SKL Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 I dunno, considering that certain professionals seem to want my dd to have ADHD (as opposed to needing a different learning approach/environment/accommodations) even though she is about as hyper as a snail. :/ I don't have any close friends/family diagnosed with ADHD, and the only child I know with ADHD clearly has something more going on. (Perhaps it isn't overdiagnosed in my part of the world?) I think teachers like my dd's welcome the opportunity to use ADHD as an excuse to not have to teach children who present a challenge. I think doctors make lots of money off diagnosing kids with ADHD. (I went to a developmental ped to try to get a referral for an auditory processing eval, but she wrote her up as ADHD without really knowing anything about her behavior.) ... Now as for ADD, if there is such a thing, I probably have it. I'm extremely distractable (which is why I spend so much time here when I should be working). However, I can recognize this and take steps to address it in order to complete what I really need to get done. I don't know too many adults who are worse than I am when it comes to attention, and nobody IRL has told me of being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, so I have to take others' words for it on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DyslexicParent Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 Unfortunately, there are a lot of ignorant people like your sister. Just like those who insist that 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing are US government conspiracies, she may be unwilling to change her mind. I am totally serious. My daughter was diagnosed with this when she was 5 and my sister keeps claiming it isn't real and we are just making excuses for her to be forgetful, distractable, and impulsive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happymomofboys Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 I do think it is real, but I also know that some use it as an excuse. A couple of years ago a neighborhood boy (first grade!) and his friends came by and threatened my son with a large stick while he was playing in our driveway. None of their parents were around so I walked next door where the kids had gone to play at the playground and told the boy that he was wrong to make threats and not to ever come near my son again. Awhile later his mother showed up and went off on me for correcting her precious child. The boy started telling his mother about how he told me he had ADHD. Obviously, he'd been taught this was an excuse for bad behavior. FWIW, this child also called his mother "fatty" when she told him to be quiet and his father who was waiting by their truck said nothing. I certainly don't think ADHD, if it even existed in the child, had anything to do with the way he was acting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTJo1996 Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 I have ADD and can tell you it is real. Does anybody remember that prescription RX tv commercial that ran over the past few years in which a woman, sitting in a conference room having a business meeting is plagued by her brain acting like a tv remote. Different scenes run thru her mind. What's for supper? Did I feed the dog? Did I get Johnny's baseball gear? All while she is in this big, important meeting. It was then that I realized that is a perfect example of how my brain works. I brought this up with my Dr and she dismissed it saying, "Adults don't develop ADD. They would have had it since childhood." I realize that, but I had a very hands-on mom who was a teacher. She stayed on top of my assignments and made me do all my work at the kitchen table - so she could re-direct me every time I veered off on a tangent. It wasn't until after college that I sensed I had a problem. I had a high stress job dealing with the public (local government city planner) that I found I couldn't get my work done and stay on task due to constant drop-ins by city council members and citizens who wanted to talk about the current hot button issue. Small town politics + ADD = train wreck! Fast forward 9 years... Now that I am homeschooling my own ADD kid, I see how easily she gets off track and takes me right along with her!!! It's a wild ride, but we get it done. Neither of us is medicated for ADD so I would say that our cases are not severely handicapping, just annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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