Your post is coming across as dismissive. Probably not how you intended it, but that the way it sounds to me.
I completely agree that meds are way over-prescribed. I have several medical conditions that require me to take meds, but I always find out about alternatives and discuss my situation with my doctors and read up online before beginning a new med. I have refused some meds because I didn't think they were completely necessary, based on my situation and other options.
The ADD specialist did suggest ADD meds for me, for use in specific situations. If I decide to go back to school, I might want to take them for the entrance exam (is that what they call GRE, LSAT, etc?) and class exams. But make no mistake. That would not give me an unfair advantage. That would level the playing field for me. (I would also get additional time for taking tests, if I presented an official ADD diagnosis.)
::Disclaimer:: I'm including the following because I guess it's necessary to present the wide discrepancies in my own situation. Yesterday I got an IQ score of 135, the 99th percentile. This was from an "official" IQ test. It qualifies me for Mensa. I was shocked to get my score. I scored (I believe) 460 and 480 on SAT math and SAT verbal, respectively. I took the business school entrance exam (can't remember if it was the GRE and honestly don't feel like googling it), and my score was barely enough to qualify (I think it was about 500 or so).
I agree that there is misuse of these drugs. Students take them to hyperfocus and parents give them to children so they can do better in school. And these are people who do not actually have ADD. And it does give them an unfair advantage. That is a current trend, as is "redshirting," the practice of holding back children from K for another year if they turn 5 a couple of months before the cutoff. Parents believe they will do better if they are among the oldest in their class, but if often backfires.
For me, ADD meds and accomodations might allow me to retain more information from classes and perform on tests to a level that better reflects my academic abilities.
I read recently that gifted children are often misdiagnosed with ADD because they may exhibit some ADD symptoms: boredom, restlessness and behavioral problems, for example.
I have a theory on the explosion of ADD diagnoses. Yes, doctors are pushing diagnoses and drugs on people. Pharmaceutical companies are enormously powerful and fill our media with insidious advertising and give out samples like candy. But I don't think that's the whole story. Our world is very different now than it was, say, 50 years ago. Time practically stood still back then. Ever go back and watch a crime drama from the 70s? Compared to a show like CSI they're a joke. Big yawn. SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWWW. Now everything is a blur. Sound bites, commercials, graphics -- our brains are not evolved enough to process the barrage of information we are exposed to on a daily basis. It's poison to the developing brains of children. And many children are eating crap food, watching crap TV and playing with crap toys. And who knows about environmental factors such as pollution.
So I think the explosion in diagnoses is partly misdiagnosis, partly the availability of better diagnostic tools and access to information (I would not know that I have ADD if the web didn't exist) and partly lifestyle. Just my theory.
Oh, and FWIW, I have no plans to try ADD meds now. That wasn't the purpose of being tested. I just wanted some answers, and now I have them. I do plan to explore alternatives such as nutrition, coping strategies, support groups, etc.
I thought that the tests were very interesting, looking back on it.
One test involved looking at a series of pictures and identifying what was missing. For example, one was a drawing of a woman walking down a country road on a sunny day. You know it's a sunny day because the trees have shadows, but her shadow is missing. Another showed two people walking on the beach and there's only one set of footprints.
There was a basic knowledge section with questions on a variety of topics, ranging from the boiling point of water to geography to "why do towns require a license to get married?" and "why do we pay taxes?"
There was a pattern recognition test and another cool pattern test involving blocks. Some sides of blocks/cubes were red, some were white and some were divided into two trianges with one red and one white. I had to manipulate the blocks to complete pictures of patterns and the pictures became increasingly complex as the test progressed. My son has a game like this, only it has different shapes instead of cubes.
There was a verbal test that had a series of small drawings next to three related words. I had to write a sentence pertaining to the picture and including the words. Another test involved reading the first and third sentences of a paragraph and then writing a sentence to go in between. There was another verbal test with different instructions for each item.
There were two computerized tests: one involved seeing a series of letters on the screen and clicking upon seeing every letter except X; the other was a pattern recognition test.
One test involved the dr. reading a series of words, i.e., truck, giraffe, onion, subway, cabbage, spinach, bookcase, boat, cow, probably a total of 15 or 20 words. When he was finished I had to recite back all I could remember. I couldn't remember many. We did this same exercise 5 times and each time I remembered a few more but would reach a point after a few seconds that my memory was empty. This was test for free recall, with which I have a lot of difficulty. He then read a new list and we went thorough that one a couple of times. Then back to the original. Then I had over an hour break to see my C and I came back to finish my testing. He asked me to recall as many as I could from the first list. I recalled quite a few I think but still missed at least 6 or 8 I think. Then he read me a series of two words and asked me to identify which word belonged to the original list. I very easily knew exactly which words belonged. This is cued recall, which I am able to do. I also had an easier time recalling words when he asked me to name the animals in the list or the furniture.
