Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

Diabetes and cancer have objective, quantifiable diagnostic lab tests that are replicable over time. With physiological markers that are also quantifiable in absolute numerical terms.

ADHD has a checklist with undefined terms like 'distractible'

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

OMG--this times a thousand! It's so offensive to assume I made the decision to medically treat my child lightly. We have family members who imply this and I can't even begin to express how infuriating it is.

Nobody is saying anything about your individual case. If diabetes were over disgnosed I would be saying the same thing.

Pp here, but in fact that is not only implied but said all the time about ADHD. So whenever an article talks about skyrocketing rates, it's virtually guaranteed to come up. Also over diagnosis is different than increased prevalence. The first term implies the diagnosis is wrong; we don't have enough data to support that. And I'm talking about medical diagnoses and not school labels.

Wouldn't the variation between diagnosis in different states tend to point toward differences in diagnosis, rather than differences in prevalence?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

OMG--this times a thousand! It's so offensive to assume I made the decision to medically treat my child lightly. We have family members who imply this and I can't even begin to express how infuriating it is.

Nobody is saying anything about your individual case. If diabetes were over disgnosed I would be saying the same thing.

Pp here, but in fact that is not only implied but said all the time about ADHD. So whenever an article talks about skyrocketing rates, it's virtually guaranteed to come up. Also over diagnosis is different than increased prevalence. The first term implies the diagnosis is wrong; we don't have enough data to support that. And I'm talking about medical diagnoses and not school labels.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know has ADHD. I have yet to meet a person who doesn't have it.

Yep.

And to the immediate PP who said that various family members suspected of having ADHD in the past would've benefitted from treatment ... I assume you mean, "would've benefitted from drugs." And I agree with you -- because all people show increased focus and productivity when they take Adderall, Ritalin and similar. Even those of us without an ADHD Dx.

NP. Last year around this time we were visiting SN schools because DS was having a horrible time at his immersion language charter: Refusing to do any work, kicking and scratching the SN teacher when she grabbed him to keep him from out of the building, completely shutting down and refusing to cooperate, etc.

To top it all off, we applied to Ivymount's Unstuck and On Target social skills Saturday program and was accepted (was sent an acceptance letter) but then a month later after asking us to come in for a second observation, Ivymount rescinded the acceptance saying that on second thought, DS was too much to handle and not a good fit. Yes, his social skills were too lacking for social skills class!

DS already had an IEP and an Asperger's/ASD diagnosis since preK4. But we were fortunately scheduled for a neuropsych with Dr. Black because his three yr IEP requalification was coming up. Dr. Black found ADHD, combined type, in addition to the ASD. DS sees a wonderful psychiatrist and is medicated for the ADHD. The IEP was revised including a FBA/BIP.

So this year things are going wonderfully, DS is still at the same school. Above grade level academically. We added keyboarding into the IEP and supports for written composition like extensive instruction in use of graphical organizers to head off any issues that may become problems in later grades. DS's only current academic issue is that he prefers to do all his math calculations in his head instead of on paper.

Has friends including a BFF and is the leader of his posse during recess. Plays tournament chess and squash.

His school tried the Unstuck and On Target Program with him but found out that Superflex worked much better for DS. I signed him up for Capitol Cotillion which he enjoys!

A complete 180 degree change from last year and getting DS diagnosed and treated for his ADHD played a large part in the process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

OMG--this times a thousand! It's so offensive to assume I made the decision to medically treat my child lightly. We have family members who imply this and I can't even begin to express how infuriating it is.

Nobody is saying anything about your individual case. If diabetes were over disgnosed I would be saying the same thing.

Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

OMG--this times a thousand! It's so offensive to assume I made the decision to medically treat my child lightly. We have family members who imply this and I can't even begin to express how infuriating it is.

Anonymous wrote:And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

A bit prone to melodrama?

No one is saying--except you, apparently--that children with cancer should not be given chemotherapy. It's relatively easy to detect cancer cells and tumors and to distinguish them from normal cells. However, diagnosing ADHD is clearly an imperfect science with statistically significant biases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.

