The rise of ADHD on elite campuses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I seem to recall some months ago a poster linked an Atlantic Monthly article about the gaming of ADHD diagnoses in wealthy school districts and elite colleges. Apparently, 20% of kids at Harvard and Brown, 30+% at Amherst, and nearly 40% at Stanford have such diagnoses and accommodations. These diagnoses have become particularly popular at the end of high school when students confront high-stakes ACT, SAT and AP testing. A typical ADHD accommodation for the SAT yields 50% more test-taking time and a score boost of potentially 200 points. The rise of such diagnoses and requests for accommodation has risen much faster in wealthy districts compared to poor ones.

Fast forward to this year’s holiday break and my student, who attends an elite college, tells me that they might have ADHD. They are preparing for a major research project and are nervous. Two close college friends “have ADHD” and scored a 35 and 36 on their ACT. My kid scored a 1560 on their SAT without a diagnoses or accommodation. The friends say my kid should get a ADHD diagnosis and meds.

My kid does not have ADHD. What they have is anxiety that needs to be addressed by learning new skills to do new things. I’m highly disappointed that the peer group’s solution is to reach for a drug and an accommodation, a cope they learned from their parents.

Yes, I know I’m going to get blasted for this because for some kids ADHD is a real thing, but the trends, the timing, the socioeconomics, and the goals of many seeking ADHD diagnoses is nothing but a performance enhancer and a life crutch.

I can’t believe what achievement and performance has come to and it’s increasingly difficult to understand the value of prestige labels without a lot of caveats. Cheat ADHD diagnoses fundamentally change the college evaluation environment and devalue the ethics and integrity of genuine achievement.

It is one thing to take a drug to return to baseline health and another to avoid real life challenges and artificially enhance performance. We all rightfully decry performance enhancing drugs in sports and we should do the same in academics.

True top students will easily be top half at an ivy even with no accommodations in a setting gwhere 20% have them. Very few have adhd or admit it at our students ivy. Extra time does not really benefit them anyway as the exams and expectations at that level are far more difficult than extra time will advantage. And everyone has test anxiety to some degree. Your kid foes not have adhd anyway. Get them some counseling. They also need to find the smart people at the ivy not the minority with “adhd”.

[Anonymous]

It’s not just ADHD. The diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder in high school for accommodations is out of control. Section 504 is being completely abused at the high school and college level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once you start taking it, then stop taking it, of course you feel sluggish and you feel like you need it. Of course you have some disorder and need drugs.

It's just drug companies figuring out a way to make money selling formerly illegal drugs.

Adhd stimulant drugs are illegal in most of europe. It will eventually stop here. Another drug company caused opiate crisis. They are terrible dangerous drugs that the vast majority of people with adhd diagnoses should not take. Furthermore the vast majority with the diagnosis would not even get that diagnosis in Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ADHD diagnosis gives you nice advantages in college admissions. There is no downside to getting diagnosed.

So there is a huge incentive and we are just seeing the results of that.

It is pretty much a safe assumption nowadays that when someone says ADHD, they are cheating.

It is an absolute certainty that you and an ignorant fool and poor excuse for a human being.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, and . . .

Stop the testing accommodations for kids newly diagnosed with ADHD in high school (if they really have ADHD, how did they previously qualify for those advanced classes and get top grades?) and encourage kids to acknowledge anxiety in novel situations and help them learn appropriate life skills to meet those new challenges.

I’m sure there are families who abuse the system, but here’s a different perspective. DS was diagnosed early in high school. In retrospect, I should have realized it much, much sooner. But I thought his experience was normal because it was the same as my experience. I honestly thought ADHD behaviors were how everyone lives. Turns out, his behaviors weren’t normal and neither were mine but as a GenX kid with no mental health supports, it took until my 50s (and him being diagnosed) for me to understand that. There are going to be some bad apples in any system, but I’d rather some bad apples squeeze through than kids who actually need support not be able to get it.

