I see it in my job loads and all over the internet too, and it's making me really angry. And then I get angry at myself for letting myself get angry!
Before I start and get other people angry too , I just want to put my annoyance into context. My son wasn't diagnosed with ADHD and ASD until after he'd started school, and I'm sure there were a few people who thought - oh yeah, great excuse for the child's nightmare behaviour. I think part of the public's perception (and certainly the Daily Mail's ) is that parents make up medical conditions to get SN 'perks' and benefits for their kids or to excuse poor behaviour.
So I guess that's why it makes me so angry - I always knew that there was an underlying cause for my son's extreme behaviour and I know that I'm lucky that dx'ing was always done with no pressure from me - the professionals could just see it - but I've had a nightmare with DLA this year and was told 'we just get so many who make it all up'. So I'm now cross at those people who are making something out of (almost) nothing and giving everybody else a bad reputation. It also makes it much harder for people like Bonkerz, who has a child with something that clearly needs dx'ing but is having such a hard time getting it recognised, perhaps because there are some chancers out there clogging up the waiting list.
I'm not talking about anyone on here, by the way, but on another forum I go on, there's one person in particular who has a slightly unfocused child and who read about ADHD and decided that she and her child had it. She's said that the child is a little fidgety and lacks focus at times.
She got her child assessed by what sounds like a very sympathetic paed who went off parental history and was apparently set to dx or at least consider the dx'ing the ADHD until the school sent their reports in which said that the child was absolutely fine and no more fidgety than a normal child that age. They catergorically stated that the child did not have ADHD symptoms, so the paed wouldn't dx.
The mother was outraged and was all for sending her child to school on fizzy drinks to 'prove them wrong' . The paed had explained that symptoms need to be present at home and school but the mother saw this as part of the school's grand plan to deny her child the dx.
When pressed to explain the reasons that she wanted her child to be dx'd, given that there were no problems with violence, tantrums, hyperactivity etc., she said she wanted the child to 'get the help needed' - but couldn't really describe what.
She applied for DLA and was furious to be turned down - blamed the school report - though admitted that the school was just reporting what they found to be true - there were no problems with the child at school.
She then decided that she wanted child to be statemented (for being almost a year behind with spellings ) because 'other kids with ADHD are statemented' and saw the refusal to dx as another conspiracy to deny the child the Statement, despite being told that dx wasn't needed for Statementing.
I have met so many parents who will insist that their child has a condition in the face of evidence from their teachers, paeds, psychs/ whoever. This has usually been parents of children who behave poorly and are trying to find a reason, and I have some sympathy with that, though less so when they won't accept that there is no underlying condition, just more discipline needed. I understand wanting to find a reason for why your child behaves the way they do. I just cannot fathom this above example.
It really devalues what parents of children with genuine conditions go through and devalues these conditions too - this woman has self-dx'd her ADHD and had told her child that they had ADHD before they even got the CAMHS appointment and told the child that they can't help it if they can't concentrate or get bored - just tell the teacher you have ADHD! Now that the paed has said it's definitely not ADHD or ADD, she had told the child that the paed is wrong!
If I've offended anyone, I'm sorry. This is not about anyone on here; it's about those who are screwing up the system for the rest of us by exaggerating something to get what they can...and it annoys me when I've had to push so hard to get everything and still fell like I'm banging my head against a brick wall half the time .
No need to reply...just wanted to vent my anger!