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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Put your kid on Ritalin, already!

I am getting tired of these hippy, hipster, organic, home-grown, local only moron parents who think ADHD was invented by drug companies to sell pseudo-scientific poison. I'm not talking about overall bad parents, either. After working in a grocery store for 2+ years, I could write a million rants about all the things I see parents do that makes me want to strangle them. (And, from time to time, the kids too.) I'm talking about these "informed" parents who think ADHD is over-diagnosed and over-medicated. True, ADHD and ADD are over-diagnosed in SOME age groups, it is severely under-diagnosed in adolescents, teens, and adults. Yes, 3 year-old kids are squirrels. That's how it is supposed to be. As you get older you calm down and focus better. That's why old people are crabby and young kids are happy: Kids can't focus on the bad; old people can't stop focusing. But at a certain age, a child should be able to pay attention to a 5-minute presentation.

There is a kid I know, his parents are good friends of mine. He is 8. He is an extremely intelligent kid. I like him.
But I am scared to death of having him in my primary class next year.
I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say he has a shorter attention span than the sunbeams. He cannot sit still and quiet for more than 5 seconds.

He has ADD. Not ADHD, but ADD

I don't why he isn't on medication. I don't really know how I could even bring it up.

Part of the problem, is that people don't know what ADD and ADHD are and are not.

ADD is the inablilty to concentrate. No matter how hard someone with ADD tries, they can't stay focused on something that they aren't deeply interested in for long periods of time. I know. I have ADD. NO matter how hard I try, I can't concentrate on lectures at school, how-to tutorials, or long-winded speakers. But man I can play music, listen to music, and watch music all day. It's called hyper-focusing. It's part of ADD.

ADHD is ADD, with the added ingredient of hyperactivity. This is why it is over-diagnosed in small kids.

ADD/ADHD is NOT becoming distracted by something random.

ADD Thought process are actually VERY detailed, and VERY logical. It doesn't make sense to some people because they cannot connect the dots. (It also doesn't help that these processes take less time than it takes to read this sentence.)

I personally believe that this extra-special ability to connect loosely-related ideas enhances creativity. It is said that the most brilliant minds in arts and sciences are believed to be/ are confirmed to have some form of attention deficit.

I hate the idea that ADD diagnosis's are so misused and mistrusted. Think of how many people would be able to succeed if they could actually focus. It changed my world in Elementary school. I wish I stayed on my meds all of my years in school. My 8th grade teachers thought I was lazy. When they found out I had ADD, they knew I wasn't and were able to help me so that I could succeed in class.

well, I had more to say, but MY inner squirrel just ran off with it.

Peace!

2 comments:

  1. I love how you ended this post. Win.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find it ironic that my post was about ADD considering how spacey it sounds

    ReplyDelete