+1 Same experience. I really wish I had been able to see it sooner, but not only did I think it was normal, but because of my personal experience, I was already doing a ton of scaffolding by instinct at home (stuff I thought was normal, but would have been prescribed therapy for kids whose parents didn't have ADHD), but by high school I wasn't enough -- then it all came crashing down. I could have cried when I saw the transformation that the very first dose of medication allowed. It was like unlocking a door in his brain.

Well of course. Amphetamines make you feel good, confident and on point. Same with cocaine.

You are an idiot. You might want to take the time to learn about the different reaction to stimulants for an ADHD brain and a normal brain. Normal people don’t take adderal and then get sleepy but that’s a norm for an ADHD brain.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DC was diagnosed with ADHD in college and received accommodation. Not surprising, since it runs in the family. Prior to diagnosis, National Merit Finalist and 1,580 SAT, obviously without accommodation. Full merit tuition ride at a T-20. All A in HS and still all A in college. I understand OP's skepticism, but perhaps should keep an open mind since every kid is different.

DC got that far without it: why is the accommodation necessary now?

Some of my favorite alternate version of this include:
Your child had cancer but hadn’t died before the cancer was diagnosed, why treat it now?

Or

Your kid failed the driving vision test? They’ve never needed glasses before, why get them now? They could just ride the bus everywhere instead.

That is a really dumb analogy. ADHD is not like cancer or low vision. If it exists, you cannot get through a demanding high school with all As, top scores, and admission to an elite university.

This is not true. Plenty of now adults, including my husband (TJ and HYP grad) did this without realizing they had ADHD because it was not well understood when they were kids.

+1 A highly intelligent person not diagnosed until adulthood can tell PP that you will never fully appreciate the relief the diagnosis brings, especially if medication helps. The level of extra mental work, work arounds, self reminders, lack of sleep to keep up with your own brain, stuggle to turn off your brain, extra energy used to keep focused or break hyperfocus, fighting the anxiety of not remembering people's names and being late, etc. that ADHD causes even in (maybe expecially in) extremly intelligent people is exhausting and can cause huge levels of anxiety. They are always working twice as hard as everyone else because of the effort to keep ADHD in check.

PP, the error you are making here is in thinking accommodations are causing the achievement -- no, the kid's intelligence is what it is.

A person with ADHD is trying to do what everyone else is doing with the intelligence they have, but also has a disability unrleated to their intelligence. While they are sitting in class or the board room or a court room with everyone else, they are simultaneously using a part of the brain and mental energy to:
- lift a heavy curtain that keeps unexpectedly dropping in front of their eyes,
- to try to adjust the volume in invisible earphones operated by invisible gremlins who really don't care,
- to constantly look at and focus on external clocks because the internal one sometimes runs fast and sometimes runs slow but never is the same as the external one,
- shoo away crowds of gnats flying around their brains shouting interesting but irrelevant factiods at them,
- tell the professor at the core of their brain that, while fascinating, now really isn't the time to solve the major world problem they work at endlesslly, while hoping and praying it isn't true that if they don't do it right now, it will be lost forever;
- and resist the impossible urge to daydrem about whatever floats into their conscience at any given moment unbeckoned.

It is a constant noise, like tinitius of the brain. People are able to stem this tide at varying degrees at at varying costs to their energy and metal well being. Some of us manage to achieve in spite of this, but at a price - an unnecessary price, we now know.

Accommodations and medication is about that huge added burden on the brain and avoiding that extra price on the head; it's about making up for or stopping all the stuff happening in the brain that other people either don't have at all or can turn off and on at will.

Medication can calm a lot of it and give you extra control. It can ease the anxiety it all causes too. This is what people diagnosed as adults discover.

Extra time for kids who are still trying to develop the copes and work arounds allows them to finish a test even though they involuntarily spent 20 or 30 minutes of the allotted time lifting the curtian, swatting the gnats or puzzling about Schroedinger's cat when they were supposed to be reading a poassage of poetry on the SAT test. It alleviates the anxiety of knowing they are about to be put on an external clock, when they have yet to devolp the skills to work around their broken internal clock. The net result is simply the ability to show what they know without the added suffering and unneeded extra mental strain caused by a disability.

That sounds unpleasant but if you have never had objective issues succeeding and got admitted to an elite university, it was not severe enough to be ADHD.

