Is ADHD a valid illness, or is it a modern day excuse for doctors and parents of energetic children with no outlet?
I am currently reading/reviewing ‘You Want To Do What?: Instant Answers to Your Parenting Dilemmas‘. I was surprised to find that in the section about ADHD, instead of the sympathetic advice usually offered, there was a completely different viewpoint, one I am still pondering now.
In short the book warns to beware of a diagnosis of ADHD or ADD…
“The term ADD developed after several years of mislabelling for children who failed to conform to what were probably idealistic standards of learning and behaviour. Such children were considered to have minimal brain disease (MBD), which later became minimal brain dysfunction, when no ‘disease’ could be diagnosed”
This is a brief but interesting history into how the terms ADD and ADHD have come about. It got me to thinking, could it really be possible that these children are just at the top end of the energy scale i.e they need a lot more exercise and output than the ‘average’ child.
Furthermore would it be reasonable to suspect that as society has changed these children no longer fit our definition of ‘normal’, maybe it’s our way of life that is the problem and not the children. I bet if you asked your grandparents how many kids they knew that had been diagnosed with an attention deficit related illness their answer would be none, now however, everyone knows someone who has a kid with such a diagnosis. Would that be because it didn’t exist or they merely saw it as kids being kids? Have we become intolerant of children needing to let off steam?
In years gone by children burned energy by going on day long bike rides and playing sports for hours on end, we all had a very physical childhood with plenty of opportunity to ‘burn off’ excess energy. I remember when I was younger being told to go out and burn off some energy, because if I didn’t my mum new she’d have her hands full with a couple of hyper kids with too much energy. It’s not like that now, it’s all about gadgets and computers, kids don’t go out and burn off the excess energy, in addition there is less physical education at school and shorter playtimes. Might it just be possible that there is no illness at all, but that the way society has developed has forced these used-to-be-normal children to be seen as extreme, hyperactive, suffering with an attention span that is deficient?
Apparently one third of school boys aged five to eleven now suffer from ADD which is defined by behaviour that is fidgety and impatient, which pretty much renders most children as having at least a little bit of ADD and at least a few adults!
One of our societies answers to the problem comes in the form of the drug Ritalin which reduces fidgety behaviour. The book suggests that more natural ‘cures’ might include a better diet, more exercise, less television, more sleep and goes on to suggest that even our school system could be partly to blame – “children..forced to sit still in a classroom…with large numbers of other children”, perhaps a more physically active school day could help too.
What do you think? Are these titles just merely buzz words from the 1990′s as the book suggests or is there more to the illness than just having a bit too much energy? I’d love to hear your thoughts…