ADHD doesnt exist, page 3

I relate to where Skyfloating is coming from. I don't necessarily agree entirely, primarily because I'm wary of all-encompassing statements, such as "ADHD doesn't exist."

I think the propensity toward measuring such a condition is vastly overrated, however I also believe that it occurs.

At age seven, I was diagnosed as having ADHD. They called it something else then -- I don't really recall the exact term -- and Ritilin -- Methylphenidate -- was prescribed. I was forced to take it, and take it I did. My Dad, from the start, had decided that I simply didn't have enough outlets for my energies, and declared that we'd both add another hour to our nightly activities.

At that time, Dad and I were building Jack fences across a steep hill, and down in the valley below. We drug the rails with two horses, and set the jacks and rail by hand with spikes drived into the rails.

Dad declared that we'd work from the time he got home to 7:00 p.m., have dinner and then work another hour or so.

I tried so damned hard to sit still in class. It drove me crazy(er) and I was reported on several occassions to the principal. I felt like what the teacher was saying was OBvious, and that it was mundane and boring and worthless. I had "crazy legs". I Can't Stop My Leg - Robert Klein

So, the extra work made me more tired, and I went to bed with less resistance, but it didn't solve the "problem", apparently. I was given Ritialin and my Dad stopped me from having to take it after two weeks of taking it because he said I'd turned into a spud (that was the Idahoan term for zombie

)

I don't recall how it all resolved. My memory is of being out of school for two weeks, and that time rubbed up against deer hunt, in which we were allowed to be out of school for a week. Right after that, I went back to school, and I don't recall so much in the way of school problems. Dad continued to drive us both after school to build jackfences. We laid nearly six miles of the damn things that year.

I would not attempt to pose my situation as being comparative toward others diagnosed with ADHD, because I really don't know how it compares, or even is such a thing is worthy of pondering. I know this though......... My father intuitively did the right thing, and the situation ironed itself out.

I think that it's possible that kids (and adults!) today perhaps don't have the physical outlets available to exORcise their energies. Physicians prescribe drugs for every imaginable condition. To me, it's a shotgun approach, sometimes -- a treating of probabilities.

I believe at the very least, that some diagnosed with ADHD could be treated with non-med therapy. I know that it worked for me.

Of course........................ I still have "crazy legs". So it goes.