I am very glad I did this, and I would encourage anyone who thinks they might have ADD to be tested. My insurance covered it.
Mrs. CAC, I did not intend to be dismissive. That is why I put the disclaimer about how some people really do need these things. I also know that it is human nature that if you are a specialist in something, you will tend to find it more.
I did not mean to offend at all. I just often wonder (and I really don't have an answer to this), are we seeing more and more depression and ADD because of environmental factors that have changed in the last 40 years (diet, processed foods, chemicals, etc) or are these things really highly over-diagnosed?
At some point, if half the population exhibits a trait, is it really a medical condition or just part of the human condition?
Gone the carvings and those who left their mark. Gone the kings and queens, now only the rats hold sway.
Is bad eyesight a medical condition or just part of the human condition?
(Balto) I just often wonder (and I really don't have an answer to this), are we seeing more and more depression and ADD because of environmental factors that have changed in the last 40 years (diet, processed foods, chemicals, etc) or are these things really highly over-diagnosed?
It's also possible that social evolution has outstripped physical evolution and "pathologized" a condition that was previously desirable. For instance, in hunter/gatherer times having ADD may have been an asset for a hunter.
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It's also possible that social evolution has outstripped physical evolution and "pathologized" a condition that was previously desirable. For instance, in hunter/gatherer times having ADD may have been an asset for a hunter.
This is true and it is also true that in our society we tend towards creating pathologies in order to justify taking drugs that actually often have the same effect on most people. My baby sister was diagnosed with ADD but she found that marijuana worked better than the prescription. She got a 4.0 in college and graduated from a top law school and said that many of her fellow students had ADD and it was the hyper-concentration aspect of it that allowed them to do well with their intense studies. I think people should just be able to take drugs that help them out from time to time without having to be labeled with a pathological diagnosis.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver
(Mojo) I think people should just be able to take drugs that help them out from time to time without having to be labeled with a pathological diagnosis.
Like Viagara.
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Case in point. I talked to someone because I was falling behind at work who recommended a specialist. They gave me a prescription. Guess what? I got more work done. Of course I did. I was on speed. Baseball players take it to work harder. Is it because they are all ADD or is it that it simply makes you concentrate harder and apply yourself more? It did improve my work so the specialist now assumes that I have ADD since the ADD treatment helped my "problem". Now, in my way of thinking, most everyone's work output would improve on amphetamines. That's why it is called speed.
If that's true, maybe we'd all be better off if most everyone did take it.
Anyway, there's one little wrinkle. Take a normal person that's at work 8 hours a day. He's probably actually working diligently for 6 of them. Put him on "speed", as you call it, and he can work diligently for 7 or so. Not bad, but not exactly earth-shaking.
Someone with severe attention problems might average up to 3 hours a day. On a good week. Get him running on all cylinders for 6 or 7 hours a day, and his whole life changes. Throw in a similar boost to his short term memory (his RAM, if you will... think about what happens to a machine that doesn't have enough RAM, and how much faster it gets when you remedy that shortcoming), and it can easily mean the difference between a wasted life drifting from failure to failure to a happy, productive life that one can be proud of.
I think there have always been plenty of people that needed psychoactive drugs of various kinds. Their survival rate tends to be higher nowadays so we notice them more. Especially as such a person has to actually put effort into killing himself, when in earlier years, he might have wandered off and never been seen again or simply starved to death without anyone taking particular note of it.
a fine and enviable madness, this delusion that all questions have answers, and nothing is beyond the reach of a strong left arm.
Anyway, there's one little wrinkle. Take a normal person that's at work 8 hours a day. He's probably actually working diligently for 6 of them. Put him on "speed", as you call it, and he can work diligently for 7 or so. Not bad, but not exactly earth-shaking.
I do not disagree but I would suggest that most ADD specialists will take that extra hour as proof that the ADD treatment is working.
Gone the carvings and those who left their mark. Gone the kings and queens, now only the rats hold sway.
I'm curious about what you mean by "ADD specialist." Are you referring to a neuropsychologist or psychopharmacologist or psychiatrist? The guy I saw is a neuropsych who specializes in ADD testing, whom I saw through a referral from my primary care doc. The actual referral was from my C, but in order to get insurance coverage for testing I had to go through the PCP's office. If I want to try meds I need to get that through the PCP.
There are many psychiatrists that specialize in ADD. Google ADHD specialist and you will see what I mean. These doctors are predisposed to diagnosing ADD and prescribing ADD meds. It is a booming business.
Gone the carvings and those who left their mark. Gone the kings and queens, now only the rats hold sway.
