High school teacher (grade 9) one of my best students got diagnosed with "muh ADHD" this week. Here's what he told me.
The doctor (a GP) gave him a list of ten questions. It went something like this:
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Do you sometimes struggle to finish tasks?
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Do you sometimes have problems paying attention in class?
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Do you sometimes get bored?
Who the F is going to say no to any of this? Anyway, he got diagnosed with muh ADHD and now he's on pills, probably for life. The pills he gets are amphetamines by the way. Yes, really.
I'm a fucking teacher and I get bored by my class sometimes. Guess I need speed too.
This is 90%+ student by the way. Imagine diagnosing a complex mental condition (if it even exists) in five minutes, tops, and then being put on pills for life.
Absolutely disgusting.
welcome to modern medicine, especially when it comes to brain stuff.
personally, I think having ADHD is really just having mild autism, the kind that can be channeled into high productivity and intelligence given
A) the right kind of support and nourishment from the student's environment, and
B) proper motivation from the student himself.
by giving him pills, I think his doctors, his parents, and the school are failing him in a spectacularly catastrophic way. Requirement A is obliterated because now The faculty can simply solve problems with the student by telling him to take his pills, no adjustment in teaching style, no accommodation of his needs, just making him docile with drugs. Requirement B is also summarily executed because the pills will create a dependence and the student will never learn to regulate his thoughts and emotions without outside intervention.
Most of the adults I've met with low success in life got an ADHD diagnosis, and are subsequently on brain meds of some kind. the longer they've been on these meds, the worse their ability to function without them is (withdrawal? that's only for illegal drugs!!). Simultaneously, their ADHD diagnosis is treated as vindication. "I'm not a fuck up, my brain just sucks!".
getting an ADHD diagnosis is probably one of the worst things you can do to a child, not because """ADHD""" will ruin their life, but because the treatment will.