Posted 18 January 2023

ADHD

Attitudes to ADHD have come a long way but we still have further to go :
theguardian.com/soc…-go
Community Updates
New Comment

14 Comments

sorted by
's avatar
  1. Willy_Wonka's avatar
    What the real issue is the explosion of children labelled as having adhd & autism & behavioural illnesses.

    It is difficult for people to believe that a high number of these children facing such difficulties today cannot be without external factors e.g. parenting.

    I would also suggest that some of us know of the stereotypical parent/s that have forced a diagnosis on their own child rather than accept the reality of bad parenting.

    Or can it all be put down to an illness that was never observed before & just judged as unruly, disturbed, problematic or backward.

    It is a tough one to explain where the attitudes actually come from. Disbelief in the numbers or disbelief in the illness or ignorance or all of the above? (edited)
    CRWAB's avatar
    Column a, column b.
    More understood now but I can't even say how broken the system is.

    Work in education and have people who try to go via official routes to get diagnosed to excuse their kids behaviour and get told it's not ADHD. Then there are private clinics you can literally pay for diagnosis who shockingly all agree with the parents. I'd say at least 10 kids in the small primary school fall into that category.

    Then precious time and funding is taken away from children who genuinely need that extra input or consideration. Lazy parents essentially defunding people with additional needs ..

    System is borked.
  2. Azwipe's avatar
    You also have to take into account some parents and schools label children for extra funding. The 'expert' at our local primary labelled my son with selective mutism and wanted him to see a specialist and be labelled. I was furious and had a discussion with the head who luckily was 'old school' and agreed my son was just a bit shy.
  3. VeganPolice's avatar
    TLDR;
  4. razo's avatar
    There is so much overdiagnosis at the moment it's baffling. Of course some people have real issues. But there are a lot of people trying to get all sorts of diagnoses for themselves or their kids, that they don't actually have. Which includes ADHD, autism, ME, and even the menopause (in women who clearly don't have it yet, but pay for private "tests" that "prove" that they do have it.

    Doctors aren't allowed to talk about it publicly, but they all talk about it privately.

    HOWEVER the "cure" for overdiagnosis is coming very quickly, as the NHS evaporates. Because having "autism" will cost you thousands of pounds extra a year for your health insurance.
    alexus's avatar
    2.5 years to start getting NHS tested here for ADHD. Yes can go private if there's reason to think you might have ADHD. I really if you think having a weak prefrontal cortex and over active amygdala isn't worth faking and medication isn't without side affects but can really help the ADHD Brian focus get motivated and be more productive. Untreated ADHD sadly can create issues but understanding and working differently to an adhders strengths helps. As to the autism that's a spectrum high functioning Asperger's types out there too we are all different and I will say I could never manage what they can. Ones I know have done amazing things in maths science, programming and finance. If we all lived focused on being ourselves and to our strengths be a better world.
's avatar