He ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a disorder that affects an increasing number of children and adults. Such is the increase in cases that the question arises as to whether it is possible that there is an overdiagnosis of this disorder.
In the US, for example, the number of children suffering from it has increased by 22% over a period of four years, which means that now one in ten children is diagnosed with ADHD.
That said it sounds enormously alarming, however it is very possible (and it is said in the National Center for Congenital Defects and Developmental Disabilities in the US) that this increase in cases is due in large part to the fact that there are now fewer children undiagnosed than years back, when it is suspected that many children suffered from the disorder without being scarcely assessed.
Now, one in ten children is equivalent to 10% of children and that is many children (5.4 million children aged 4 to 17 in the US) for a disease whose diagnosis is uncertain.
Is ADHD true?
Or put another way, is there such a disorder or is it an invention that brings many economic benefits to treating and medicating healthy people?
I wish I had a documented and scientifically based answer to that question, however I don't have it, because today it is almost impossible to prove that the ADHD It is not a disease, just as it is impossible to prove that it is.
The diagnosis of this disorder is based on interviews and questionnaires to children and people around them and this makes room for the subjectivity of each professional. On some occasions, encephalograms are performed, however the objective of this test is not to show that the child suffers from a hyperactivity disorder, but to rule out that the symptoms are due to some other condition that is demonstrable with this test (I will shortly post an entry with the methods used to diagnose ADHD, for those who want more information on this topic).
As I cannot prove that it is an invention, nor that it is a real condition, I will leave my opinion, in case anyone is interested: ADHD exists, but there are many diagnosed children who do not suffer from it.
The overdiagnosis of ADHD
Nature is not infallible and sometimes makes mistakes. These errors cause that there are sick children, with malformations, with heart problems, with a pancreas unable to regulate the glucose that the body receives, among many other ailments. Being aware that some children suffer from diseases and disorders in some of their systems, it is illogical to think that their nervous systems or their brains cannot also be affected and produce disorders such as ADHD.
However, the symptoms of this disorder (being too distracted or too active) can originate in many ways and these do not have to be related to the nervous system of children. In the view of any person or professional, children with such symptoms may appear to be children with hyperactivity and / or attention deficit and be diagnosed as such and, nevertheless, the "treatment" of onset should be to try to find the source of the problem, the root, and act on it.
By this I mean that there are children with significant problems of living together, with separated parents, with social and economic problems, with parents who have never been too present in their education, with parents who have been too present to the point of canceling the children. children, children with lower-than-average learning abilities that give the sensation of being absent and suffer from attention deficit (as I do not hear, do not listen) or who are too disturbed for the same reason (as I do not know, play) or Children with higher than average learning abilities who behave in the same way (as I know it by heart and get bored, I don't listen ... or play) that, as I say, end up behaving in a way that attracts attention, without it being Sample of no physical disorder of their own.
Other factors that help overdiagnosis
Customs change rapidly and what we adults live in our time is very different from what children are now living. It is very likely that the differences between one and the other are less accepted today. All children (and adults) must live in a narrow margin within which they can be considered normal, those who do not resemble others or act according to the established social order ("your child is very moved, are rejected? no? "," your son is very shy, isn't he?)
Years ago the street was our playground. There we burned calories and literally burned ourselves. Now the play areas have been reduced to the parks, where many children are not comfortable because of the number of children who come together, and to the same house, where the possibilities are limited because "you bother the neighbors", "you make too much noise", "let's see if you sit down to paint". This has made many children, charged with energy (there are tireless), come to be considered heavy, upset and too moved by the simple fact of not having a space to release such energy.
On the other hand, we must bear in mind that many children live with some emotional deficiencies because "dad and mom work too much", because when they are at home they "barely play with me", because "instead of sitting down to read me a story they put me on TV, "because" when I ask them to play with me, they buy me toys to play alone "or even" because they just had a baby and me, now, they don't love me anymore. " All these situations are common and does not mean that it is a conscious action of the parents, but there is, on the part of the children, a strange feeling of helplessness, which Some of them try to solve by attracting the attention of parents.
At first, the attention of dad and mom is achieved by calling them, however many times it does not work, so trying other strategies children realize that "when something falls, something breaks, something stains, when I do a lot of noise, when I annoy my little sister and when I appear without being expected and disappear when they wait for me, dad and mom are for me.
At this point the situation may become encystic to the point that the child ends up getting used to living in this way and the parents do not leave the dynamics of reproaches and punishments, thus offering the attention that the child seeks and needs (and not a healthier way for the whole family).
Over time, logically, parents will seek professional help "because our child is impossible" and many of them will show that they really are, making everyone believe that, "no doubt, this must be some neurological problem."
In addition, for tastes the colors
Finally, we only have to comment on a matter of taste. Many adults like to work sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day, many others like, however, to be behind a counter serving the public and many others like to work abroad, walking the streets, without the obligation to spend long hours still in a closed place.
Not all people could do all the jobs and there is who would be tremendously unhappy sitting eight hours at a table, as there are who it would be if I had to be in the street, looking for clients or running errands.
Just as there are adults with these tastes, children can also have their preferences and of the 20 or 25 children who are part of the class, sure more one is unable to remain seated all the time because, simply, I would rather be in the yard or doing more dynamic games. That is, not all children have to like the dynamics of the school and what they explain there and, as a dissatisfied person, they usually let them know, trying to carry out what they would like to be doing.
The problem is that, as I said, diversity takes very little care and, if there are only two or three who try to do different things, better try to make them go through the hoop and get used to doing what they do not want , that exploit their energy and redirect their desire to do more dynamic things in order to discover their talents (not everyone has to end up working in an office, right?) and empower them.
Photos | Architopher, DigiSmile STL (aka Rob n Amy C) on Flickr In Babies and more | The early separation of the mother could cause hyperactivity in children, One in four diagnoses of hyperactivity is wrong, Attention deficit and hyperactivity are not a problem of will
