To think that ADHD is a really disablity

[Reallytired]

Where I work there are several lovely children with ADHD and a couple who aren't quite as lovely. For some of the children ritalin makes a huge difference. It makes it possible for them to attend school and concentrate to get basic skills.

These children aren't naughty and there is something completely and utterly different about them. Some of them sit or walk awkwardly or they struggle to make eye contact or their language is slightly stilted.

Prehaps ADHD is over diagnosed, but it is still a real condition. I am truely in awe of parents who have children with ADHD. The people who say they are bad parents should offer to babysit.

ADHD is an area that requires more research.

ADHD is a real condition - poss shares a spot on the ASD spectrum?

However, it is used and abused by every incompetent "My Jonny wouldn't do that" because they will not consider that they are shit parents.

My dad is a teacher (a tough one) and he says it is amazing how many kids with 'adhd' don't have it in his class

So, sadly, kids who DO have the REAL ADHD suffer from the scepticism caused by the "I can't control my kid" brigade.

You can tell the difference between a kid with a real problem, and the other type (who also has a problem, just not ADHD, iyswim!)

Very true.. have a friend who is a primary school teacher, she teachers year 6. Apparently about a 1/3 of the class have AHAD, but she reckons only 4 of them are genuine cases. One of them threw a chair at her.
It is a very real disorder, such a pity that the genuine cases get obscured by lazy parents.

ASD spectrum???

autistic spectrum disorder spectrum ??????

I am soooooooooo ashamed. Apols.

Definitely real but i agree that some people use it as an excuse to wash their hands of any responsibility for their child's behaviour.

Ds started ritalin today after 3 years of us trying behaviour management strategies (with some success) He had a good day and says he likes taking the tablets so fingers crossed

I think that ritalin is a bit like prescribing a severely depressed adult anti depressants. Anti depressants lifts a person's mood so that they can improve their lives. Ritalin makes it possible to get through to a child with ADHD.

However there is still an underlying problem. Many of the children I know with ADHD have terrible concentration problems which stop them from learning and staying still. These children aren't particularly nasty and most of ones I know aren't violent.

There are plenty of throughly nasty neurologically typical people.

I remember face-painting at a charity event for children with disabilities and their families. I saw one family leave after 10 minutes of the super-amazing magic show simply because their son could NOT be still- 2 exhausted parents and one patient little daughter following after a cute little boy who just couldn't stop.

I also travelled with a young adult ADHD woman who was medicated. Without medication her concentration was very limited (I still remember being in the car she was driving eeek!). Her meds helped her- she was the same person, just better able to focus and cope (and drive!).

This is obviously a real condition- ask anyone who has met/been involved with accurately diagnosed people.

I am certain that ADHD is a real condition. I am equally certain that my aunt is a flipping awful parent who has managed to get my perfectly normal cousin diagnosed with ADHD and onto ritalin to justify his behaviour so it isn't her fault. It makes me angry that this is possible. It should be classed as assault to make chidren without this condition take such strong drugs. I can't believe GPs really understand what they are doing.

GPs don't prescribe ritalin. Generally its done by a community paediatrian or psycharists after years and years of consultation. I believe that it is quite hard to get a child prescribed medication.

I am lucky in that my son does not have ADHD. However I have experienced people say that I was a bad mother because my son was very hard to manage. (Infact he had hearing problems and his behaviour improved over night when he had help with his hearing.)

I know several excellent parents who have had their confidence as parents smashed to pieces by their children having ADHD.

Wow - what a great thread! My es had adhd and usually these sort of threads have so much twaddle about there being 'no such thing' as adhd - that I can't bear to read them. My son is not violent or naughty but without meds cannot sit still/concentrate/make friends etc. Since being on meds he has become so much happier - he is in top sets at school, has several good friends and his self-esteem has improved.

But I do agree that the genuine cases often get obscured by lazy parents.

What makes you think your cousin is perfectly normal NUT? (Just curious- not asking in any other way). Generally ritalin is believed to be under-prescribed in the UK (v different from the States). As Reallytired said it is prescribed by specialists rather than GP's (even blinking melatonin requires a consultant's prescription in this country) so is usually very carefully prescribed, after a great deal of consultation.

In our CAMS service a diagnosis is usually made afetr a detailes assessment of the child and family exploring any possible developmental problems. Afer this we get school reports, the parents and teachers fill in a Connors rating scales over several discrete time periods, following this the child may have psychometrics done. Once any learning/other mental health problem has been ruled out then a couple of school obs are undertaken and then treatment options will be discussed with the parents.

The majority of the time parents will opt to try behavioural strategies and maybe a parenting group, if school still proves to be difficult then medication would be considered. It's a very thorough work up prior to prescription of medication and the effects/side-effects are monitored closely.

