Do many people think that ADHD is not real?

[Ilovecranberries]

Was having remote drinks with a friend and his wife yesterday. She's a secondary school teacher in a quite "rough" school (not in the UK). I was quite surprised when, discussing something quite abstract about how different people think and react differently, she had said quite breezily that the majority of teachers she knows "don't believe" in the existence of ADHD.
Incidentally, one of my children is currently being assessed for it, but it is not news that I had shared socially outside of my immediate family. I wasn't offended, but I wonder if it is actually a widespread view behind the closed doors?

I've had experience with close friends and family members whose children have been diagnosed in America. If you don't agree with me then fine but I'm just giving you my experience.

It sounds like all that happened was you were prescribed Ritalin. Did an educational psychologist work with your parents and yourself on developing a support plan? Did the school work on developing a 504 plan? Were you given additional instructional support at school? Were you helped with executive functioning skills?

All of these are quite normal nowadays - I'd be quite sad if your friends and family are not getting that sort of help today. I wouldn't be so surprised if it didn't happen when you were a child though, sadly.

When I was a child in the UK, children with ADHD were told they were stupid, and generally failed all their exams and left school early.

I haven't reached the medication stage in my research about the conditio , to be honest. So effectively the medication for adhd is based on the same principle the same as the fashionable in some circles "microdosing"?

Amazing how many teachers think that they're experience of one child having a different presentation of a condition than another means that they're more knowledgeable than the experts who made a diagnosis. So many teachers fail to recognise their absolute massive bias when "deciding" whether a child is genuine or "just" has a behavioural issue. But this diagnosis results in what can be challenging behaviours. Still these teachers think they know better than the experts.

@weebarra

Yes, I think there are a lot of misconceptions about medication. Ritalin is a stimulant and helps some people because it pushes them over the stimulation curve. DS1 isn't able to take it because of other medical conditions so he takes another drug which helps the uptake of norepinephrine in the brain and helps concentration.

Me too. I don't take Strattera though because it's not licenced for adults where I live but I take a tricyclic antidepressant in very low dose which has the same effect.

It's still not great but I'm more functional on it than off it. Although the unskippable alarm I have to set on my phone to make sure I really do take is now a running joke among my friends :)

Jesus fucking Christ! We're not talking about God or fairies or the Cookie monster here.

We're talking about a medical condition that is well documented, research, has a diagnosis pathway and various treatments (not cures).

It's not something you believe in or not. It's something that exists and is acknowledged regardless of your beliefs.

Maybe if you just say "I don't believe in ADHD" long enough your son will just get better OP.

So many misconceptions and myths on this thread.

ADHD is not Autism. They can be comorbid, but they're entirely separate conditions.

ADHD doesn't always mean badly behaved.

The diagnosis path is not an easy or straightforward one.

Meds can work, so can other things. Trying different things for different children is not a bad thing.

Just because a child has a shitty/neglectful upbringing doesn't mean they can't also have ADHD. Their upbringing might make the condition worse but that's it.

Just like autism, ADHD manifests in different ways in different children. Just because x does a and b and reacts positively to c and d it doesn't mean that y will display the same behaviours or respond to the same things.

And breathe...

I believe 100% in the adhd diagnosis and know adults with it.
But I’ve also met and unfortunately been left in charge of children with horrific dangerous behaviour who told me their parents and doctors would confirm they weren’t responsible for their actions as they had adhd.
These actions included in one case throwing huge rocks at another kids head and I had to exclude the kid with adhd much to their parents disgust. I don’t know if the problem was adhd or parenting but I couldn’t allow that in my setting.

@HoldMyLobster

I've had experience with close friends and family members whose children have been diagnosed in America. If you don't agree with me then fine but I'm just giving you my experience.

It sounds like all that happened was you were prescribed Ritalin. Did an educational psychologist work with your parents and yourself on developing a support plan? Did the school work on developing a 504 plan? Were you given additional instructional support at school? Were you helped with executive functioning skills?

