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Who caused you to become ADD ?

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Did you ever think of who caused you to have ADHD ? What do you think of the person today ? I am just interested in your input. Actually, I am writing a paper and I was doing it on ADHD and what is a factor in causing ADHD in one person but not the other. Thank you.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/10/2003 - 4:02 AM

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I am unsure of what you’re asking. ADHD is hereditary unless maybe it is a result of a brain injury. But then I would guess that the person would be labeled as “brain injured with inattention and hyperactivity” and not necessarily ADD because to be diagnosed with ADD, from what I understand, is that the symptoms must have also occured in childhood. My father and uncle most likely had ADD and their brother was bipolar. I am from a family of 8 - and at least 2 of us have been dx with ADD and another was bipolar. Luck of the draw, I guess.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/12/2003 - 6:22 AM

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Funny, I think this is a child writting this question. Ya think??
Sort of reminds me of the question,” what caused you to become gay”?
HAHA Oh well. That really is what it made me think of.
So this is a kid who wants to understand what AD/HD is all about.
Maybe another web site would help give some background. Maybe www.addvance.com or www.chadd.org

Ann B.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/19/2003 - 12:21 AM

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Hi
I too am not sure what you mean by who caused you to become ADHD?

If you want a one word answer it is Nature.
perhaps the question you need to ask is more why is it so important in this day and age to anyone who is not made the way of a person with ADHD?
Or even more Why is it imprtant to be diagnosed with ADHD?
Then perhaps we could begin to see that people are different and we all have different gifts to offer the world.

When I was a child many years ago people who had ADHD were treated as naughty people along with Dyslexic people or they were treated as stupid and pushed out of society.
We are more enlightened now and we are begining to understand that people are different yet we still expect everyone to fit into social moulds. To sit quietly, to consentrate, to take interest in what is being said.

Perhaps the question is not so daft after all. Are you asking the question that really is saying Who diagnosed a person with ADHD and why did they diagnose this person, who gains from the diagnoseis and the following drug dosage to still the mind?

Why do we need people who nature makes differently minded fit into old moulds and old ways of being are we holding the future of mankind back by making our children conform to social norms?
Very radical thinking I beleave you will be thinking right now. Well perhaps it is? I am the sister of a baby girl who did not sleep for the first 3 years of her life and my mother was given sleeping drafts for her baby so that she could get some sleep. She was exausted while my sister was board and exploring the universe she had just entered. Luckly for her she had a mother father and two grown up sisters who could share the load of ensuring that my sister was safe and my mother got some sleep.
I am talking about balance here. Balance of careing and balance of being. My understanding is that we do not have balance of careing in our society so we cannot have balance of being.
In our schools we expect 1 teacher to teach 30 or more children and keep them in control similarly we expect parents to care for and to take full responsibility for their children with out giving them the full support that they need.
So the child who is different and especially one who is disruptive we diagnose with a mind disorder. Why? It seems to me so that the parent, or teacher can get the help that they most surly need to restore balance.

So my dear ann b my answer to your question is those who need help and support in looking after the person who is differently minded.
It should be that the help that comes with the diagnosis should be there any way but it is not. It seems to me that we should not need to alter a persons mind with drugs if only we could educate as the french educator Jean Jaques Rousseau advocated children be aloud to learn by following their interest to it’s limit of their imagination rather than controling what and when they learn.
Perhaps this could be the begining of the move to life long learning in which the child is engaged in their own development from child to adult. From helplessness to full functioning socially engaged adult.

Your devils advocate Dyslexic who was labled
Demici

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/22/2003 - 3:12 PM

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Hello there…Discussing causality in ADD/ADHD is an empty search. Causes are multiple and intertwined… not to be teased apart. Best to focus on what aspects of the condition can be remediated and which ones accommodated. Look at the questions you pose and ask if they are answerabale. Even “what” caused the condition isn’t answerable… genetics… environment… temperment… all of it together. Dr. M

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/22/2003 - 3:53 PM

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Well, I’m 24 and I was officially diagnosed with ADHD when I was 18. I had been hyperactive and borderline aggressive my entire life, and it was good to know that I wasn’t suffering from depression as my doctor had initially thought. My father is manic depressive (bipolar) and my uncle from the same side of the family has ADHD as well. I know that these disorders are hereditary, and I have a brother who is “completely normal”. In addition to mood disorders being linked genetically, I also believe that some just have a predisposition for these things. It depends lots on the temperment of the individual. This has to do with the severity of the ADHD-there is probably a little ADHD in everyone, but as to whether it affects everyone in the same way really depends on the individual. I guess that doesn’t make all that much sense, but I do oftentimes wonder why I’m bouncing off the walls and my brother is so even all of the time.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/29/2003 - 6:09 AM

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It was definitely my family. They were bad examples.

My brother got lost all them time and would have to call my parents to pick him up. He couldn’t pass the machinist’s test even though he worked as a machinist and tested at 140+ IQ (“+” because you break the scale on the test if you get them all right).

My Dad broke his arm playing ping pong and lost his finger in a factory machine. He keeps making excuses for not retiring.

My grandma won’t stay seated even though she doesn’t have good balance anymore. She was on chemotherapy for multiple kinds of cancers and still managed to catch up to the neighbor boy on the lawn mower FROM BEHIND to tell him he was going too fast.

My great grandma broke her arm at 96 years old chasing cows.

There’s a legend about one of my ancestors, a 6 ft. Cherokee woman. In the 1790’s, she married a trapper and lived in a cabin w/ his brothers. She tried to get them to check if a bear was outside one night and they made fun of her. The next morning, the bear was found beaten to death with a frying pan. Probably not true, but this story showed up in a Foxfire book w/ the right names. If anything, it shows that this woman was feisty enough to make a name for herself and a bad example for me.

My sister saw me at a friend’s wedding and started to tell me how much I looked like her sister. She missed her sister-in-law’s wedding because the name of the Portland, Oregon airport is NOT Portland Maine…no, wait, she’s just ditsy.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/11/2003 - 4:10 AM

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I think I understand the question. If i do then that means I have ADHD more then you guys hehe.

I have often blamed my mother. Not that she gave it to me but she surely contributed to how bad it is with me. I never knew untol I was diagnosed and she was gone, that it was inherited. See, she is not my real mother.

So many of the things she did, I passed on to my kids. Had she known that I had ADHD forst she would have ignored it because it would have embarrassed her. She was the type that would say to me before going to someones house “look and act smart”

Anyway i do belioeve that she contributed a great deal to how I could have been abd how I am.
Boy, have I been painting a bad picture of myself tonight.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 05/22/2004 - 12:42 PM

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how? hard experiences and bad times. :twisted:
i think i was misdiagnosed. i have been off ritalin for over a year. i’m fairly sure i’m severely depressed but I don’t want to go for help.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 05/22/2004 - 10:43 PM

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ADD runs in my family, I can see it everywhere. My cousin OD’d on cocaine, which he was using to escape the misery of not understanding his own ADD brain. Looking back, it’s influenced my personality and choices as far back as I can recall. If it’s genetic, I guess that’s between me and God, since my parents had no idea what it was when they had me.

Mind you, we don’t yet know if the upswing in diagnosis of ADD is simply due to better diagnosis, or if it is actually increasing - perhaps due to environmental toxins and their effects on the body, before and after birth. In which case, that’s between me and everyone else on this planet.

What do I think? I’m a pragmatist - I think I should get on with living my life as best I can, making my life and that of those I influence better if I can. Blame is a waste of time. 8)

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