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Death bed confession: ADD/ADHD is a hoax.

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posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 01:20 AM
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Alright, time to deal with this subject again...I know, all the posters that say ADD/ADHD is fake are medical experts and their opinion is right just because.

Now for a small story of reality:

When I was 7 I was diagnosed by a child psychiatrist with hyperactivity. This was in the mid-70's so the term ADD/ADHD was not as common as it is today. My parents decided not to treat it and to follow the same path of the "wise" anti-add posters in this thread and just use good old fashioned discipline and diet. Of course, neither of those did anything, and to those who have stories about how it did, the people involved in your stories did not have ADHD in the first place.

I forgot about the diagnosis and went about my life. It was a rough life and as I look back I can see how the ADHD effected my life negatively. It effected every part of my life from personal decisions to education. Imagine having your thought process constantly fragmented and thinking it was normal, like the anti-ADHD folks in this thread think it is.

A few ago, I was suffering from chronic insomnia and nothing my doctor(s) tried solved it. At times I thought I was going crazy from the tug of war between the desire to sleep and the fact my brain could not rest. It was a battle almost every night.
In my search for answers, I found that ADHD is a cause for insomnia and the light bulb went off. I told my doctor about the diagnosis when I was seven and after a couple of test he started treatment for ADHD.

This completely changed my life. My insomnia started to fade, I still struggle with it but not anywhere near as bad as it was before. My mind started clearing and I was able to focus my thoughts.
I had gone back to college before this and it was struggle, after treatment many of the issues had been reduced. Simple things like sitting though a lecture, even if I was interested, used to be so hard without moving around in my seat excessively or my mind becoming a blur. After treatment, It was a breeze compared to before.
My business has expanded and I am taking on projects I never could have before.

But then again, I guess it is not real disease and the decades of research are all lies.


I am glad my doctor depended on REAL MEDICAL RESEARCH and not the uneducated opinions on the internet.
Here's a thought, why not actually do some research on the subject, you might be surprised.

Is ADHD over diagnosed? Absolutely, but that does not mean it does not exist.

Do diet and discipline treat it? Nope, neither treats the Dopamine deficiency that is ~80% of the cause.
If you have a story where it did, like I said before, they did not have ADHD in the first place.
edit on 9-12-2013 by Dreamwatcher because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 05:30 AM
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I truly believe that Ritalin ruined my life.

I was on it from ages 5 to 10 and went through heavy social lunacy when withdrawing from it. I continue to suffer from social differences and inadequacies as well as learning and memory issues due to the time I was DRUGGED in my most formative years.

I believe that medicating children in this way is without exception, the WORST thing this society has done to me and to the population on a grand scale. And I will never forgive this.

Please, do not ever consider giving this to your children. It's not a condition or a disorder and yes, it's your fault they are like this. If you can't be there to properly give them the attention and care they need, even if that means taking them out of the authoritative public school regiment and homeschooling, then you need to consider letting someone else raise them.



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 06:56 AM
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Pay no attention (heh heh..) people! This guy didn't know what he was talking about. He obviously had a severely debilitating form of ADD/ADHD... Poor guy. Now stop all this yammering! It's for the children dammit! You wouldn't dare speak out against something with a "For the Children!" label on it, now, would you??

I think the reason for all the sudden diagnoses over the past century of things like depression, anxiety, stress, bipolar, add/adhd etc. is that, deep down, people know, in their hearts, that things are not right with our society. I could list off several examples of what I think is wrong, but I don't want to spotlight any one or two or twenty things. But I do think it would help to look into the past to try to determine when these mental issues began to surface and what was different then as compared to now. I think that would be a good starting point. I also think that, for some of these conditions, it indicates that the person is actually somehow better or more advanced in some ways because they are the ones who notice it the most how sick our society really is. I have not.been diagnosed with anything, btw. This is just what I think.



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 09:26 AM
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webedoomed

ChesterJohn

95% of those who used Ritalin as a child have been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder as adults.


That would be an nuke of a statistic if it were true.

