ADHD Brain Scans

Hi Arlene,

I couldn’t agree more. I think the best thing all of us can do is to not respond to Ball’s posts because frankly, if I didn’t know better, I think he writes what he does to get a rise out of people. Did you notice that folks quit responding on the teacher thread so it was time to start another flamefest with saying that ADHD is a made up disease? Of course, I am contributing to the problem right now by responding to you so I do realize the irony of what I am saying.

PT

Isn’t that what originally got Hitler started in the first place?? He found something that wasn’t really an issue and made it an issue and started a war and killed 6 million people…but then again like you said I have responded to him myself and I am discussing him now…..if we ignore him will he really go away? One can only hope.

If you go onto MSN and put “ADHD + brain scans” into the search engine, you will find a number of references to brain differences between those with and without ADHD. ABC News has an article about chemical differences. I didn’t check into the other references tonight, but I read an article somewhere about size differences in the brains of children with and without ADHD.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADHD_Bulletin_Board/

I am diagnosed ADD but I’m also just lazy, implusive, and speak without thinking. I haven’t seen significant evidence to prove that ADD exists. I really think that it’s a lack of motivation which causes me to have ADD symptoms.

Help me out guys, is this a sad case of denial? I read books on ADD and still don’t understand how it’s anything more than laziness/impulsive/unorganized behavior. What am I missing?

THE AAP DOES IT AGAIN

The latest effluvia disgorged by the American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization vigorously striving to supplant, or at least acquire veto power over, parental authority, is a disturbing reminder and indictment of its own member’s practices.

In this greasy ooze, these solons offer guidance on selecting which children are sufficiently wearisome to their parents (both the custodial and the in loco variety) to need drugging with Soma… I mean Ritalin…, in a left-handed acknowledgement that their members have wallowed in a completely promiscuous abandon in this matter in the past. They’re saying, in effect, that maybe, just maybe, a few of their millions of misdiagnoses made thus far have been poorly founded and excessive, while hastening to add that there are also undoubtedly some poor victims of this mythical ADD/ADHD syndrome tragically left unmedicated.

If the practice were not so pernicious, one would have to smile, contemptuous but entertained, at these dealers pompously trying to spin their previous malpractice into mere over-earnestness. But of course, it is that pernicious. One can only recoil in horror at the thought of the beautiful little children whose vivaciousness and precocity have been made the excuse for utter betrayal by the adults upon whom they rely for protection and nurturing.

Frankly, any doctor who prescribes this or any other psychoactive agent to a child not engaging in chronic physically endangering behavior ought to be stripped of their license and imprisoned for child abuse, along with most of the parents who permitted it and all of the teachers or social workers who encouraged it.

My inclination is to classify parents who are a party to this practice into two groups: Those who would have slain their babies in the womb if they had had any idea that raising them actually required effort and occasional inconvenience, and, having missed that chance are seizing upon the next best thing; and those who have been misled by a combination of ignorance and foul influences into this abomination.

This latter group consists of those who naively put their faith in voices speaking from alleged positions of authority in the education and medical industries, thus making the error of equating the authority attendant upon a position of power with the authority of expertise and worth. Unfortunately, these are two very different things. The fact that someone has power and/or prestige in the community does not mean that they are deserving of either. But that disconnect won’t stop such persons from advising an anxious parent. Such a parent, facing a tag-team approach from teachers and doctors (both of whose professions are shamelessly promoted by their own members and other symbiotic beneficiaries of institutional authority as knowledgeable and selfless), can be afforded some forgiveness for their errors.

The involvement of ‘educators’ in this tragedy is particularly ugly. Much of the time the impetus for this loathsome practice first arises when little Johnny is seen to be doing poorly in school, or is categorized as ‘disruptive’ in class. An objective observer would perceive that the problem is either curricula so utterly dumbed-down that little Johnny is bored out of his mind, or teachers so slothful and dull that they are unwilling or unable to creatively engage the bubbling exuberance and raw energy of healthy, curious, and alert young spirits. But rather than critically examine their own performance and/or fitness for their profession, the Procrustean ‘education establishment’ recommends that Johnny be drugged into a more manageable state.

Happily, there is now a growing revulsion to this crime which offers some promise of stemming its proliferation, and this American Academy of Pediatrics declaration is a bow, however reluctant and dissembling, to the trend. It is also a firebreak attempt, by which this group of scoundrels hopes to defuse a backlash that might threaten its ambitions to secure a firmer and broader position as an entrenched authority overseeing the general situation of children and child-rearing in the United States. (See The Perils of Pediatrics for more on this issue).

There might be a bright side to this tragic expression of cultural degeneracy if reaction to its excesses helps teach us some lessons with which we can regain our footing. Such as that unionized schools are the worst places in the country for children; that the medical and teaching professions are just industries and not sainthood apprenticeship programs; and that a child needs and deserves (and will reward) time and attention and sacrifice and patience…, things that only parents, not pills and not “the village”, can give.

Perhaps it’s time to end the welfare state that encourages single-parent families. Maybe we should forego some pet government programs so that spending, and consequently taxes, can be lowered enough that one of a kid’s parents can afford to stay home and raise the kids. Our children are watching and learning from our examples. Let’s show them the right way to go.

That study that you are refering to is flawed because all the test subjects were on stimulant therapy for extended periods of time.

You may know your own situation better than others do. Not everyone diagnosed with ADD is actually ADHD.

ADHD is as real as epilepsy/Tourette/other lifelong neurological challenges; regarding ADHD, there is a large question as to how many really belong to the ADHD population. Some researchers believe that ADHD is far smaller in percentages/numbers (2% or less) than some of the very high percentages/numbers given for ADHD which are frequently found in the general news media (3% or much greater).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADHD_Bulletin_Board/

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm

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[quote:0943155026=”mike”]<HTML>I am diagnosed ADD but I’m also just lazy, implusive, and speak without thinking. I haven’t seen significant evidence to prove that ADD exists. I really think that it’s a lack of motivation which causes me to have ADD symptoms.

Help me out guys, is this a sad case of denial? I read books on ADD and still don’t understand how it’s anything more than laziness/impulsive/unorganized behavior. What am I missing?</HTML>[/quote]

I think I’ve seen that article. I was quite outraged when I read that ADD doesn’t exist. That is BS! Just makes us ADD ers more misunderstood. We don’t need to hear that, especially since it’s not true. I know for a fact that it does exist. Add ers are not willfully inattentive, etc.