This is complete nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid, a TJ graduate who attends an elite college without any test prep or college counseling, was diagnosed with ADHD in college. Their high IQ masked their executive function deficits all along. They never need extra time for any tests, in fact, they think so fast that they always finish tests earlier than others. They struggled with big projects or paper that need planning and execution over several weeks or months. ADHD meds helped tremendously. It’s such a relief to get diagnosed now that they understand why they are different from other students.

Bingo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half the posts on here are extremely offensive

Only to people who are stretching the definition of ADHD to gain access to legal methamphetamines.

They are pretty offensive to me as a person with ADHD who has drugs but avoids taking them because the side effects suck. The fact that I’m extremely smart and was able to figure things out doesn’t diminish the challenges over the years and I really feel for those less gifted than I who suffer from ADHD because they ultimately struggle far more than I have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I seem to recall some months ago a poster linked an Atlantic Monthly article about the gaming of ADHD diagnoses in wealthy school districts and elite colleges. Apparently, 20% of kids at Harvard and Brown, 30+% at Amherst, and nearly 40% at Stanford have such diagnoses and accommodations. These diagnoses have become particularly popular at the end of high school when students confront high-stakes ACT, SAT and AP testing. A typical ADHD accommodation for the SAT yields 50% more test-taking time and a score boost of potentially 200 points. The rise of such diagnoses and requests for accommodation has risen much faster in wealthy districts compared to poor ones.

Fast forward to this year’s holiday break and my student, who attends an elite college, tells me that they might have ADHD. They are preparing for a major research project and are nervous. Two close college friends “have ADHD” and scored a 35 and 36 on their ACT. My kid scored a 1560 on their SAT without a diagnoses or accommodation. The friends say my kid should get a ADHD diagnosis and meds.

My kid does not have ADHD. What they have is anxiety that needs to be addressed by learning new skills to do new things. I’m highly disappointed that the peer group’s solution is to reach for a drug and an accommodation, a cope they learned from their parents.

Yes, I know I’m going to get blasted for this because for some kids ADHD is a real thing, but the trends, the timing, the socioeconomics, and the goals of many seeking ADHD diagnoses is nothing but a performance enhancer and a life crutch.

I can’t believe what achievement and performance has come to and it’s increasingly difficult to understand the value of prestige labels without a lot of caveats. Cheat ADHD diagnoses fundamentally change the college evaluation environment and devalue the ethics and integrity of genuine achievement.

It is one thing to take a drug to return to baseline health and another to avoid real life challenges and artificially enhance performance. We all rightfully decry performance enhancing drugs in sports and we should do the same in academics.

True top students will easily be top half at an ivy even with no accommodations in a setting gwhere 20% have them. Very few have adhd or admit it at our students ivy. Extra time does not really benefit them anyway as the exams and expectations at that level are far more difficult than extra time will advantage. And everyone has test anxiety to some degree. Your kid foes not have adhd anyway. Get them some counseling. They also need to find the smart people at the ivy not the minority with “adhd”.

Well known fact that if you are at an Ivy the tests are generally easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once you start taking it, then stop taking it, of course you feel sluggish and you feel like you need it. Of course you have some disorder and need drugs.

It's just drug companies figuring out a way to make money selling formerly illegal drugs.

Adhd stimulant drugs are illegal in most of europe. It will eventually stop here. Another drug company caused opiate crisis. They are terrible dangerous drugs that the vast majority of people with adhd diagnoses should not take. Furthermore the vast majority with the diagnosis would not even get that diagnosis in Europe.

Really? I had zero trouble getting ADHD meds when we lived there so that’s news to our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once you start taking it, then stop taking it, of course you feel sluggish and you feel like you need it. Of course you have some disorder and need drugs.

It's just drug companies figuring out a way to make money selling formerly illegal drugs.

Adhd stimulant drugs are illegal in most of europe. It will eventually stop here. Another drug company caused opiate crisis. They are terrible dangerous drugs that the vast majority of people with adhd diagnoses should not take. Furthermore the vast majority with the diagnosis would not even get that diagnosis in Europe.

Really? I had zero trouble getting ADHD meds when we lived there so that’s news to our family.

