[quote=“Lothy, post:15, topic:482775”][quote author=Taios link=topic=601009.msg4259495#msg4259495 date=1363312724]
I have ADHD - the UK is different to the USA btw(or what i’ve heard anyway, people getting diagnosed with a 1 hour assessment, wtf? It takes 6 months of assessment here and you have to pass a certain threshold of severity to be diagnosed, so even if you have it, you may not get diagnosed with it…and even if you get diagnosed, they may not give you medication if they feel you’re coping well enough without it.
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It’s way easier to just medicate, even if there’s actually nothing wrong. =\ A misguided teacher complains to a parent about their kid misbehaving (even though the behaviour in question might be perfectly normal, albeit a bit of a nuisance) and next minute ADHD diagnosis.[/quote]
Medication does not remove the problems. They’re still there, but to a lesser extent. Because it improves my memory I can remind myself to put in the structure and coping mechanisms. I stop going into rooms wondering how I got there, I stop putting the remote control in the fridge instead of the butter and completely not realising until I can’t find the control, I stop missing my bus stops and ending up in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know of ADHD charity who says ‘just go medicate your kids’ - they all advocate intervention and teaching first and formost. I spend a large portion of my day trying to implement coping mechanisms, tools, speaking to other ADHDers to ask what they do. You should see my room - I have 4 different alarm clocks(no lie, the latest one cost me £50), whiteboards everywhere to remind me of important shit to do and various other tools. I have to put a lot of effort in to manage myself - even with medication (I also like to make sure I have 1-2 days a week where I don’t take it)).
But medication did change my life around - I could go to lectures and actually follow them and concentrate, I didn’t have to spend virtually all of my time trying to remind myself to implement coping tools. I mean, you can have the best ideas in the world, how can you make a habbit of them if you can never remember to do them? Medication helps with forming good habbits which means now, even off medication I’m much better than I was before. I could never ever concentrate in lectures at school. I could never learn in lectures just like I could never learn in a school classroom - I was lucky that I was naturally good at maths and could teach it to myself. I never understood when people said to me ‘think before you speak’. But when It came to uni, I had to spend a good three quarters of my time, teaching myself the course. This is where it became very problematic.
In regards to the UK system, medication is a last resort, not a first…because the NHS has to pay out for it so they’re not going to be giving it out willy nilly.I think it’s a common misconception that all naughty kids are diagnosed with ADHD, they arn’t, not here anyway. I’ve worked at the national ADHD charity, I’ve listened to the parents crying down the phone because they’re trying to get help for their kids ADHD and receive none. You have to fight, to get a diagnosis in a lot of occasions unless the child is really, really, really severe. I’ve seen parents going to tribunal after tribunal. I don’t know anywhere where a school just complains and that happens - my school there were a few kids who were very adhd and they were never diagnosed because the school had no idea about it. Heck, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 19 and I was a complete little shit.
Let me add ADHD is a spectrum disorder. There’s kids who are ADD - these have no hyperactivity or impulsivity whatsoever. It’s a common misconception that people with adhd are naughty. In fact most girls, arn’t. It’s also a misconception that we can’t concentrate - we can concentrate on certain, specific tasks. Infact we can concentrate so well on them that 12 hours later we’ve not moved, not eaten, not gone to the toillet. Programming does this for me. Medication actually stops this high level of concentration - I can only hyperfocus when off of it which is exactly why meds are good for certain things and not others. I also feel it hinders my creativity because it narrows my thoughts.
Any parent who just gives their kid medication, and offers no additional support, is in my opinion, not a good parent. However, i’m generally against medicating children and I think it needs to be the choice of the person taking it and not the parents - but that’s just my opinion.
