to people who aren't like you?

excuse-me 14y ago
"Oh my little darling could never sit down and read that 1000page book - it's not because he's lazy boring and stupid - it's because he has ADD". You can sit down and read a 1000 page book? when Jersey Shore is on? You must have Aspergers. Little "moonflower cherub" doesn't do well at school. It's because she's too delicate, fragile and artistic for math. She can't read either, she just sits in class eating crayons - she must be dyslexic.
- j_baker 14y ago
  Do you have any arguments that aren't flippantly insulting and irrational?
  - excuse-me 14y ago
    That wasn't really aimed at the comment above. It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. In the US I have known children who were medicated for ADD on the word of a teacher or classroom assistant. Basically it becomes the socially accepted alternative to making the disruptive kid sit in the corner. The rather more laughable but harmless affect is the middle class parents who have decided that any deviation from perfection in their assumed to be perfect little offspring is obviousness a medical disorder
    - anigbrowl 14y ago
      This is a valid observation, but maybe you should try making it without all the posturing.
    - j_baker 14y ago
      It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. I don't doubt that this happens, but to convince me that this happens in a majority of cases, you've got to give me some concrete evidence.
    - coridactyl 14y ago
      I think kids (usually boys) with behavioral problems getting misdiagnosed with ADHD is more due to the conformist structure of our godawful school system than delusional parents. Parents want the best for their kids, and if the child is underperforming by the metrics of grades, focus and class participation, then naturally they will want to figure out how to compensate. The answer could be tutoring, better impulse control, change of diet or (gee!) learning environment, or the introduction of a psychiatric evaluation, and sometimes the last option is considered first. I was actually diagnosed with ADD when I was in second grade. My mom refused to acknowledge the diagnosis, claiming it was bunk and that it was the Montessori school's ability to run a classroom that was lacking, not my ability to focus. She reasoned that I could draw for four hours straight, so I must not have ADD. (This was back when all studies on ADD were on boys with hyperactivity as the main criteria - "hyperfocus" and "low arousal theory" were barely off the ground then.) My mom moved me to a public school and, wonder of wonders, the focused group environment of second and third grade was much more engaging for me. Then I got to the more rigid structure (separate desks, "all eyes on the blackboard" style classroom) and I started to slip. My mom made a little sign for my desk that said "PAY ATTENTION," as if that was going to magically snap me out of my daydreams. My poor performance continued all the way till high school - every report card insisted that I was bright, but not trying hard enough. Finally, when I got to high school, the challenges of AP classes and college prep got me motivated and goal-oriented. But once I was at college, all my old problems came back. It was like I was back at Montessori, totally lost and dazed and losing credits. Then I got RE-diagnosed with ADD, started medication and group therapy, and voila! I graduated. Had I tried medication in middle school and high school, who knows what I might have been capable of. For every diagnosis that you may think is unnecessary, I guarantee you there are kids (mainly girls) out there who are humiliated constantly by their mysterious "laziness" and "flakiness" who suffer in silence and parents who are frustrated and sad for their kids' unexplained struggles. Had I known that there was truly something about the way my brain worked that gave me these challenges, I wouldn't have gone through the shameful years that I hated myself for trying twice as hard as anyone else to do half as much as they could do without trying. The problem isn't cut and dried and your insistence on belittling the choices of well-meaning parents undermines those of us who are fighting to be understood. tl;dr - "ADD doesn't exist" isn't helping.

excuse-me 14y ago

"Oh my little darling could never sit down and read that 1000page book - it's not because he's lazy boring and stupid - it's because he has ADD". You can sit down and read a 1000 page book? when Jersey Shore is on? You must have Aspergers. Little "moonflower cherub" doesn't do well at school. It's because she's too delicate, fragile and artistic for math. She can't read either, she just sits in class eating crayons - she must be dyslexic.

j_baker 14y ago
Do you have any arguments that aren't flippantly insulting and irrational?
- excuse-me 14y ago
  That wasn't really aimed at the comment above. It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. In the US I have known children who were medicated for ADD on the word of a teacher or classroom assistant. Basically it becomes the socially accepted alternative to making the disruptive kid sit in the corner. The rather more laughable but harmless affect is the middle class parents who have decided that any deviation from perfection in their assumed to be perfect little offspring is obviousness a medical disorder
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    This is a valid observation, but maybe you should try making it without all the posturing.
  - j_baker 14y ago
    It was that the majority of "behaviour disorders" are 'diagnosed' by teachers or parents. I don't doubt that this happens, but to convince me that this happens in a majority of cases, you've got to give me some concrete evidence.
  - coridactyl 14y ago
    I think kids (usually boys) with behavioral problems getting misdiagnosed with ADHD is more due to the conformist structure of our godawful school system than delusional parents. Parents want the best for their kids, and if the child is underperforming by the metrics of grades, focus and class participation, then naturally they will want to figure out how to compensate. The answer could be tutoring, better impulse control, change of diet or (gee!) learning environment, or the introduction of a psychiatric evaluation, and sometimes the last option is considered first. I was actually diagnosed with ADD when I was in second grade. My mom refused to acknowledge the diagnosis, claiming it was bunk and that it was the Montessori school's ability to run a classroom that was lacking, not my ability to focus. She reasoned that I could draw for four hours straight, so I must not have ADD. (This was back when all studies on ADD were on boys with hyperactivity as the main criteria - "hyperfocus" and "low arousal theory" were barely off the ground then.) My mom moved me to a public school and, wonder of wonders, the focused group environment of second and third grade was much more engaging for me. Then I got to the more rigid structure (separate desks, "all eyes on the blackboard" style classroom) and I started to slip. My mom made a little sign for my desk that said "PAY ATTENTION," as if that was going to magically snap me out of my daydreams. My poor performance continued all the way till high school - every report card insisted that I was bright, but not trying hard enough. Finally, when I got to high school, the challenges of AP classes and college prep got me motivated and goal-oriented. But once I was at college, all my old problems came back. It was like I was back at Montessori, totally lost and dazed and losing credits. Then I got RE-diagnosed with ADD, started medication and group therapy, and voila! I graduated. Had I tried medication in middle school and high school, who knows what I might have been capable of. For every diagnosis that you may think is unnecessary, I guarantee you there are kids (mainly girls) out there who are humiliated constantly by their mysterious "laziness" and "flakiness" who suffer in silence and parents who are frustrated and sad for their kids' unexplained struggles. Had I known that there was truly something about the way my brain worked that gave me these challenges, I wouldn't have gone through the shameful years that I hated myself for trying twice as hard as anyone else to do half as much as they could do without trying. The problem isn't cut and dried and your insistence on belittling the choices of well-meaning parents undermines those of us who are fighting to be understood. tl;dr - "ADD doesn't exist" isn't helping.