Smiles, you have it RIGHT on the money. Johnston county's percent of children diagnosed with ADHD/ADD went through the roof when the accountability policy went into place (having to pass EOG's, having to pass 3/4 of core classes, attend 90% of school days). Coincidence? I think not. My daughter's best friend really needs her medicine as does her little brother. I have had students who REALLY needed their medicine, and some, like you who were just average to bright kids who the parents drugged up in an attempt to improve their performance...they wanted AIG kids when nature/genetics didn't give their kids AIG brains. Unfortunately, some parents find that ADD meds don't cure another common malady LAZY or yet another one, SPOILED. Many kids do have an issue, though. I wish they could find the root cause. My opinion is that it is food-based...artificial ingredients and chemicals. It is a blessing that it isn't an issue I have had to deal with personally with my own kids and those who do have to work with it have my prayers and best wishes for success.
Interesting thread. My son was diagnosed in 2nd grade. He is now 14 going on 15. I took him to his pediatrician this past year and had him taken off Concerta. He has always had a bad attitude in school. He is smart as hell but also lazy as hell. He would prefer to hang out and play X-Box. Just this weekend we found he has been hiding his progress reports from us rather than show them to us. I personally don't beleive in most cases of ADHD. Most countries outside the US have low to non -existent incidences of the "disorder". Only in America are we under the impression that all kids(mostly boys) are ADHD. I probably would have been diagnosed but I was a straight A student. I took away all his stuff like TV, stereo etc for the remaider of the school year. His mom(my ex) is under some kind of notion that you give them a pill it makes them motivated, polite, compliant straight A students. She is an idiot(personal aside). I am not sure what to do with him now. He says he finds school boring. He says he feels like he doesn't has confidence in himself to suceed. I don't want to medicate him, his grades were not appreciably better on meds as off.
"School is boring." When has boring work been an excuse not to do the work? I hate doing dishes, it doesn't get any more boring, but they get done every night. I am not sure when in our history kids got the idea that everything was supposed to be fun and entertaining. My childhood had lots of fun parts, but it wasn't a fun from dawn to dusk continuum. I had daily chores and I worked in class at school. There was about 30 minutes of cartoons on tv when I got home...maybe. I wonder if part of the problem is that so many kids are used to sitting back and being passively entertained. 100 channels, instant videos, jokes and communication, video games.
I understand that many of you have very different opinions about this subject, and I also know that many parents are quick to try to drug their kids up in order to get them to behave well, get good grades, etc. I assure you that I am not one of those parents. My son was diagnosed by going through a LOT of testing, and trials of different methods. Don't get me wrong, he still talks too much, wiggles, and can be a rude little brat at times, but that is him being a normal 8 year old boy. I don't look to meds to make him behave, I look to them to help him control his body a little better than he could when he did not have them. My mother shoved Ritalin down my neck from the time I was 7 years old until I was around 16 and basically told her I was not willing tot ake them anymore, so I am the LAST one that will put my child on medication. He is truly in need of help for ADHD. Stone Cold, I know where you are coming from with your teen. I was the exact same way. Taking stuff away from them does no good unless you get them where it hurts. Like the Xbox maybe. He will get better as the meds wear out, they are addicting, and he is basically going through a complete system reprogram. The boredom is a normal teenager thing, and the self esteem will get better, just make sure you assure him he is not a bad person, just because he maay not make good grades, or is not the most popular kid in school, or whatever. He just needs to know that you accept him the way he is, and be patient, trust me it will get better. Keep a close eye out for suicidal thoughts though, the meds can have a strange effect on kids when they start to come off of them after being on them for so long. Good Luck hon.