I don't suppose you have a source to back that one up, do you?

I'd be the destroyer of all RX if it could be backed.


I did read it some where and I will do a search for it.

But we could do our own poll to find out who among those diagnosed with Bi=polar syndrome took Ritalin as a child.

Personally I know it to be true. 20 of my friends in Elementary and high school that took Ritalin are ALL diagnosed with Bi-polar syndrome today. I mean everyone of them. and that is 100% of the 20 of my friends. It didn't click until I read the peer review article that I quoted the percentage from.



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 09:46 AM
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posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 10:23 AM
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dlbott
There is no disease, did we not read the OP. I have known this for years. I have seen it happen with friends and my grandson. He is just a normal kid. His mother does not discipline him correctly or give him proper attention in his younger years. Left to his own devices, that and his constant eating junk food.

Here you have the classic example of a young man who is normal and just needs an adjustment in his diet, proper exercise, love and discipline. Today kids don't get true exercise, they just sit in front of video games. They don't run and jump and play cowboys and Indians etc. This kind of exercise uses their minds and imagination and does much more than give them a workout.


Exactly. Someone asked my nephew if he played sports. His reply - "Yes! I play the Wii!"

*smacks head*

Parenting isn't easy, but drugging kids shouldn't be easy either...



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 12:03 PM
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reply to post by Dreamwatcher
 


Ok so you agree that it is wildly over diagnosed. So in many cases, it truly is non-existent in the children being medicated for it. To me, that is a huge problem when parents are being taken ti court and being threatened to have their kids taken away.

As for your statement that neither diet nor discipline can help a dopamine deficiency, 2 minutes on the search engine taught me that mild to moderate dopamine deficiency can be fixed with diet and exercise. Would this be a good time for me to make some snide remark towards you followed by that one emoticon that looks like a retard so as to indicate thatyou are a retard, as you just did to everybody here?

Sure, you could have had a severe dopamine deficiency that would not have been fixed without meds... Buuut...that not what you said. You said neither diet not discipline can do anything to treat a dopamine deficiency.

I guess that's what happens when you trust all those decades of "REAL MEDICAL RESEARCH" instead of take 2 minutes to do at least a very minimal amount of your own research.

0 isnt it crazy how all those DECADES of REAL RESEARCH were wrong when they said that the earth was flat or the earth was the center of the universe? (just the two examples that came to mind but we all know I could go on with more, and more recent, examples of "decades-long beliefs") But....I'm a little confused...just a little bit ago, you made it sound as if anything that has been going on for decades is infallible.
That being said, I am sorry for what you have had to deal with. I never said "add/adhd does not exist", so I guess I am not a part of that "crowd" you speak of which includes the Father of ADD himself. I simply believe it is A) wildly and irresponsibly overdiagnosed, and B) grossly misunderstood as to nearly aspect of it, including its label.



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 12:16 PM
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I call BS and BS on everyone who denies the existence of ADHD.

Yeas its over diagnosed and probably used allot as a excuse for lazy teachers to drug kids up.


But something is there.

My uncle back in the 1970's before it became hip had it. This was before it was really understood and proper treatment came in. It took 3X the adult dose of Diazepam to even slightly sedate him a five year old.
It was eventually controlled (mostly) by diet, though not perfectly.



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 01:04 PM
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Sorry guys I guess my thread "Please reply if you are Bi-polar" was against the T&C. I was not informed which term I violated or did I receive a warning before getting a warning without knowing what I was getting warned about.

Anyway, from some of the results we could see there was connection to some but for the majority there was none we could really connect Ritalin use to Bi-polar disorder.



edit on 9-12-2013 by ChesterJohn because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 02:31 PM
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I have two young kids and because of that I know some little kids and most of them are fairly well behaved. But there are a couple of them... I suppose if they (the school or the parents) tried to do so they could get them diagnosed with ADD(h)D of some sort.

They are unruly, can't sit still for a minute, act out, don't obey the teachers at all, disrupt class, so on and so on. And so on. I don't allow them in my house, let's put it that way.

