Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you seeing a lot of college students in the top 20 schools on meds/antidepressants these days?

The Adderall use on college campuses, both prescribed and illicit, is out of control. When I was a kid, my ADHD "medicine" was my old man's belt, and it was damned effective, with no side effects other than a sore behind.

My Adhd kid describe his brain is in constant super active mode when he is awake, he will mostly hyperfocus on things he is interested in or the opposite (struggle to focus on things he is not interested in and sometimes this leads to trouble).
I can’t see how your “belt whopping” medicine would cure this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yeah. Record numbers of anxiety, depression, and ADHD. They're all on something.
Maybe parents should stop trying to produce little walking college application kids from the time they're 10 years old. They're all burnt out and medicated by the time college rolls around.

ADHD does not belong in that list. Parental pressure cannot cause ADHD.

No it cannot cause it but parental pressure most certainly increases the end result of the diagnosis. Parents in our DMV area push very hard, even seeing multiple doctors until they get the diagnosis they want which is adhd: they want meds so the kid does better and later they want extended time on tests. ADHD is the number one most demanded diagnosis by parents. Anxiety is the most common ignored. Many of these kids have anxiety affecting their attention and do not have primary adhd. I have been in the psychiatry field for 22 years and work with local Peds groups as well as know many of the learning disability coordinators at the top schools in the area--the pressure is high and it starts in middle school when the groupings are done into different levels or when public magnet/governor school testing is about to happen. There are still doctors who diagnose it based on parent and teacher surveys rather than psychological testing, and prescribe meds. ADHD is most certainly a real diagnosis but it is not 1/3 of the population as it appears to be at some of these schools. There is a subset of parents who really push for that diagnosis to try to get meds to help the kids do better and get into/stay in the harder classes or get the extra time for the testing to get into a top high school (governors, boarding school, top private). This is not new but has rapidly increased in the past 10 years.

Have not read the thread, but whenever I see the thread title, I think it would be a great title for a B horror movie:

College Students on Meds!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, yeah. Record numbers of anxiety, depression, and ADHD. They're all on something.
Maybe parents should stop trying to produce little walking college application kids from the time they're 10 years old. They're all burnt out and medicated by the time college rolls around.

My kid has adhd and anxiety. I didn't put any pressure on them. They were born that way and medication helps

+1000

My ADHD and anxiety ridden kid was like that from birth. It's just we didn't realize the anxiety levels in a baby/toddler as first time parents. But once you get the diagnosis in ES and you look back, all the "cute but quirky behaviors" from birth till then are much better explained. It has nothing to do with environment for most---my kid had a SAHP, once who worked to address separation anxiety and went with the flow and was no pressure. I'd argue we did everything we could to not create that situation---but it's obvious they were wired that way. We also didn't medicate until college (and it didnt' go well) and we address the anxiety with intensive therapy for 3 years in ES and gave them the coping tools to do well in life. But it's definite they were "born that way".