I believe in add and adhd. I have lived it myself. My daughter was adhd when younger and couldnt focus. She was old enough to tell me that it felt like her brain was racing during the day. I would spank her until I felt like all I was doing all day was hitting her all the time. We tried Ritalin and all of sudden my child who couldnt focus was making all a's and b's. She went from d's and f's. I do wish I knew about diet and allergy testing back when she was younger. My friend's autistic child is on GFCF diet and has wonderful progess from being on it. Yes he is still autistic but when your child is handicap a's and b's don't mean squat. A happy calm child mean alot. twitch
What floors me about all of this stuff is we tell our kids to not do drugs and then hand them a pill that is either an upper or a downer. "Take your pills, little Johnny and don't do drugs." :? No wonder they are confused. My oldest, by the worlds standards, would be a prime candidate for this crap. Heck! All THREE of my boys would be! My oldest is very smart but very lazy (I relate Stone Cold) but he's 13! Gee....typical teenager! He can do well in school but most of it bores him to tears so he just blows some of it off. Last year was a nightmare for us with him. He almost flunked 7th grade. He can take a test and pass it with flying colors but doing his homework is another story. Yeah, I have to ride him quite hard about it but this year is much better........so far. My next one is 7. This is his first year in public school. My wife home schooled him for kindergarten. He is a great in math but getting him to read and write is a challenge. He is easily distracted and daydreams quite a bit. Well....guess what...so did I when I was his age! I chalk that up to a creative mind. When I daydreamed, I dreamed of flying, playing music, drawing, building things, etc, etc. Why in the world would I want to smother that? My youngest is 5. He is always the life of every party. He is goofy and likes attention ALL of the time. He is becoming like his oldest brother, though. He likes video games but he LOVES to learn new things. He is VERY active....but...HE'S 5 YEARS OLD! What 5 yr old boy is not active? All they want to do is play, play, play, play. It seems that he never stops talking but he is doing it to learn by asking all sorts of questions. Yup...give him a pill to calm him down. NO STINKIN' WAY! You can all give your kids all of these mind numbing pills and watch them turn into zombies and I will enjoy my overactive, creative and intelligent boys, thank you. Now...someone else can have my soapbox.
Blus, thats why I took him off the meds. It had no effect on his poor atittude. His issue with school has never been intellectual, it's atittude. So this time he screwed up and the iron fist came down. Like I said, study the rates of ADHD in other countries compared to the U.S. If it so prevalent here why not everywhere else? My thought, teachers unions and a desire to suppress men in our soceity starting at a young age.(most cases os ADHD are in boys)
I have seen a wonderful improvement since my daughter started taking ritalin several years ago. Your right most boys are the ones diagnosed with add and adhd. But when your 7 year old comes to you and tells you she can't slow down her brain it is sad. The medicine works great for her and when we started I felt the same way but her attitude and desire to achieve has greatly improved. Along with medication we changed her diet some so that she wouldnt need alot of medicine. I hate when I see parents have there kids on medication when a little change in sweets will do the trick. Dont' judge folks if they give medicine for a little a bit of calm. , you havent walked in there shoes so to speak. twitch
Good point. So...you have been though the 13 yr old rebellious stage already. Did you have the urge to string him up by his testicles a few times? I had a sit down talk with him when he turned 13. He is in that stage of noticing girls quite well, now, so it was time for the "talk". Especially when some of his "buddies" at school gave him some real interesting web sites to check out! :shock: I told him that he was my guinea(sp) pig. He has never been a 13 yr old boy before and I have never been the father of a 13 yr old boy before, either. So, we were going to learn together on how to get along and how to deal with each other through these times of rebellion. He is a slob (like any teenager) and would rather spend his time playing his PS2 rather than anything else. Being a musician, I am trying to get him into music. I bought him a drum set and three guitars (so far....I can't help it...I find a good deal and get it. How many people would pass up a Gibson Les Paul for $30?). He wants to have guitar lessons but they are a bit expensive and I can teach him drums but he does not want to take the time to learn either one. He is starting to get into music which I praise but watch what he listens to. No rap, no death metal, etc ,etc. He does like AC/DC, however. It's funny......I dig out some of my old 80's metal and he loves it! He also likes JOCO (props to ya Shane!), a local band. At least we are relating on some things. Anyway....enough rambling.