The thing is these kids are most definitely NOT ADD(h)D - they are bored and extremely smart.

But as a consequence of being extremely smart and bored and adept at playing their naive parents they have become evil little sh#s in desperate need of an occasional slap across the face- that they don't get.

WRT ADD being a fake disease, I imagine the deathbed confession was in no way attempting to claim that the mental condition can't or hasn't ever occurred, know what I mean?



posted on Dec, 9 2013 @ 11:45 PM
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It's certainly easy to dismiss something you are not personally afflicted with. It's akin to stars and athletes who are oblivious to charity or health care issues until their own kin are afflicted, and suddenly, they are a poster-child for whatever it is their child has. Ignorance, meet Bliss.

I had issues for years and years. No idea what it was. I felt it was me. Smart or clever that I was, I had symptoms I could not understand or explain. Let me give you an example.

I'm a system engineer. I do computer networking, set up our firewalls for construction sites, am responsible for network security, etc. Perhaps not brain surgery, but requires some modicum of intelligence I'd think. But on a daily basis.. for 20.. 30 years.. I've had to deal with issues stemming from... I had no idea. Every.. single.. day.. I have to deal with this. I can literally be on the phone with someone saying they need "X done.. and as soon as I hang up, I am finishing up something else I was doing.. and I forget entirely that that person called.. that I have to fix it. It's just gone. I get distracted at a moments notice. I multi-task not only out of necessity, but because that's just how my brain works. I will be literally working on something specific that needs done, and something else I needed to do pops in my head and I'll swap windows and start working on that. It makes -no- sense, whatsoever. I can change tasks within moments.. over and over and over again.

Someone can talk to me directly, and I MUST forcibly concentrate on what they are saying. Because within moments otherwise, my mind is off thinking about something else. That isn't an "oddity" - it's something different entirely. I can focus back and realize I just missed about 40 seconds of a conversation, or more. I have an entire laundry-list of weird symptoms I had no idea what it meant. I assumed it was just my "personality." I had heard of ADD before, but I dismissed it, and really didn't even know what it was about, until a few years ago.. and I am 47.

One day when I was talking with someone online, I was describing the things that afflict me on a daily basis. The person said "I have a relative with ADHD.. you should check it out, seriously." I did. I took one of those online tests, answering as accurately as I could. I read the symptoms. I read forums. And it correlated perfectly. Almost to a letter, exactly what I was experiencing were listed as ADD / ADHS symptoms. Light bulb came on....

I have not had a professional diagnosis. I rarely go to doctors, and I really don't like taking meds. I am not taking anything for this.. but I am seriously thinking about it. To here some of you so callously dismissing this as a mirage or a ploy by big pharm irks me. I have no doubt about this.. call it whatever you want. ADD, ADHS, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain.. whatever. Something is wrong, it's not normal. You try living with this.. every.. single.. day.. and tell me it's a phantom illness. It's not.

It makes my job twice as hard as it needs to be. I have had to make -extensive- notes, appointments, and have to force myself to concentrate on items to get them done. I've had to alter my life to deal with this. It has nothing to do with IQ, or personality. Just a couple of days ago, I picked up my lunch (which I forget about 80% of the time), and locked the front door.. and walked towards my car.. and tossed my lunch and the trash into the bin and went to work, not realizing it until much later. Normal? No.. it's not.

You try dealing with this crap every single day and then we can talk. Otherwise, your obsessive hatred of big pharm (which I also loathe to some degree) is clouding your opinion. There is no specific "thing" to hone in on. So.. like unicorns, it must be mythical? I wonder if a thousand or two years about, people acted like you. No definitive proof of a disease or ailment.. so it must be imagined.

I literally have to work twice as hard to accomplish as much as someone with this ailment. Heck.. my boss thinks I'm amazing! I got an 18% raise my first year with a new company. Yes, I get a lot done. But the reality is that I am doing twice as much to make up for what I forget.. or get distracted from, etc.

