Paper 4 Draft 2: ADHD

This is an article that tries to explain the reasoning behind the increased diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. The author believes it can be explained by the increased usage of the internet. This may be so, but I have a different point of view:

I teach karate to kids every week. It’s easy to observe when they are and are not paying attention. When we are doing something that they enjoy, they give all their focus and energy to the lesson, and they do a great job. When I’m leading them in something not as fun, something they don’t wan’t to do, they tend to not give forth their best effort because, quite simply; they don’t even want to be doing it. Similarly, when one of them begins talking to me about something that interests them; a TV show, an interaction with a friend of theirs, I can’t relate. 

     Their interests are captivated by things that I couldn’t relate to. I would not be able to sit through an episode of a children’s show, but nobody points a finger at me saying I have a “disorder”. We force all children to a school, often a very stressful and horrible environment from their perspective, and expect them to focus on readings and mathematic concepts that they just don’t care about, and when they can’t focus on these lessons, we wonder why. Our solution is to tell the kids that theres something wrong with them and give them pills to take. 

This situation is only getting worse. According to the CDC, Rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of approximately 5% per year from 2003 to 2011, an exponential increase. It is true that with the rise of the digital era, everybody tends to become more easily distracted. This is natural among all people who participate in the new phenomenon, not children alone. What is not natural, however, is to give children a tranquilizer to calm them down, rather than to let their personalities shine and guide them with classic parenting techniques.

       Also, the side effects of common ADHD medicines often outweigh the initial intention of the prescription. Side effects often include Sleep problems, Decreased appetite, Delayed growth, Headaches, stomachaches, Moodiness, and irritability when medicine wears off (Child Mind). It has been found that when a child is taken off such medications, they return to their normal self, and feel much better overall. Why give these children a medication that will cause them more severe problems than they had in the first place?

Every person is different. That means not everybody has the same interests, and we all know that it’s much easier to focus on something when you’re passionate about it. As for the diagnosis of ADHD, medicine is a business, and why not treat it as such, right? We all know how the economy has been, and everybody could use extra business, so why turn it down if we don’t have to, no matter who’s at stake?
        Don’t get me wrong, of course we can’t simply let our children act however they want, this is never the case. But, this kind of over diagnosis is not the solution. Although medicine is of course necessary in many situations for children and all other people, this may not always be one of them. We must guide the youngest generation of people in the right direction by parenting them, teaching them how to behave, not by giving them medicine and expecting the pills to do the parenting for us.
We could read off the list of symptoms for ADHD and say most of the kids in the world have it. When a child is diagnosed, the parents are given a prescription and that seems like an easy fix. Everybody is satisfied. The parents feel they have a solution, the doctor thanks them for the business, and the kid thinks somethings wrong with them, but doesn’t really care. Heres my diagnosis; All kids are indeed kids, and kids will be kids. Treatment: Let them be kids

Boorady, Roy. "Get Informed." Side Effects of ADHD Medication. Child Mind Institure. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2012-2-7-side-effects-adhd-medication>.

"Data & Statistics." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html>.