There are alot of medical conditions that deal with electrical impulses in the brain misfiring; epilepsy and schizophrenia. Do ya'll believe in them. ADD and ADHD are very real, maybe over stated, over used, and over labeled, but these conditions do exist.
I have mentioned before that I work in mental health (I'm a therapist). It might surprize some of you to hear that I also believed that ADHD is over-diagnosed and that there are a lot of children on medication who don't need it. When I started seeing signs of ADHD in my son, I was skeptical that he had a diagnosable problem, and I held out on getting him evaluated. But, as in Twitch's case, something happened that convinced me he needed more than behavioral interventions (and believe me, I tried them all!; all the humane ones, anyway). Now, with proper care from a psychiatrist, he can make good grades, behave himself, have friends, feel good about himself, and basically be a normal kid. These things were not happening before treatment. And, if I forget to give him his dose in the morning, everyone will know. Diagnosing mental illness is not an exact science and I am sure that some people abuse the system. It also may be that ADHD is over-diagnosed. However, many children are functioning well and feeling good because they are receiving medications for this disorder, which, whether you believe it or not, does exist when a person's brain produces too much of a certain chemical in a certain area of the brain. Other reasons ADHD is diagnosed (and treated) more now than ever before include: better awareness of the disorder (among clinicians and the general public) and poorer diet, and probably other environmental factors. I sure do appreciate reading everyone's thoughts on this topic. Knowing how other's think and feel about this can only help me to be better at what I do. Snuffleufogous
I am the director/instructor of Reins From Above Therapeutic Riding Center. We have alot of students with ADHD and horseback riding really helps. Please go to our website www.reinsfromabove.org and read under Benefits etc. If there is anything I can do to help, feel free to contact me.
Silky, Yes neurological disorders exist. ADD I beleive is over diagnosed because it is easier to deal with little zombies than it is to deal with normal energetic kids. Blus......Are you raising my son? He is king of the slobs. His personal hygiene is often suspect. He is into music, listening not playing. I took him to Ozzfest this year with my 19 year old. He would rather play xbox than study. He has been hiding his progress reports. His most recent had a 38 in animal science. That isnt even an F! So he isn't too abnormal from many 14 year olds. It's been so long I don't remember
Heh! It was in pretty bad shape but I put it back to playing condition. I put new tuning pegs on it, new pickups (open face humbuckers), new trim rings, new nut, new volume and tone knobs, new pick guard, etc. It had been dropped faily hard on the tail end so it was cracked a bit. It did not hurt the tone at all but I used wood glue and clamps to put it back together. It still needs a cover for the back over the volume and tone pots. The trim around the pickups and the knobs were either cracked, broken or gone. The pickups were rusted as were the strings. The tuning pegs were the old plastic one's and were either broken off or cracked. Let me just say.....ebay is my friend! I think after the initial $30, we have about another $60 in it. It's still not the prettiest guitar but it plays very well.
DANG! Are we related? :lol: My son did the same thing last year (progress reports). This year has been different, so far. He is doing a bit better this time around. He is carrying a B average right now, which I am happy with. I told him he could not play football this year because of his grades last year. That put a burr in his butt. I told him that if he wanted to play ANY sports, my rule was an B average and not one grade below that. He has had a few C's but no D's or F's this year except for a test that he did not know about because he was out the day they announced it and did not study for it. The teacher allowed him to make it up and he got a B on it. I am very proud of him but he still grates me to no end sometimes.
Just a side note... thanks for all you guys do there! I work with children with special needs as well.
Blus and Stonecold, A poor attitude is not a symptom of ADHD. A defiant attitude combined with disruptive behaviors falls under a different diagnosis, ODD (sorry about the alphabet soup.) ADHD medicines aren't going to help that problem, and any qualified psychiatrist should know that. Just Horsin Around, Love what you're doing. Is there any chance that kids with ADHD can participate in caring for the horses? That would do wonders for their self-esteem. Snuff