From the movie UP.. the best analogy I can come up with for ADD or ADHS is.. SQUIRREL! That is EXACTLY how it is. Every hour.. of every day. It must be nice to live without that.. and judge those who do suffer from it as quirky or odd individuals. I guess this is how folks long ago felt when those around them thought they were warlocks or possessed with their own conditions. Fun times. Perhaps try to research it further.. realizing it does not just affect children. It's real, it's debilitating, it's a real pain in the ass.

Just to reinforce this: I have a specific list of symptoms I have experienced over the years. Very constant and measurable. Once I looked up the symptoms of ADD and ADHD, it matched up -perfectly.- Just the same as if you had a sore shoulder, or back pains. You say "Huh.. that's my issue!" So you go to the doctor.. and they say "Yup.. that's your issue." You get treated.. you feel better. I can go down a list of symptoms for ADD or ADHD and they match.. every single one. ALL of them. And significantly. I think some people think "Oh.. well.. everyone gets distracted now and then.. or forgets something.. or whatever." And feel that folks with ADD are just suffering from whatever else does. No. It's significant. It's highly measurable. It's MUCH more than a normal person would experience.

You sometimes zone someone out during a conversation? I do it EVERY time, without fail. I have to highly try to concentrate to listen and keep up with what they are saying. You forget stuff every day? I forget stuff every few minutes. You have difficulty concentrating on dull or mundane tasks? I am completing derailed by them, on a daily basis. Do you have to make extensive notes constantly so you don't forget something critical? Do you forget to pay a bill EVERY month? Do you procrastinate to the point of ridiculousness? Do you have to turn OFF your radio in your car when trying to find a place when driving, because the distraction will make it impossible? Do you forget something someone told you.. 2 minutes after they told you.. on a daily basis? Do you change the oil in your car every 10,000 miles even though you know it needs to be done much sooner? Do you procrastinate on very important tasks, because they seem overwhelming to you?

Such dismissive comments in this thread. You seriously have no idea. Don't dismiss ADD or ADHD because of your inherent hatred of the medical pharmaceutical companies. Are they money-grubbing bastages? Yea.. but that doesn't mean people are not suffering from this. I am not a quirky, weird, dumb, slow, or disturbed person. I am smart, grounded, have ambitions, drive, and know what I want to do. This issue with chemicals in my brain.. or whatever it is.. call it ADD.. ADHD.. or whatever else, inhibits this. It's frustrating, stressful, very challenging.. and to hear some of you say it's all in my head does not make it any easier.



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 02:41 AM
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gladtobehere
A normal kid running around raising some hell could now be classified as a mental patient. And what could possibly be wrong with giving children psychotropic drugs?


And a child running around crying is suffering from "depression" and needs to be medicated for life also...



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 02:45 AM
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gottaknow
It's not a condition or a disorder and yes, it's your fault they are like this.


I actually know a doctor who told me ADD stands for Absent Dad Discipline.



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 03:06 AM
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reply to post by fleabit
 


Fleabit, I do not see people in this thread dismissing the problems some people have to face.

I work in this field and what I see is ADD, ADHD and lately ODD being used as 'catch all' conditions. It is like a doctor saying 'you have a virus' well, yea, no crap, what can you do about it.

There are many examples here of kids being given drugs that they shouldn't be using. There are cases in this thread where real disabling conditions are making life intolerable for some.

The problem is that rather than identify the real issue, they are all lumped under these umbrella catch all conditions that are used to describe anything and everything. If someone has a dopomine imbalance then clearly that is what they have and need to be treated for.

What many here are saying is that children especially are being put on these drugs when they should not be. That is clearly wrong!

If this was other than an open forum there are a few questions I would ask you to see if I could point you in in a helpful direction.

P



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 07:23 AM
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My parents fell for this CRAP with my little brother. My mom recognizes the mistake they made, but my dad basically covers his ears and goes "LALALALALA".

