Quote: (03-16-2014 02:24 PM)Suits Wrote:
I'll tell my story and share my thoughts.
When I was 20 and in college, a classmate described her condition to me, ADHD. A lot of what she described sounded very familiar. I did some more research and started to understand a few new things about myself.
I grew up in a pretty healthy family. Money was always tight, so there weren't a lot of cool Christmas gifts, but my parents spend what little money they did have on proper nutrition and there was one movie a week, which we watched as a family and no video games.
When we did get a computer, I used it to create my own programs and didn't spend hours playing games.
I'd say that my childhood was very healthy, at least compared to literally all my peers.
And yet, somehow I had enough ADHD symptoms to clearly fit the definition of the condition.
I hadn't been an out of control child. I'd just daydreamed a lot and struggled to complete tasks.
The conclusion that I've come to is that ADHD/ADD is an umbrella that probably covers a whole lot things that probably shouldn't fall into the same category.
I'm not sure if poor parenting causes some forms of ADHD/ADD or if it just aggravates the condition.
In my family's case, despite parents who basically sacrificed their own goals and happiness for their five children, three of us have been diagnosed with ADHD/ADD.
My speculation is that in the extreme cases, it is a disorder. But for most people, it is just a different way for a brain to be setup.
Unfortunately, this type of brain doesn't exist well in a society where we sit children in neat rows five days a week for the first 22 years of their life.
Most of congress is believed to fall within the bounds of ADHD/ADD and they've been saying that long before the current gridlock occurred.
When 25% of people have a "condition" I think it's time to accept that it may simply be a facet of humanity.
Thanks a lot for this reply. I get extremely emotional when talking about ADD and ADHD medication. I was diagnosed with ADHD multiple times as a young child. All my doctors prescribed ritalin and all my teachers suggested I had ADHD.
Today, if there's one thing I'm grateful to my parents for, its not getting me on ritalin or adderall. Everyone I kow today (late-teens and early-20s) who has been on ADHD medication is emotionally unhealthy. They are either chronically depressed or have an incapability to empathize with other people.
My story was similar to Suits'. Never was destructive, but was (and still am) very right-brained. I was always daydreaming and could never pay attention to boring classes but somehow always did better on standardized tests than all the other kids. When it came to high school, I aced the standardized tests (top 1% in the SAT nationally) but did ok in my classes.
If I want to work on something, I will sit down for hours and create something great. When I don't want to, I will procrastinate until the last moment and do half-ass job. Not the best strategy to succeed academically but a great strategy for what I want to do once I graduate. I still fulfill my responsibilities but cannot do well for myself on something I don't like, even though I can do so for a team.
What am I trying to get at? Its simple - ADHD medications create drones out of the most creative members of society, often with destructive results. I'm extremely happy that the mainstream is finally taking note of this. Pretty sure society will be healthier if we get rid of this abomination.