Is nobody watching the Great ADHD Myth?

[ILikeTrains]

I was expecting to see lots of chatter about this. 1/2hr in - interesting!

That point I did agree with, being unmedicated myself. But it was just a brief comment in a program which spent an hour trying to prove that ADHD is not a recognisable condition.

If they had spent more time on the "should we medicate children or train them in executive function and coping strategies, then it might have been a good program.

How can that have been the point when he didn't believe he has adhd?

This is exactly how I feel. I also have a diagnosis that - truthfully- did not feel as thorough as I was expecting.

Yep. And it means in the nearish future, the benefit will be curtailed for everyone with such diagnoses (real or faked).

The way the benefit system is going we wont have much of one in the nearish future.

I think it sad that the arts are sidelined in maintained schools, whereas private schools do them. However, being able to read well is a step towards creativity and being able to do maths because you have been taught how to is problem solving. The Labour government is after following a skills curriculum rather than a knowledge rich one, which will decrease creativity further - you can only be creative if you have a wide knowledge base. Mozart did not spontaneously learn to write music, he was specifically taught not left to discover and solve the problem of writing a sonata.
So I suspect (but will check by watching - need to go on catch up) that the idea is to change schools in the way Labour wants and bring down the number of DC with SEND.

No. Trauma can mimic some of the symptoms of ADHD. It doesnt cause it. That viewpoint (Gabor Mate's view that everyone blindly parrots) has been discredited. ADHD is genetic.

Because we are all different, we have strengths and weaknesses that are individual to us.

Hopefully, as children, we are encouraged to learn this about ourselves, and develop ways to manage activities or situations that may cause us to struggle.

He doesn’t believe he has a condition called ADHD, because he doesn’t believe it exists. He just accepts the way he is. An individual.

That too. This will be a way or reducing the bill.

Well said. I’m disappointed with Ch4 for giving it airtime.

Can anyone explain who exactly is profiting financially from this programme?

I’ll definitely be watching this.
I’m undiagnosed, but I spent most of my primary school years being educated in the school office because I simply couldn’t cope in the classroom. Secondary school was hell, and I just about made it through my GCSEs.
It wasn’t until I had children of my own, and only in the last few years, that I finally spoke to my parents about my childhood. I was shocked to discover that I had actually been taken for multiple assessments as a child. I have no memory of any of them, but I was never given an ADHD diagnosis.
I’ve subsequently spent much of my life struggling to understand why I am the way I am and wondering why certain things seemed so much harder for me than they did for other people.
I very much believe that giving children helpful labels and an understanding of how their brains work can be incredibly valuable. It can help them understand themselves and manage their behaviour rather than simply being labelled as ‘naughty’, ‘disruptive’ or ‘difficult’.
I often wish I had known when I was younger then maybe I wouldn’t have felt so different or so alone.

Hopefully, it has given families some food for thought, when presented with options for medication versus support for behaviour management.

I disagree. I don't approve of all this labelling and diagnosing. Do other countries have this level of people who are meant to have adhd. Not everybody is the same. Some people are shy some are outgoing. Do they get put on medication or get a diagnosis.

There were some interesting points made. That some behaviour that is being diagnosed as ADHD should just be seen as a variation of normal human personality. That there’s no real evidence of differences in brain structure on scans to support claims of ‘ADHD brains are wired differently’. That powerful medication is being used to calm a personality so that they are easier to teach ..,

It was thought provoking for me.

Maybe behaviour leads to overwhelmed parents giving stimulants (screens) to children.

What came first the chicken or the egg!

My sisters daughter had very disruptive ADHD, terrible sleeper, always in the go and was never given screens. Her younger sister got screens more to allow them time with older dd and is doing very well.
Every situation is unique.

Assumed this was rage bait TV. Seemed like Wakefield and The Lancet waiting to happen considering it seems to just be the opinion of 1 man from the blurb, but I haven't seen it yet.

Didn't see a thread on the Child Maintenance Panorama either which I was surprised about considering how many people on here get the run around by their exes and many of us forced to stop when they made parents meet in person for "mediation" which is of course impossible with an abusive ex. I would love figures for how many parents stopped using them at that point with no recourse.

Wouldn't that be more of a result of the medications prescribed to children and now increasingly middle-aged adults who are believed to have ADHA?

That is very interesting - although I have more experience with ASD from memory there was a meta-analyses by Hoogman in I think 2017 which suggested there were differences in MRI scans with ADHD, certainly! How did they decide there was none?

I thought it was excellent and very well balanced, included a variety of experts.

my take was that sure there is a thing called ADHD. But that the vast majority do not need medication.

Big pharma are always behind. Over diagnosis, so such things must be scrutinised.

The only traumatic experience DD2 with AuADHD was in and around secondary school itself.

There is something seriously wrong with secondary schools that set up a bright, sunny, sociable, well-behaved child who wants to learn to fail by making her feel.completely anxious and unsafe from day one. If schools can't cope with very mild SEN in DD's case then God help them. What a crock.

I’m not watching it because from what I’ve heard it’s going to do harm to people with adhd. I’m in my 50s I now understand that I’ve spent my life with adhd and autism.most of it was before screens etc.

The world is much more difficult to survive in now with adhd because computers demand uniformity, school demands uniformity, society demands uniformity. In a. World which will only operate if you move from A to B to C people with ADHD who move from Z to F via ostrich to get to C of course ADHD people are going to struggle more than when the only important thing that mattered was getting to where you were going and there were lots of ways of getting there.

More people are presenting with ADHD because the world is becoming increasingly incompatible with out brains.

I don’t do meds, I agree there’s others ways to manage it, but we need to move away from an ever increasing regimented society and start valuing and accommodating differences again.

if this programme is undermining the experience of people with adhd they should be ashamed. 1 in 4 women with adhd has attempted suicide. People with ADHD are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide. 33% of people with adhd have suicidal thoughts.

Tge world is dreadful for people with neurodivergence now.but people aren’t interested in adapting to help them fit in

Do you have adhd?

The other thing is within neuro psychologists research there is a suggestion of clusters of differential brain activity, but they found some children/adults do not own these particular characteristics but nevertheless display the same behaviour characteristics.

Which means a statistical correlation is not an actual fact that can justify a “diagnosis”

the documentary really was suggesting we should not drug kids to fit in or pass exams and there must be a better way to help both parents and children in such difficulties.

Being impolite ADHD is a load of psycho babble.

I think the programme is excellent and informative.