My brother was bubbly, cheerful, excitable, and most of all, damn hyper. So he would act up in class when things got a bit slow, and this had the teachers calling the house everyday complaining. So my parents took him to the doctor after watching some stupid news story, and the dickhead says he had ADHD. So from 8 to 12 years old my parents made him take some behavioral meds whenever he gets hyped from boredom. At home, before school, when he's misbehaving, they made him take it.

Even from such a young age, i can see him change into a quiet, monotone, bored looking kid whenever those pills kicked in. He complained of headaches and nausea from taking those, but my parents did not pick up on this. After a while i would tell my brother not to swallow the pills whenever my parents weren't looking.

Then the permanent change happened when he stopped taking them at 11 or 12. He changed into an ill-tempered brat, emotional brat. It got worse when he entered high school. He's 21 now, and he's matured into a laid back and reserved person. If he wasn't on those meds, i bet you a million $ that he would have grown into a pretty cherry, constantly smiling dude.



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 07:24 AM
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I'm sure there are people, or children for that matter, who are unusually hyperactive, or simply can't concentrate. But that would be a very, very, low population of people. Surely not as many people that have been "diagnosed."

I'm am strongly opposed to any type of Pharma drug. I refuse to take even a simple asprin. The only time you will ever see me willingly take a Pharma drug, is if my life depended on it...Literally.

Quite honestly, I am disgusted parents are so quick to dope up their children. Kids are naturally hyper. And they're going to be a pain. Since children are very selfish. And they need to be. They do not have the tools to survive on their own. And they don't exactly know what their doing is frustrating. They have yet to develop their brains high enough to really take other people into consideration. As I said, children are supposed to be selfish.

And when it comes to school, which is how most kids end up being susceptible to taking these drugs, it's no wonder why children don't want to pay attention in class. School is extremely boring. And I personally hated every minute of it. But, I don't hate learning things. I usually watch documentaries, and such almost daily. However, the way we teach kids these days is very, very, poor. Kids are just dropped behind a desk and told to fill out papers basically all day. There is no fun in it. You have to do things that appeal to kids if you want them to embrace learning. And when kids associate boredom with learning. It would be logical to suggest a lot of people wouldn't want to keep doing it further.

And when it comes to adults, work isn't much different. A lot of people have trouble doing their jobs well, especially if they dislike it, or stuck in a office 8 hours a day. So what's the solution? Just give them something that will pick them right up, and make them willing to do these boring tasks. It's just insane thinking. There's nothing wrong with you specifically. You just have no interest in what your doing. Being bored is your body telling you "Hey, stop doing that, you don't like it." Your body is designed to protect you from any type of situation that negatively effects you. Weather it be mental, psychological, or physical. And when you are bored, you really aren't very happy. And when you are not happy, you may become angry, which can create higher blood pressure and stress. Or you can become depressed, both of which have negative side effects to your body.

And dumping a crude concoction of chemical compounds in your body, know as a pharmaceutical drug isn't going to help you either. Most of the things inside of the pills your body already makes on it's own, such as dopamine. Not to mention, these pills are not natural. They may be able to create the same compounds synthetically inside of a lab, but it still is not the same as a natural one.

It just seems like parents get tired of their kids acting up. And they probably aren't strict enough on them, and give them no discipline. So instead of trying to get them to act properly, they just do the easy solution, and give them drugs. Drugs that change the brain chemistry. And that is not something that should be tampered with, especially in childhood.

I've seen kids that take ADD pills, depression, etc. And a lot of bad things happen to them. I've seen kids that get involuntary "ticks" where they twitch their heads or bodies. It can be permanent if sustained. I've seen kids that were once active, but these pills made their appetite go away, and made them very short of breathe. Some kids even commit suicide on pills developed to combat depression. Which kind of defeats the purpose right?

So in essence, This whole ADD and ADHD thing is so ridiculous. All it really boils down to is creating obedient children, who will then grow up and be obedient, productive workers. Who will willingly carry out terrible and boring jobs, because they are pretty much forced to in order to survive. It's all just money, money, money. They could care less if the pills hurt your health, or if your depressed and bored at work. As long as the bottom lines are fulfilled, they think it's just fine.