I totally agree. Who cares how many people have it. When it's your child that has it, the only thing that matters is getting treatment and helping your child be as successful as possible. And, to the PP who thinks that his/her family members may have had it, I think the same of mine. My younger siblings all dropped out of high school after ten years of being unsuccessful at school. It's unfortunate for them that we didn't know then what we know now.

Because if your child is being falsely diagnosed because they are in the wrong educational setting, then you may be missing an important part of the puzzle. When a disorder is based strongly on subjective observations by teachers, it is really important to explore all avenues to understand the behavior.

Nobody is saying that it's not important to get your child an accurate diagnosis. What we're saying is that we don't care how many people have the condition or that the numbers are rising. What matters is that once you have a diagnosis, getting the right treatment and interventions is important.

Well, you're failing to acknowledge how society and economic forces (eg pharmaceutical companies pushing ADHD drugs) influences the definition of disorder, diagnosis, and "right" treatment.

More importantly, school funding has changed from being tied to the number of students to the success of students at passing standardized tests. Schools now will push diagnoses, when they didn't used to. If academic success is the only measure of success in life, then it must be right that they do so.

And when you are the parent of a child whose life has been completely changed by the better due to psychiatric medication, conspiracy theories about drugs being force-fed to normal children by anxious parents and greedy insurance companies are offensive.

Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of diabetic children into buying insulin. Those greedy insurance companies! Forcing parents of children with cancer to buy chemotherapy!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.

I totally agree. Who cares how many people have it. When it's your child that has it, the only thing that matters is getting treatment and helping your child be as successful as possible. And, to the PP who thinks that his/her family members may have had it, I think the same of mine. My younger siblings all dropped out of high school after ten years of being unsuccessful at school. It's unfortunate for them that we didn't know then what we know now.

Because if your child is being falsely diagnosed because they are in the wrong educational setting, then you may be missing an important part of the puzzle. When a disorder is based strongly on subjective observations by teachers, it is really important to explore all avenues to understand the behavior.

Nobody is saying that it's not important to get your child an accurate diagnosis. What we're saying is that we don't care how many people have the condition or that the numbers are rising. What matters is that once you have a diagnosis, getting the right treatment and interventions is important.

Well, you're failing to acknowledge how society and economic forces (eg pharmaceutical companies pushing ADHD drugs) influences the definition of disorder, diagnosis, and "right" treatment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.

I totally agree. Who cares how many people have it. When it's your child that has it, the only thing that matters is getting treatment and helping your child be as successful as possible. And, to the PP who thinks that his/her family members may have had it, I think the same of mine. My younger siblings all dropped out of high school after ten years of being unsuccessful at school. It's unfortunate for them that we didn't know then what we know now.

Because if your child is being falsely diagnosed because they are in the wrong educational setting, then you may be missing an important part of the puzzle. When a disorder is based strongly on subjective observations by teachers, it is really important to explore all avenues to understand the behavior.

Nobody is saying that it's not important to get your child an accurate diagnosis. What we're saying is that we don't care how many people have the condition or that the numbers are rising. What matters is that once you have a diagnosis, getting the right treatment and interventions is important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.

I totally agree. Who cares how many people have it. When it's your child that has it, the only thing that matters is getting treatment and helping your child be as successful as possible. And, to the PP who thinks that his/her family members may have had it, I think the same of mine. My younger siblings all dropped out of high school after ten years of being unsuccessful at school. It's unfortunate for them that we didn't know then what we know now.

Because if your child is being falsely diagnosed because they are in the wrong educational setting, then you may be missing an important part of the puzzle. When a disorder is based strongly on subjective observations by teachers, it is really important to explore all avenues to understand the behavior.

Anonymous wrote:what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.

I totally agree. Who cares how many people have it. When it's your child that has it, the only thing that matters is getting treatment and helping your child be as successful as possible. And, to the PP who thinks that his/her family members may have had it, I think the same of mine. My younger siblings all dropped out of high school after ten years of being unsuccessful at school. It's unfortunate for them that we didn't know then what we know now.

what ever the cause, if ADD/HD is suspected is very important to get a DX early. Untreated it can lead to unhappy and unsuccessful kids. I know.