***Excuse me ... ???  I have NEVER posted any such Thing ...

Mar 10, 2012 -- 2:43PM, Mlyons619 wrote:

Teilhard, all healthcare providers are NOT created equal, and there are misdiagnoses.

Again, a decision to go with a doctor's diagnosis of ADHD AND the decision to medicate should be INDIVIDUALLY made by the parents, and only after a careful and intelligent weighing of the facts and reviewing the options available to them, and not on some emotional and ignorant rant on a discussion board.

Yes, doctors do screw up and make a wrong diagnosis

And, yes, even when the diagnosis is correct and the decision to medicate is proper, it's STILL a roller coaster in trying to determine the right meds and the correct dosages.

There are, however, not near as many misdiagnoses as you make out to be.

***And you drumming out a constant DO NOT MEDICATE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES rant may actually do some parents and their child a disservice...

p.s.  I hope you have found a competent doctor who was able to correctly identify your son's condition, and that your son is thriving at school.

Here's what I think ... It ISN'T about being "neutral" ... It's about being THOUGHTFUL ...

Mar 6, 2012 -- 9:56PM, teilhard wrote:

No ... The Problem of Over-Diagnosis isn't about GENUINE Cases ... It's just a Caveat ... (Think of it as getting a second or even third Opinion before undergoing Radical Surgery ... Too often, it is too EASY to Prescribe and Dispense "Medications," which ALSO can have Radical Consequences ... )

Mar 6, 2012 -- 9:35PM, Abner1 wrote:

Many years ago I had a student in basic chemistry who was obviously quite bright but completely unfocused, with the result that he ended up with a C.  We're not allowed to bring up medical issues with students, but can discuss them if the student brings them up.  He came to me during office hours and asked if I could give him any advice on how to do better in future classes.

"Yes, go get yourself checked out for ADHD."

"But I don't have ADHD."

"Want to bet?"  I then explained the symptoms to him, he went to a specialist doctor, and ended up on medication.  It turned his life around - he went from grades ranging from B's to D's to being a straight A student, then went to medical school and became a doctor.  He sent me a copy of his first research paper along with a note saying that without my advice, it never would have gotten written.

Is ADHD overdiagnosed?  Almost certainly ...  Most of the people I've seen who supposedly had ADHD were (as far as I could tell) normal teens being medicated for typical teen problems having nothing to do with any medical disorder.  But ADHD does exist, people who have seen enough cases of it can tell it from normal teen behavior, and proper medication can address it in ways that can drastically improve their lives.

It's a shame when a medical condition being "faddish" results in so many false cases that the real cases start getting doubted.

Yes, and I am at your side.

Thanks, Teilhard, for writing "I am  not against Meds" - when reading carefully, we all could have known. But unfortunately, we cannot assume people read carefully here, and it's better to explain a full stance instead of giving just short aspects of it. The internet is very conducive to fragments, and people have to make up their minds based on the fragments of stances that others post. As Malcolm Gladwell correctly observed, this tends to facilitate conflict and disagreement more than agreement...

So in this spirit, I also might add that I amm certainly not in favour of "better diagnosing one too many than one too little" - it can have bad consequences in both directions.

I was very impressed by Abner's story of a student being "liberated", as it were, by being diagnosed and getting a label and a concrete set of measures to handle himself. It can help when accurately done, and that is the sole purpose of the medical business.

From one of my sons' school classes, in primary school, I know the case of a boy who in class had to sit on one of these bounce balls / spacehoppers to be able to focus. It first distracted the other children, but after a while, learning in class sped up and they all formed a protective community, including the ADHD boy. Drugs are not inevitable under all circumstances.

And yes, I also know negative examples - of parents projecting all sorts of deficiencies into their children, just to distract themselves from their very own big task of educating them. That can lead to wishful ADHD diagnoses, I would guess. Never underestimate a mother's willpower...

Mar 11, 2012 -- 9:06AM, CharikIeia wrote:

....And yes, I also know negative examples - of parents projecting all sorts of deficiencies into their children, just to distract themselves from their very own big task of educating them. That can lead to wishful ADHD diagnoses, I would guess. Never underestimate a mother's willpower...

Don't forget about the school's willpower. A friend of mine had a teen aged son in public school. He had gotten trouble twice, nothing big, but the school TOLD, not requested but TOLD, him that his son had to be put on medication before he would be allowed back in school. While talking to other parents at this school he found out that any and all students that were a discipline problem were told the same thing. That's just wrong on so many levels.