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.
It also an extremely poorly named condition.
Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder... when the people most hurt by the condition lack neither attention nor are particularly hyperactive.
It's the executive function problems that are crippling, but go unnoticed. Because rather than seeing a kid who has mental blocks on doing tasks, even tasks they enjoy, as someone in need of help, the kid is seen as lazy. Seen as lazy when the problem is actual brain damage.
Very much so. Another huge part of the condition is the mental disorganization and management of information, memory, etc.
Which understandably can exhibit as problems with attention and hyperactive behavior, but it's a name that merely describes the observable effects, not the core symptoms/issues.