All of these are quite normal nowadays - I'd be quite sad if your friends and family are not getting that sort of help today. I wouldn't be so surprised if it didn't happen when you were a child though, sadly.

When I was a child in the UK, children with ADHD were told they were stupid, and generally failed all their exams and left school early.

This is exactly my point. In America it often is a case of prescribe medication and that's it. I wasn't offered any support.

The UK is much better in my opinion for offering support than America is.

@tabulahrasa I was dx as a child, but never medicated. I discovered during teen experimentation that drugs didn't have the same effect on me as they did on my friends, particularly anything amphetamine based. My friends would take stuff to rave through the night, something that I never needed anything for. I'd take the same amount to complete particularly boring revision and coursework.

Cacaoosfarriage You've misunderstood. The doctor wasn't saying that FAS was a cause of ADHD, she was saying that research showed around 1/3 of cases of ADHD were actually FAS instead.

She’s ignorant OP. Also you mention she teaches in a foreign country, so I’m wondering if it’s not a diagnosis there?

I’m sure about 20 years ago people thought the same about dyslexia and the like, but then more research was done and it became apparent that indeed there was such a difficulty

@Ilovecranberries

I haven't reached the medication stage in my research about the conditio , to be honest. So effectively the medication for adhd is based on the same principle the same as the fashionable in some circles "microdosing"?

I'm not sure, because I don't really understand how microdosing works, but I think unlikely - Ritalin for ADHD has been around for a very long time and initially they had absolutely no idea why it worked, to be honest they still don't really know how it works, the idea that it gives the brain the stimulation it's short on is one theory, but basically we just still have it because it works but nobody knows exactly why.

Stimulant-based ADHD medications are heavily controlled in the US because there is quite the roaring trade among university students for Adderall for example as a "study drug" and Dexamphetamine because it's very similar to street amphetamines but purer. Some patients have to take regular drug tests to prove that they are actually taking the medication. You can get into quite serious trouble if you lose your prescription as it is possible that you are lying about having sold it. Of course, for a condition that makes it highly likely you will regularly lose things this is unfortunate.

^ Sorry - so not really similar to microdosing from the five second read of a wikipedia article I just read. Although my own doctor's low dose antidepressant one is similar to microdosing, perhaps.

I was diagnosed with adhd last year at the age of 42. It definitely exists but in girls and women is very underdiagnosed. Luckily the tides are changing and it’s becoming recognised that it presents a lot differently in us. Those of us educated in the 80’s and 90’s were a missed generation I think.

I’m diagnosed as severe combined and although I would say my hyperactivity is mainly internalised as my mind never shuts off, I am pretty hyper most of the time when around people. Lockdown has brought out my inattentive side though. It’s been an interesting time.

Medication for me (I’ve tried long acting ritalin - concerta and lisdexamfetamine which I’m going back to this week) is not a cure but a tool and a very useful one. I would urge any parent to at least try it for their child as honestly if I had it at school my experience would have been so different. As it was I had no grade above a D and was excluded from 4 subjects including English.

@Soontobe60 ADHD is not a result of poor parenting (not to say that poor parenting can result in a child behaving like one with ADHD) - true ADHD can be seen in a brain scan. The medication works by stimulating the brain, so if the person doesn't have ADHD the medication will not give the required effect.
My son has ADHD - it didn't occur to us - partly because he also has ASD and we were discussed on getting a diagnosis for that, but also partly because he is actually a very well behaved child (who also never stops moving or thinking and never slept until we were given melatonin). My husband got an adult ADHD diagnosis after our son was diagnosed as he saw a lot of himself in our son (he was also a very well behaved child, and very high achieving both at school and as an adult. He says the medication has been life changing. I never realised how much of a difference the medication made until lockdown when a worksheet that should have taken about 20minutes took three hours because he just could not focus.
I think we have benefited from school always assuming the best of him, even before any of us had any inclined that he might have ADHD.

