Do you think kids that are diagnosed w/ ADD or ADHD realluy have problems, or are they just active kids...?

Question

...who need more exercise? My cousin is suposedly ADD and I liked him better before the meds. He doesn't play anymore. He's cooped up in daycare all day and then he just play gameboy. Yes, he was high energy, but I thought most little boys were.

Some kids may be ADD or ADHD, but don't you think doctors prescibe it too much. It's to common.

He was active, but not impulsive.

Answer 1

I totally agree with Troy and many of the others, Boys are more often diagnosed with this and I have seen it personally in boys of people I know, they are simply active and need some discipline, stability in their lives and groundrules, not meds, you should not be allowed to medicate because he is just being a boy. Last time I checked being 6 wasn't a disease.
It is a shame that society has accepted this, it is a crime and a shame.

Answer 2

Having 2 boys one being diagnosed ADHD and the other being ADD you need to realize something this is a medical diagnosis which takes more then just one office visit to diagnose. My children went through alot of testing!! I am not lacking in ability to be a parent because I have 4 children and yes the 2 do take medication. But they have energy levels like normal kids with the medication!! My oldest is ADHD he will not even sit still long enough to eat lunch with out his meds which caused him to be under weight!! Plus he had endangered himself numerous times by his impulsiveness!! My second son well he is ADD without Hyperactivity he just cannot concentrate enough to learn!! Add or Adhd is ATTENTION (HYPER) ACTIVITY DISORDER meaning that there attention cannot focus long enough for them to learn and they are very impulsive since they do not think before acting!! As for your cousin not being active anymore he may be over medicated!! My sons are active in football, soccer, swimming, baseball and have good grades. They also play video games but I do not allow them to play more then 2 hours daily during summer!! I think it's a matter of parents using video games as babysitters and blaming ADD and ADHD!!We have taken both off medication for 2 weeks during school and both had set backs in school and were put back on the medication!! So before you question ADD or ADHD really being a problem you should gather more information!!

Answer 3

It sound like you cousin , if indeed he has ADHD, needs his meds changed. ADHD is more then hyperactivity it is also inattentiveness, impulsiveness and not able to control ones actions in quite the "normal boundaries" as everyone else. I have 3 boys and yes they are all HIGH energy. But no they are not all ADHD only one is and there is a significant difference in high energy and dealing with adhd. It is not lack of parenting or being "LAZY" as some people have pointed out here.
Imagine you are sitting in a classroom and your teacher is going over test questions but hey someone dropped a pencil across the room and that is the only thing you can focus on and you miss everything that is going to be on your next test. What a great morale booster that must be concerning your grades. There are many different aspects to adhd and if your cousins parents believe that this is his true diagnosis you need to deal with it but I do believe that any responsible parent who puts their child on any meds has to monitor their child and be in contact with the doctor concerning any side affects and also need to keep in touch with caregivers and school to keep monitoring until they get the correct treatment.
Good luck to your cousin and I hope this helps to answer your question a little more clearly than others who say I'm just a LAZY parent and dont want to deal with my "overactive" child.

Answer 4

ADD and ADHD are both very real disabilities faced by many kids. As a special education teacher I can tell you there are definitely kids that are more than just highly energetic. They truly have a disability. Now, I can't speak directly to whether your cousin has it or not, but if you are seeing that he is less active on meds that is actually a sign that most likely he does have it. The medication for ADD and ADHD is a stimulant. So, if a non-ADD child takes it they would react the opposite of your cousin. If he is overly -laxidazical he may need to go back to the doctor to refine the medication. There should not be that effect if they are treating him correctly.

Answer 5

I do think the diagnosis of ADD or ADHD is being overused. These are legitimate diseases with legitimate side effects and problems, but I do not believe that every child who has been diagnosed as such and medicated actually has the disorder. It seems that it has become the "in" thing for children to have, and prescribing medication is easier than enforcing discipline or tolerating hyperness or over-activity. I feel bad for the kids, too; they just end up like little zombies. I am by no means implying that all children who have been diagnosed and medicated shouldn't have been, but I do not believe that all who were diagnosed and medicated should have been, either. As a parent, I would certainly rather try every other option before resorting to medication for a situation like this. We should always have our children's best interests at heart, rather than our own convenience.

Answer 6

I think it's a 50/50 split. Many teachers and some parents want a kid classified ADD or ADHD so they'll be medicated and then they don't have to worry about entertaining or occupying the child. Some kids are just active, or they're so bright they get bored easily. But I've seen enough kids that are night and day better on the medication that makes me believe that it's a real ailment.

Answer 7

OK PEOPLE this was not a question about parents of ADD children, so stop judging them. I think Doctors are too quick to diagnose children w/ ADD/ADHD. I believe it is a real condition that is too commonly treated with drugs. But don't blame all the parents, they are following the doctor's advice, and they are also uninformed. I feel really bad for my nephew who is drugged all the time because of ADHD. He may have been overactive before the meds, but at least he had a personlaity.

Answer 8

It would be nice if it was that simple.

I notice that none of the answers up to this point were from people who had a child who was diagnosed with it. It's easy to judge or criticize when you are not close to the problem. It's not made up.

Is it possible it is a diagnosis that is reached for too quickly sometimes? Maybe. But there are kids who need help and simply saying that the diagnosis is the result of lazy parenting or sloppy medical work or a drug company conspiracy is taking the easy way, and judging people you don't know is not worthy of anyone.

Edit - excuse me, others weighed in who have actual first hand knowledge of ADD/ADHD - my comments were not directed at them. The first few people responding did not fall into this category.

Answer 9

The diagnosis is difficult because several things could look like ADD but they are not. My daughter does have ADHD and she does take meds for it. She was unable to concentrate on her schoolwork before and now she can get the work done. I do not keep her cooped up or plugged in to a gameboy. She gets at least one hour outside daily and I limit her tv/computer time ( all girls get this) Yes, sometimes children are misdiagnosed and in your cousins case it sounds like this is the case or else his meds need adjusted.

Answer 10

Exercise often helps relieve the symptoms of ADHD, and it is certainly possible to misdiagnose someone with ADHD when they're just a little overactive -- but ADHD is NOT just normal behavior.

It's much like other disorders. For instance, everyone gets sad sometimes, but clinical depression is a real disorder that involves serious, lasting depression that affects everyday life, sometime leading to suicide. You wouldn't say depression doesn't exist, would you?

As for your cousin, yes, maybe you liked him better before, but did he like himself, and could he function enough to learn and get along? You could play with him and then leave, but he and his parents have to live with him all the time. You got to see the fun side of his condition, but maybe the rest of the day was alot worse for him and his family.

In any event, if he didn't have ADHD, then the meds wouldn't calm him down, they would pep him up even more, because they are actually stimulants. If he's more calm and composed using the meds, he definitely has ADHD.

For you jerks who know nothing about what you're talking about who say meds are just for lazy parents (like they used to say about autism, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia) - I hope you have a kid with ADHD someday and have see what it's really like instead of pulling your opinions out of your rear ends.