MOST parents are understandably concerned about heir child being treated with what is essentially an amphetamine. when used correctly it does work and gives children their education back which means they suceed in school which inturn is a huge protective factor against development of other mental health problems and promotes resilience generally.

That sais unfortunately there are a few families out there who're pushing for meds for the wrong reasons, ie putting the resposibility for the childs disruptive behaviour onto a condition rather than themselves as parents. Some see it as a quick fix, but the majority IME do not.

Fair comment yurt1. I am from a very close family and when my cousin was small his mum was a single mum, so I virtually lived with him for the first few years of his life. I have stayed pretty close to him (he's now 15) and his behavioural problems are due to his poor mothering. He was such a lovely little boy until his mother had another child when he was 5 and totally rejected him thereafter. He has known nothing but shouting, smacking, inconsistency, poor diet and being farmed out to anyone who will have him ever since. If he truly had ADHD he would not have been able to behave well at other people's houses whilst on these extended visits, but actually the opposite was true. When he stayed with other family members he would respond well to firm boundaries and you could see the positive effect of a few proper meals. So I know it sounds arrogant of me knowing better than the experts, but in this case I am 100% convinced.

As to how he came to be prescribed ritalin, my aunt is a professional when it comes to getting unnecessary health treatment for herself and her children. She is literally disabled by it now, having had so many unnecessary operations. She's now working on her younger son SS have been involved, they are a very troubled family. I am so angry about it..can you tell?

Oh and thanks for explaining about the diagnosis/prescriptions process, obviously I have no idea how he was prescribed the drug, only that he takes it.

And for ADHD to be diagnosed it has to be presnt in ALL settings, home, school, with friends and when with other family members. you get a good idea as to the genuineness of it during the initial consultation, e.g distractabiloty, inattention, inability to stick to task during the interview.

It's not just ADHD that gets this, if its a comfort get it loads about ds1 and his as/HFa as well, or at least did until the LEA put in 1-1, people seem to accept it now.

Agree some use as an excuse (thinking of one particualrly useless Mum in particular.....) but my eprsonal experience of any dx is, if you get to that stage then its definitely there.

No doubt am completely wrong, but i thought ritalin only actually ahd a helpful effect in kids that genuinely haev the disorder? IE if ritalin helps then its not faked?

That proves it for me then as my cousin has not changed a jot.

But I thought it was a stimulant in kids without adhd, some kids with adhd dont respond- thats why there are different medications available!.

Looooong time sionce I did my apltry one day training event though, things no doubt moved on very far since then.

The kid that I know simply doesn't maintain the behaviours in all situations, and Mum has routinely had SS intervention over the years for some quite dangerous reasons- she's mroe settled now, but even then can't manage to pick him up from school sometimes etc. But she's an exception- as may be your Aunt , I don't know obviously- and she categorically DOESn'T ahve a dx of any kind!

In general most parents who are prepared to see help about their kids are GOOD parents. It takes a lot of guts and courage to go to a paediatrian and say that you can't cope with the behaviour of your child.

A lazy parent would not have the get up and go to get their child refered to a child development centre or equivalent.

The brain is a really complex thing. Maybe some children don't respond to Ritalin, but then some adults with clinical depression respond better to a particular drug. Or someone with exceptionally severe clinical depresssion needs more extreme treatment like ect.

The kids I know with ADHD still have problems inspite of being on medication. Its why they are at a special school for children with moderate learning difficulties.

It is an area which deserves more research.

Again I agree RT (I only know one parent I would genuinely call bad and really, SS are on the brink of removal- they did the ed psych referral too).

Dh ahs ahd several depression meds before fiding one (the ubiquitous prozac) that makes an ounce of difference. And the amount of techniques I have triied to get ds1's behaviour- with a widely avried range of succes and sustainability.

Unless the assessment process is avstly different than the one here, I would say its almost an impossibility to get a child DX's with something unless it is genuinely present. So amny of the assessments dont have aprental involvement at all- a significant percentage are done at school, for example. So unless you have a much older, malleable (bribeable?) child, yo'd be on a hiding to nothing.

Which doesn't mean some aprents don't genuinely believe their LO has ADHD when they don't of course- but thats not anything that cannot be dealt with. And there are famillies out there as well where LO DOES have isues and aprents refuse toa ccept them.

When my son was about two, I geniuinely thought he had ADHD. He didn't and it was the battery of tests which determined the problem. In his case it was his hearing.

My son had an sen advisory teacher from the child development centre assess him at pre school, he had a speech assessment (he failed), a play assessment (which he passed with flying colours), a hearing test. We even had some input from his physio!

They were not looking to label him, but to help him. I just wanted my son to learn to speak, I was not after disablity benefits. He is now doing well at school without extra support thanks to the child development team.

I think that the bad families are those who hide their heads in the sand and do not get help.