Channel 4 ADHD documentary

🙄ADHD is not a mental health condition. Don’t try lecturing on something when you don’t even know what it is.

And as for suggesting that one just brings changes into one’s life to treat mental issues such as OCD, trauma, deep depression, suicidal idealisation etc. 🤔How does that work, care to give us your tips for treating these conditions successfully with zero help from medication. Ditto with ADHD.Not the zero additives, yoga limited screens and leaping about on a forest advice either because as I desperate parent I tried all that and it didn’t work.

The state wants to cut back on treatment and care for certain conditions so it demonises them or creates a false narrative as a smokescreen, ADHD has been hit in recent years with this.

They dont say how it was grossly ignored for decades. How it was massively undiagnosed. They wont say that its a condition from birth and that its actually very difficult to be diagnosed with the condition even when all high numbers show it the lag in diagnosis that this country suffered with. It doesnt say about the hardship of living with ADHD and the stigma. It doesn't show the huge multitude of evidence to support it. No….of course it doesnt…

They generally target conditions that they see as easy to muddy the waters with. diabetes is one of the biggest to be hit by this, even though medically and scientifically proven to not come about from poor diet and exercise in how it comes about initially, the government and the NHS and therefore the news media, keep the false info going. Type One is an autoimmune condition yet the awareness of that is shockingly low. Why? Because they want it to be shockingly low.

There are many other conditions but this is just what happens when the state decides it doesn't want to fund care anymore so
slowly wants to find ways that it can socially acceptably withdraw it. The level of attack on ADHD in the last two years has been huge!

For good reason, they first have to make sure its socially acceptable to withdraw it…

Yeah, you are right. The ignorance of people is disappointing.

There is zero point trying to explain the facts to ADHD-deniers. It gets their backs up for some reason.

”Everyone has something”
”All kids are like that”
”Everyone zones out when they’re bored”
”Why would you care about a diagnosis when you’re this far in life”
”It didn’t exist when I was young”

And my favourite: “dangerous psychotics”

If you downed enough Calpol it would be dangerous!

I have spent my whole life doing that. Changing my diet, exercising, making lists, trying organisation systems. Nothing works. As a result of that I have long suffered with depression, anxiety and OCD. Crushingly low self esteem.

Since going on medication my life has changed. I now thrive at work and am much happier. What a shame that I didn't do this sooner and save myself the years of pain and struggles.

Why do you think you know better?

I have a very healthy diet, do loads of exercise, have switched to a much more suitable job and reduced my hours. All these have helped get me out of the mindset of “fantasising about throwing myself in front of a bus” but it’s no cure. Short of abandoning my family and going to live alone in a yurt I’m not sure what other lifestyle changes I can make?

Look at your entire lifestyle and habits. Make constructive changes. Push back.

That's not evidence.

People want an easy fix, they mask unhealthy habits. Overhaul your entire lifestyle and environment instead.

I grew up in the 80s. No screens, lots of outside play, healthy diet. I still have ADHD. How do you explain that?

Children have always varied in temperament. Modern life and modern environments are very unhealthy, and it’s unsurprising some children respond honestly to that. They aren’t the issue, but modern environments and expectations often are. Poor kids!

Ok, explain it to me. How can I manage my ADHD without medication?

I’m very anti-medications for mental health issues, as there are so many other longer term things you can change which are more beneficial.

Going by the name of the ignorant poster, it's probably just rage bait and best ignored. Embarrassingly stupid if not.

Why? What evidence do you have to support them being banned? Or is it just a "feeling"?

I am also upset this has been broadcast just before I go to visit my parents: if they’ve seen it, it’ll be more grist to their ADHD-denial mill.

@SayItLikeItIsLetsKeepItRealanother one with no experience of raising a child diagnosed with the condition. The blind ignorance on this thread is just embarrassing.

@ablastfromthepastthis is really interesting: thank you for sharing.

If I didn’t take medication I would’ve lost my job by now. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, medication is life changing for so many people who have ADHD no matter what the age.

It is very much necessary for some and can be life changing.

There's some great expert reaction to the programme along these lines to be found here:

expert reaction to the TV show ‘The Great ADHD Myth? | Science Media Centre

I disagree strongly with young children taking these types of medications, same as sleeping ones. Utterly unnecessary! I hope it is eventually banned.

Probably a number of reasons for this:

1. greater awareness = increased later life diagnosis so there are simply more people diagnosed amongst all groups, including the "rich and successful" who have always had it just never realised until now.
2. reduced stigma = people prepared to talk about it. I think arguably we've previously seen similar with depression, or eating disorders etc. People have always had them they just may not have spoken up
3. certain careers like acting, comedy, creative arts suit people with ADHD so it's hardly surprising to find famous people with ADHD
4. similarly it can be linked with entrepreneurship and risk taking so some successful business people have ADHD (you don't see all those whose attempts at starting new businesses flounder - scatter a thousand seeds and you only notice the few that bloom).
5. if you get to the point of being rich and successful they've probably both mastered masking and got the resources needed to provide scaffolding (dammit if I had a PA, personal chef and housekeeper I would be absolutely thriving!)

Ds and I need our medication every day. He has almost as many issues at home as at school. I don’t go to school or have an office type role, so by the some people’s reasoning I shouldn’t need medication at all. My brain fails to function effectively every day. I do agree though that schools need to change the way they do things to be more ADHD friendly.

Yes and no. "People who need crutches only need them when they need to stand up, if only society allowed us to sit constantly it wouldn't be such an issue"

Yes I think schools could adapt better to meeting the needs of neurodivergent kids, very very much so.

But just "getting by as a human in modern society" can be taxing for people with ADHD people in a way that meds can help with.

In an ideal world we'd live in societies that we had less need for anti-depressants, anti-obesity drugs, treatments for cancers caused by environmental pollutants etc etc. But I don't think it's realistic to think we can "adapt our lifestyles" completely out of need for medication that is fixing problems that are in part a product of society.