You were probably fine if it was Ritalin. Adderal is more challenging. Luckily foe people with ADHD the Nordic countries have come around and access is growing contrary to the post before yours.

[Anonymous]

My older adhd kid was diagnosed since age 4. He is not on medication, and he has not used any academic accomdation yet because he has high IQ to get him all As in school. He has high anxiety and other disabilities. IEP keeps his accommodation on IEP plan just in case one day he uses it. He is putting in a lot of effort to stay focus at school and his teacher knows that he tries really hard at school. He sometimes tears up at school due to his high anxiety to demand himself to be a perfectionist. He pushes himself too much.

My younger adhd kid has academic accommodation as well which she has not used yet. She is on the border of failing classes. The school teacher has been encouraging her to use accomondation but she finds giving her more time is not useful because she cannot stay focus and she struggles in answering questions (learning disability). If she can graduate high school and go to community College, I would be really really happy for her. We will try med soon on her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older adhd kid was diagnosed since age 4. He is not on medication, and he has not used any academic accomdation yet because he has high IQ to get him all As in school. He has high anxiety and other disabilities. IEP keeps his accommodation on IEP plan just in case one day he uses it. He is putting in a lot of effort to stay focus at school and his teacher knows that he tries really hard at school. He sometimes tears up at school due to his high anxiety to demand himself to be a perfectionist. He pushes himself too much.

My younger adhd kid has academic accommodation as well which she has not used yet. She is on the border of failing classes. The school teacher has been encouraging her to use accomondation but she finds giving her more time is not useful because she cannot stay focus and she struggles in answering questions (learning disability). If she can graduate high school and go to community College, I would be really really happy for her. We will try med soon on her.

To add, the younger kid was diagnosed adhd at age 5. Both have anxiety and considered high functioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid, a TJ graduate who attends an elite college without any test prep or college counseling, was diagnosed with ADHD in college. Their high IQ masked their executive function deficits all along. They never need extra time for any tests, in fact, they think so fast that they always finish tests earlier than others. They struggled with big projects or paper that need planning and execution over several weeks or months. ADHD meds helped tremendously. It’s such a relief to get diagnosed now that they understand why they are different from other students.

This is my kid exactly. Diagnosed with ADHD in high school and a stimulant changed their life. Without meds they FLY through tests. Medication with a stimulant SLOWS THEIR BRAIN DOWN. This is a hallmark of actually having ADHD brain chemistry. A stimulant slows you down. My kid will tell you "my medication allows me to actually think. Without it my brain is just flipping through things at lightening speed. With it I can finally focus"

My kid also never had or asked for extra time (although of course the psychologist offered to recommend it in their write-up) My kid needed to fill the time they had. It's always bothered me that so many kids with ADHD are given extra time because if they truly have ADHD they shouldn't need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid, a TJ graduate who attends an elite college without any test prep or college counseling, was diagnosed with ADHD in college. Their high IQ masked their executive function deficits all along. They never need extra time for any tests, in fact, they think so fast that they always finish tests earlier than others. They struggled with big projects or paper that need planning and execution over several weeks or months. ADHD meds helped tremendously. It’s such a relief to get diagnosed now that they understand why they are different from other students.

This is my kid exactly. Diagnosed with ADHD in high school and a stimulant changed their life. Without meds they FLY through tests. Medication with a stimulant SLOWS THEIR BRAIN DOWN. This is a hallmark of actually having ADHD brain chemistry. A stimulant slows you down. My kid will tell you "my medication allows me to actually think. Without it my brain is just flipping through things at lightening speed. With it I can finally focus"

My kid also never had or asked for extra time (although of course the psychologist offered to recommend it in their write-up) My kid needed to fill the time they had. It's always bothered me that so many kids with ADHD are given extra time because if they truly have ADHD they shouldn't need it.

Wrong. That is only one type of ADHD. I have inattentive ADHD and stimulants don’t have any effect on me. My problem isn’t that my brain works too fast or too slow— it’s that it can’t focus so I keep forgetting what I’m doing and start thinking about something else. If you have this kind of ADHD extra time is critical.