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 07:41 AM
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Xcalibur254
If there's no such thing as ADHD then why do the drugs used to treat it work differently in those suffering from it than those who aren't? Why can we see that those suffering from it have decreased brain activity in certain areas? The fact is there is a real disorder. Is it overdiagnosed? Definitely. But that's primarily due to teachers who have no business diagnosing whatsoever and GPs who diagnose without having any real background in mental disorders.


Totally agreed.

While ADHD, like numerous other mental disorders, is grossly overdiagnosed by people with no business doing so. A lot of people diagnosed with it don't have it, they either have other issues, or simply are not being given proper discipline.

That said, I grew up with a cousin who did have ADHD, and it is REAL. And a serious problem. The kid was more than just wild and badly behaved, he was a hazard to himself and others, and quite destructive beyond normal childhood tendancies. medication really did help considerably. So there are people with this condition, and they and everyone around them benefit with proper treatment.



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 08:12 AM
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I work in this field and what I see is ADD, ADHD and lately ODD being used as 'catch all' conditions. It is like a doctor saying 'you have a virus' well, yea, no crap, what can you do about it


That may very well be true, but the OP was in regard to someone saying ADD and ADHD is a “fake” or fictitious condition. It’s not. Because there is not a definitive pointer to say “Ok.. yup, you have this..” it makes it more difficult to diagnose, and I’m sure there are many cases of misdiagnosis out there. My post was simply against the “oh.. it’s not real!” theory in the OP and permeating much of this topic.


So in essence, This whole ADD and ADHD thing is so ridiculous.


Except it’s not for those who actually suffer from it. If you had it.. you would know. And you wouldn’t dismiss it so flippantly. It’s a very real condition. It has nothing to do with how much “fun” I have at work, or how “bored” I am. I am never bored at work.. I am going non-stop from the minute I get to work, usually having to work through lunch, and working late, every day. Not boredom. And I enjoy my work. It has nothing to do with that. It’s something else entirely, and I would except impossible to explain to a skeptic like yourself, who had already made up their mind it doesn’t exist.

edit on 10-12-2013 by fleabit because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 08:18 AM
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reply to post by fleabit
 


I was thinking the same thing.

The conditions are REAL.

However... they can use those conditions to their advantage.

For one thing.... those conditions are NOT FAKE.


EDIT:

Just from what I gathered from OP (I am drunk)

They might push on the kids (conspiracy angle) to sell the pills.

It doesn't matter really because the conditions are real. But I will accept the conspiracy that those drug companies try to sell the drugs and make up diseases where none exist.
edit on 12/10/2013 by Deaf Alien because: (no reason given)



posted on Dec, 10 2013 @ 09:16 AM
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fleabit

I work in this field and what I see is ADD, ADHD and lately ODD being used as 'catch all' conditions. It is like a doctor saying 'you have a virus' well, yea, no crap, what can you do about it


That may very well be true, but the OP was in regard to someone saying ADD and ADHD is a “fake” or fictitious condition. It’s not. Because there is not a definitive pointer to say “Ok.. yup, you have this..” it makes it more difficult to diagnose, and I’m sure there are many cases of misdiagnosis out there. My post was simply against the “oh.. it’s not real!” theory in the OP and permeating much of this topic.


So in essence, This whole ADD and ADHD thing is so ridiculous.


Except it’s not for those who actually suffer from it. If you had it.. you would know. And you wouldn’t dismiss it so flippantly. It’s a very real condition. It has nothing to do with how much “fun” I have at work, or how “bored” I am. I am never bored at work.. I am going non-stop from the minute I get to work, usually having to work through lunch, and working late, every day. Not boredom. And I enjoy my work. It has nothing to do with that. It’s something else entirely, and I would except impossible to explain to a skeptic like yourself, who had already made up their mind it doesn’t exist.

edit on 10-12-2013 by fleabit because: (no reason given)


Did you not read the first paragraph?...







 
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