How odd. Of course ADHD is real. So is Autism. And while I'm at it, diabetes and cancer are also real. I'm now aware that ADHD is on the Autistic spectrum. But it is a common co-morbidity (if you have one it is common to also have the other).

Maybe if you just say "I don't believe in ADHD" long enough your son will just get better OP.
I have never said that I don't believe in ADHD (and haven't said it is a son). You must be confusing me with another poster?
The reason for the thread was actually to understand how widespread such attitudes could be. It had slightly derailed, but into a very useful direction - i.e. accounts from adult posters with ADHD which were quite honest and informative. I actually realised that (for some idiotic reason) I had a view of the condition as belonging to the childhood years only.

Oh sorry. I meant to type "I'm not aware that ADHD is on the Autistic spectrum..."

This is exactly my point. In America it often is a case of prescribe medication and that's it. I wasn't offered any support.

The UK is much better in my opinion for offering support than America is.

No, you've missed my point.

People with ADHD in the US are offered all the support I listed. Sure, back when you were a child that didn't happen, but it does now.

We went through the diagnosis process two years ago, and since then I've met many many other parents going through it too. I've read a huge amount, gone to courses, and talked with educational psychologists.

I'm right in the middle of it. And in comparison, the support my friends in the UK are being offered is pretty awful, especially waiting years for a diagnosis and help.

I did OK at school, but when I look back I got exactly the same grades in my mock GCSEs as I did in year 11 real GCSEs - you were supposed to go up by about 1-1.5 grades because you had learned another years' worth of stuff, whereas I stayed stagnant.

Then I did two separate attempts at further education which I assumed I'd coast through as I had all other school, massively struggled with them because I had no skills or sense of how to organise and self-motivate myself and ended up with lesser (useless) qualifications. Got pregnant (something like 80% of ADHD girls experience teenage pregnancies, which is fucking shocking TBH) went to uni as a mature student/single parent, dropped out of that as well.

I try not to be resentful about my life but...

@Ilovecranberries

I haven't reached the medication stage in my research about the conditio , to be honest. So effectively the medication for adhd is based on the same principle the same as the fashionable in some circles "microdosing"?

No

It’s not a micro dose... they’re strong enough that they have a street value as a recreational drug and in fact are sometimes withdrawn from teenagers if there are social issues which could result in them ending up on the wrong hands.

Stimulant-based ADHD medications are heavily controlled in the US because there is quite the roaring trade among university students for Adderall for example as a "study drug" and Dexamphetamine because it's very similar to street amphetamines but purer.

Yes this is true. DS's ADHD medication is the hardest to get. We have to call the surgery every 28 days, request a new prescription, and his doctor reviews whether or not he really needs it.

Our health insurance checks regularly that he's getting all the behavioural support he needs from his school and psychologists too.

Thankfully we've never lost any - I can't imagine the conversation we'd have to have with the doc.

YY the US has massively stepped up in terms of support and is very good now - I'm sure it varies based on education district and health insurance, but the UK is shocking in comparison.

OP if you want to REALLY understand ADHD go to youtube and type in Russell Barkley and watch all of his lectures you can find on there. He is a leading professor in ADHD and he is fantastic. You will cry watching him because he just gets it and has a knack of explaining exactly how it manifests. His book is very very good as well.

@Witchcraftandhokum

Cacaoosfarriage You've misunderstood. The doctor wasn't saying that FAS was a cause of ADHD, she was saying that research showed around 1/3 of cases of ADHD were actually FAS instead.

Well ADHD is a very common comorbidity of FAS... so while there’s research showing yep, some ADHD is basically mild FAS - that’s not instead of ADHD - it’s just that they don’t have the more severe traits of FAS.

So it’s not a misdiagnosis...

He is a nice antidote to all the "Well it didn't exist back in my day blah blah"