to think that ADHD/ADD is a load of nonsense?

[Breton1900]

Are we really producing ever more kids with these conditions or do parents simply need to take back control and realise that, at times, all kids can be obnoxious, loud, defiant, restless and fidgety and that strictly enforced rules for behaviour, lots of TLC, and the occasional smack on the bum may be the way forward?

Riven, are you and your physician certain that what has been diagnosed as ADHD is not simply a result of your daughter missing parts of her physical brain?

I don't think every child/young person who is being diagnosed with these conditions exhibits quite the degree of physical damage that your own daughter had sustained. So are you claiming that ADHD and bran damage are linked? If so there must be an awful lot of brain damaged kids out there!

kittens

Sorry that should, of course, have read brain and not bran!

So Breton - are you saying ALL children with ADHD don't have ADHD then?

Yes, some parents claim their child has ADHD without a dx and just because they think the symptoms fit.

Yes, some children whose parents claim they have ADHD don't.

Yes, some children with ADHD are badly parented...as are some children without ADHD.

But trust me, to receive a dx means that psychiatrists/ psychologists have looked into all the possibilities and have ruled them out. Here, the dx process is lengthy and every parent has to go on a parenting course first. Lots of observations etc etc

I'm a teacher and there are actually very few children dx'd with ADHD here. And those that do have a dx, are definitely children with ADHD.

YANBU to think that people should parent their children well. But YABvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvU to think the condition doesn't exist. And people like you make the lives of children like mine much much harder.

Ohhh you'll be one of those that thinks we have a miracle cure for Autism next as it's just bad beahviour as well as they are all one and the same these labels

Good post Riven

Shockingly insensitive post, Breton

I think ADHD/ADD is underdiagnosed and there is a lot of ignorance surrounding the condition. Op how many families do you know personally who are affected by this?

Will tell my ds 15 that the reason he didn't sleep last night or the night before and roughly averages 10 hours sleep a week is because I am a lax parent then.
Please do come and have him for a week and try the odd smack on the bum if you like. I am sure he'd be happy to show you what he thinks to your theories

Oh and ds isn't medicated at all.

Riven wrote "ADHD is a description of a collection of symptoms that can have numerous causes, from the physical like brain damage, to the chemical like probelms with processing in the brain or sensitvity to certain foods to the genetic where certain disorders lead to symptoms described as 'ADHD'
Its not one condition but a label for a set of behaviours.
It can have many causes."

Evidence? I've only offered my opinion you are stating these are facts.

Genetic eh? Ah, so it IS the parents' fault then!

Here's a thing, when I was at school, many year ago (when all this were fields,) I had at least one child in my class who would now have a DX of ASD or Aspergers. He was fucking tortured, not just by pupils - mocked by teachers too. A girl in my brothers class had what would now be classed as MLD, similarly, tortured physically and mentally.

I have worked for years with people who 50 years ago were locked up in long stay wards for mild behavioural transgressions (including one lady placed in the secure unit at birth, nothing wrong with her, but she was born of a rape.) They are living in sheltered accomodation now - nowadays, many of them would have been independent.

I am really, really glad that I live in a time when my oddball boy will be able to integrate, he is a part of his peer group and a valued one, despite his odd behaviours. If there is over diagnosis (and I have seen occasional cases) then I think it is a small price to pay for the end of incarcerating people for being different.

Oh dear, someone is bored today aren't they, I wouldn't either bother trying to debate with someone who has just come on to be insulting and make a poor attempt at trolling.

Breton you can't even put together a reasoned argument.

I'm out of here...it's a shit thread.

"Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity that affects 8?12% of children worldwide. Although the rate of ADHD falls with age, at least half of children with the disorder will have impairing symptoms in adulthood. Twin, adoption, and molecular genetic studies show ADHD to be highly heritable, and other findings have recorded obstetric complications and psychosocial adversity as predisposing risk factors. Converging evidence from animal and human studies implicates the dysregulation of frontal-subcortical-cerebellar catecholaminergic circuits in the pathophysiology of ADHD, and molecular imaging studies suggest that abnormalities of the dopamine transporter lead to impaired neurotransmission."

So perhaps the question should be whether or not we exceed the 8-12% of children - I don't think we do Breton. I work as a HV in a very deprived area where some parents actively seek a diagnosis in the mistaken belief that a pill will give them a magic change in their child's behaviour. Even with that minority (and it IS a minority) I don't know many families with this diagnosis.

ASD, austism/aspergers etc is assessed by many clincal doctors and with the help from parents and schools/care workers. surely all these people who have to assess each child over months can't be wrong.

ADHD/Hyperkinetic disorder has been around for a long time it was first recognized over a hundred years ago so it is not a new thing that parents blame for bad parenting some yes, but not most my ds has ASD ADHD and MLD dd2 has borderline ADHD which for a long time was controlled by diet as she is hypersensitive to additives.I spent years fighting to get someone to listen to me about ds all I got was he's a boy its sibling rivalry when he was beating seven bells out of his sisters he's 16 now and still only sleeps about 3-4 hours a night.
You should try having one of these children who've got nothing wrong with them for a week you'd soon change your mind believe me.

Isn't it rather deceitful to claim a biological cause for a supposed disorder that has not been validated as a disease?

"ADHD is a genetically determined condition that affects the parts of the brain which control impulses, concentration, and attention" (quoted from Check-Up BBC Radio 4 on 23 August 2007).

Where is the evidence to support that statement?

A 2003 article in Science summarised comments from various researchers yet the researchers admitted to being unable to identify the specific genes or environmental factors involved.

"One thing seems clear: No matter how these purported ADHD genes affect dopamine, they cannot cause the disorder by themselves. So far, scientists estimate that each gene confers a very low added risk ? roughly 1% to 3% ? of developing ADHD."

"Susan Smalley, a geneticist at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently led the first genome scans of siblings sharing ADHD. "We're operating on the idea that a couple of genes may add 10% to 25% of ADHD risk," Smalley says."

"Environmental risks, researchers predict, will be even harder to pin down than genes contributing to ADHD. They've begun linking ADHD symptoms to lifestyle factors, from maternal smoking during pregnancy to chronic family conflict. But because such adversities boost the risk of many disorders, the links are hard to interpret."

[see Science 11 July 2003: Vol. 301. no. 5630, pp. 160 - 161]

In other words, these researchers don't actually KNOW!

Gosh, what a thought provoking OP.
It does give one pause for thought. ADD/ADHD is the parents fault....

People who post about ADD/ADHD in AIBU because they fancy a barney tend to be poorly brought up,. They lack sensitivity and basic wit. they are usually very stupid with poor self esteem and social skills. They are rarely well liked and tend to smell.The deliberately provocative post, determindely ignoring the potential to upset caring parents already dealing with huge difficulties points to lashing out because they have odd genitals and an unnatural obsession with pig faeces.

Well thats my opinion. I have no evidence but I thought I would just put that out there. As you do

Now, ZTT, that really was a load of nonsense.