How did ADHD materialise?

Question

This condition was never heard of or categorised years ago, why the sudden increase in awareness now?

I don't believe it's a medical condition more a product of devolution. The kid's are just plain bad, probably due to a cr@p diet of turkey twizzlers, crisps and sunny delight and equally bad parenting. Is this the reason for a huge rise in "sufferers" (I really hate to use the word sufferer for such a thing)?

Answer 1

It was manufactured as a way to sell more medications. There is not ONE "mental illness" that can be identified objectively through any medical test. All of it is subjective.


The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children by MD Fred A. Baughman Jr. (Paperback)

Answer 2

Erm...my brother 'suffers' from ADHD (for which he's medicated) along with Dyslexia.

I'm sick of people calling these two conditions an excuse for poor academic performance. It's a genuine problem suffered by people around the world

I also resent the comment about poor parenting. It seems a narrow minded view that such learning difficulties are caused by the parents when very rarely, 0if ever is that the case

I think the increased awareness is due to the ability to diagnose and therefore control and lessen the effects of ADHD nowadays. Also people are realising that a child's 'misbehaviour' may be something more than it first appears. Hell, maybe people just give a s**t about their kids more nowadys

I'll agree that many people have jumped on the band wagon and are using conditions such as ADHD as an excuse but I think you're comments on it being down to poor diet and poor parenting are a bit unfounded. There are plenty of studies about the condition that I'd reccomend you read.

Answer 3

The psychiatric diagnosis of Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has attracted an assortment of critical positions that individually challenge the ontology or preconceptions of the diagnosis as it is defined in the DSM IV-TR. Among the criticisms are disagreements over the cause of ADHD, differences over research methodologies, and skepticism toward its classification as a mental disorder. Critics also express concerns over the effects of diagnosis on the mental state of patients and the effects of the medication available for the condition. Further, some critics suspect ulterior motives of the medical industry, which both authorizes the psychiatric definitions of mental disorders and promotes the use of pharmaceutical drugs for their treatment.The ADHD diagnosis identifies characteristics such as hyperactivity, forgetfulness, mood swings, poor impulse control, and distractibility, as symptoms of a neurological pathology. But critics point out that the etiology of this mental disorder is not yet well defined by neurology, genetics, or biology.
The ADHD, might be just another firework. Not accepting different people is rather common in todays societies. Remember the indigo incidence in the US? The reason this happened is because of W.H.O.'s inability, and stupidity. The ADHD should have been erased from DSM a lot time ago. Its so easy to characterize this differentiation as a dissorder.. But hey, its easier to characterize is as the next specie after Homo Sapiens.. For this matter, i personally thank the World Health Organization's overwhelming idiocity once again.

Answer 4

First of all ADHD is indeed a mental disorder which can be best described as the fact that someones brain activity is higher than a normal person, this makes that the front lobe of the brain which controls the brain functions tends to go out of control causing such symptoms as very nervous behavior lack of concentration and inability to focus on one single thing. It is a real mental disorder. I suffer from it personally. Up until a few years little was known about this disorder and doctors were very reluctant to make this diagnosis(I personally went through a whole lot of doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists between ages of 6 and 18 and they did not diagnose me with ADHD till the age of 16.)
that was 10 years ago.
However in the last few years doctors, teachers and school psychologists have started to use this word as a kind of new fad
Whenever they come upon a child with irratic behaviour(which can indeed be caused by bad dietary habits) they seem to immediatly jump to the conclusion of ADHD. And are throwing around with such drugs as Concerta and ritalin. These are very dangerous medications with very serious side effects.
10 years ago it took me 3 different doctor visits before I was prescribed Ritalin. What I heard from a worker of youth care these days 15% of kids are being prescribed these kind of drugs.
I Can not state enough how dangerous this stuff is and am totally opposed to prescription of these forms of amfetamine.
(nearly any ADHD patient that ever used it is dead set against it)
I have stopped taking these drugs 8 years ago And turned out just fine without them

Answer 5

If you had a child in your family with ADHD you would know that what you have written is absolute RUBBISH. ADHD can be helped woith diet but it is definitely NOT bad parenting. The rise in the condition is due to better medical diagnostic techniques and I would suggest that you find out a lot more about this condition before mouthing off about something of which you know NOTHING. There are lots of sites on the internet which I suggest you look at e.g. http://www.chadd.org

Answer 6

ADHD did not materialise it has probably been around for as long as there have been humans.

Once upon a time the boys with ADHD were out hunting and trapping and brining in the food for the family and so ADHD was not a problem. Now these same kinds of boys are supposed to exist within suburban boundaries.

Answer 7

Simple,their parents did it to them,when they refused to be parents,and plunked their children in front of the TV,and stereo,and the computer for hours at a time! The parents didnt want to be parents and so they made the TV,the stereo,and the computer these children parents,and now you have children with ADD and ADHD.It's true,before there was TV's ,stereo's,and computers,never heard of such a thing as ADD(also video games have become parents as well).

Answer 8

can u explain to ignorat people like me the meaning of adhd for i need to look it up lol
any way i think its just bad parenting back in the days u would just get a slap and told to get on with it.
but it is true some people do suffer from it but i thik most just use it as an excuse.

Answer 9

They came up with the affliction when they discovered a pill for it.
Marketing and Sales.

Some kind of attention deficit may exist but if you were brought up to ignore people then how can a pill change a behaviour pattern?
Other than dope them up.

Answer 10

I actually spoke to a classroom assistant about this and she said
lots of the parents who have badly behaved children, use this as an excuse.

Not sure it is the food but I suppose that contributes to it.