Why is it that only within the past two centuries that young active little boys have now been considered to have a problem? What happened to the times when 'boys will be boys'? I don't understand that now, out of the entire history of human evolution, have active boys now suddenly have an affliction called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? Maybe it's a new cancer spreading out through the youth of America. Perhaps it's a made-up illness used to sedate the children of parents who need some quiet time after they realized kids are a lot of work. Whatever it is, I would bet anything that this 'ADHD' is nothing new, and parents have dealt with rambunctious kids for centuries, but only now has medicine progressed enough that we can silence the children if we choose to. I submit that these advancements in science need to be considered long and hard by ethics committees all over the world. Even more so, it's too early to tell if the new found drugs they are giving these children have any long term effects (40, 50, 60 years from now). I'm not trying to say that ALL kids diagnosed with ADHD should live without this medication, I'm simply saying that many kids that are normal and simply have active outbursts from time to time are being treated hastily with medication they don't need!
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In this particular sense, I completely agree. ADHD or even ADD is not necessarily something made up. ADHD is: a syndrome (a group of symptoms or signs) that is usually characterized by serious and persistent difficulties, resulting in inattentiveness or distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. My problem with giving medicine to children with this sense of a 'Problem' is that all you're doing is making the child lethargic. The restlessness is not only in the body, but the mind. The drugs prescribed to children to calm them does not make them think slower so that they can concentrate is just slows their motions, the way they move. Yes, they do need special attention in school because their mind tends to wander, but wandering minds is a good thing. Because of critical thinkers who let their minds wander and expand over horizons not yet seen we have inventions and things like the cell phone, even something as overlooked like electricity.
ReplyDeleteSociety tries to silence these children by pushing a claim that they have some kind of "bad" problem and it needs to be fixed. Science tries to silence these children by giving them medication to sedate and slow them down. Great artists can't be slowed down and won't allow it. It's a shame that we try to hush our children instead of allowing them creative freedom, to an extent, and let them make something. Truly a fascinating piece.
-Brittney
First off, I know that there really are people with ADHD and I know that it's grossly overdiagnosed. In centuries passed no one knew what ADHD was so excuses were made about poor attention spans, which usually were then associated with bad behavior. The whole "boys will be boys" thing. The rise of medical knowledge of a chemical imbalance in the brain has shown evidence that attention deficit disorders do exist. The true test for it is a difficult one and has been replaced by a standerized written test and short evaluation. A lot of young children beleive if they have ADHD they can misbehave and get away with it if they cheat on the test. Alternatively the test is boreing so a lot of healthy kids are said to have something when they are completely healthy. The theird scinario would be a child just plain acting out and medication is the easy way out of parenting. There are disorders though, and through the progresssion of medical technology it has been found and deemed treatable. The children who did have this disorder and are treated fight their own disability and succeed. They go on to create great works of art, or be leaders of industries. The same child if simply told was slow than held back again, and again would never have gotten anywhere or created all they create today. It's something so managable that most real ADHDs hide it so well that you would never know they have any problem at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some cases of ADHD are merely over reacting parents who don't want to have to deal with their annoying kids because they are too lazy. Although I do believe there are some people who actually do need to be medicated for this unfortunate disorder. I also believe our society has become far too quick to throw medication at a problem which can be solved naturally with just a little attention and fortitude. I think we have begun to ignore the old school science our parents grew up with and are relying too heavily on the newer ideologies.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see that ADHD didn’t exist until the 1950’s. The history of ADHD includes the fact that ADD and ADHD started out as a "moral diagnosis." People started out viewing kids diagnosed with ADD and ADHD as "bad people." This I do not agree with. Yes, it can be hard on parents to deal with the effects of ADD and ADHD, however it is not right for children who lose interest quickly, or are easily distracted to be "sedated" because they don't 'fit the mold,' so to speak. I agree with the idea that the unknown long-term risks are surely a matter that needs to be taken into severe consideration: especially if the child does not necessarily have ADD or ADHD. I believe that the constrictions of medicinal distribution are too loosely knit. These days, it seems as if almost anyone can walk out of a drug store with strong prescription meds that could possibly lead to addictions, or worse- long term health issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, but don’t think that it is only children. I think that as science and medical discovery progresses we have more and more diagnoses, more and more people take medication instead of dealing with emotional problems. It most unfortunate though, when you see it in children. Again I believe that a lot of these problems can be solved by better parenting and discipline, just more time spent with more children can make all the difference. There are children with “ADHD” no doubt, but yes why in the past couple decades has this seemed to skyrocket?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that children have ADHD or ADD I have 2 nephews that doctors and school says that each of them had ADHD but I don't believe them. I have taken care of each kid and they are very hyper and lose their attention very fast but that’s being a kid. The one can get mad when he’s bored but you find something to do and they are okay. I think that a lot of the issue is that the kids need more attention. If you think of it in the old days moms stayed home normally and the dads work so their was always a parent home to pay attention to the child. Also to put kids on the medication is not getting the kids better its just controlling their bodies. Maybe I am wrong but that’s just how I feel on the subject.
ReplyDeleteADD and ADHD are two of the hardest medical problems to correctly diagnose. I recently took a psychology course in which we studied many psychological problems. Most of the children diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, were diagnosed without trying different tests to see whether or not the child just did want to focus or if there were underlying family of other problems causing ADD or ADHD like symptoms. I did learn a lot of new things from the blogs. Well done.
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