Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects about four percent of U.S. adults (Kessler, Chiu, Demler & Walters, 2005). Still, many myths, stereotypes and downright fallacies abound — everything from questioning the very existence of ADHD to downplaying its seriousness. Below, we spoke with two experts who treat individuals with ADHD to set the record straight.
1. Myth: ADHD isn’t a real disorder.
Fact: ADHD is a mental disorder with a strong biological component (like most mental disorders). This includes an inherited biological component, notes Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, a national certified counselor and licensed mental health counselor and author of four books on adult ADD, including Adult ADD: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.
For instance, studies have identified several genes associated with ADHD (e.g., Guan, Wang, Chen, Yang & Qian, 2009). One study revealed that kids with ADHD had hundreds of gene variations that weren’t found in other children (Elia et al., 2010).
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You know this is why the psychiatric (and to some extent the neurological) fields should keep their dirty biased minds out of genetics and DNA. In no other science or engineering discipline will a study yield a positive in 25% of the cases 10% in the control group and the “theory” be touted as “evidence to confirm”. (If these people had been taxed to determined what the high cancer rate at an asbestos factory had come from they would he determined it was the water.)
It is amazing how you get convoluted messages to the public such as this one from WebMD. http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/adhd-causes . Which in the opening line say “Experts do know that ADHD has a strong genetic component” but then the very next paragraph opened with “In some cases, though, there is no genetic link to ADHD”. If we engineered planes the way the mental health industry comes up with conclusions, we would never have gotten off the ground to begin with (the write brothers would have been concentration on designing vehicles with feathers).
The sad part is we know what causes these things. At least that is to say the knowledge and understanding exists. Go back to the classics. Apply the knowledge gleaned from Freud, Milgram, Pavlov, Stephenson, and the others who were not driven by profit but the truth. Then apply the understandings highlighted by people likes of Kreisman.
Unfortunately the giant capitalist machine needs the next pill, shot, medication to give the consumer to change their psyche. We can’t tell parents that everything they know about being a parent is wrong. “You can’t go back to work after 12 weeks, at least one of you are going to have to commit to staying home for at least 6 years.”
There are no gay, depression, bipolar, alcoholic, fat, anxiety, or fidelity genes. To date none have been identified that would stand the test of the scientific method. And we never will find them. Unlike “blue eyes” or “blood type” where we can identify a gene that will produce them every single time, there is no mental dysfunction equivalent.
@LOL couldn’t have said it better! I agree with everything you said. There is NO valid medical test that show mental illness exists. Pushing pills down our kids throats is not the solution to their lack of attention. The problem is they don’t understand what they are being taught! The solution is a better education system, better methods of teaching and making sure the child understands what he is learning.
These Ritalin, dexi’s etc are VERY dangerous mind altering drugs with suicide as one of their side effects……..how can this be aloud?!!! It’s criminal and lining the psychiatrists and doctors pockets. There is a DVD called “Dead Wrong” by CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) of real life mothers talking about their children who have died as a result of these ADD/ ADHD and other psychiatric drugs.
Are you really saying that mental illness doesn’t exist? If so there is nothing to talk about. The fact that there are no blood tests or scans for illnesses of the mind doesn’t mean that Alzheimers, Parkinsons, depression and so on don’t exist. It is not acceptable to say that everyone who has entered the fields of medicine, psychiatry and psychology are pretending that medicines are safe so that they can (somehow, I’m not sure how) make a profit by prescribing them. Just attend an ADHD support group meeting to find out if ADHD is real, if the medicines are safe and whether they work.
There are two branches to mental health. One relates to life experiences, and you seem to be well versed in that. The other, enabled by the technology since the 1980s, is brain science. Brain science explains why, for example, some people can be plunged into depression when they consume certain over-the-counter anti-histamines. Freud et al had no access to this information. People who genuinely have ADHD suffer from a biological disorder, usually genetically based. It’s that simple. (Although in some cases, as WebMD points out, brain damage can cause the same effect). You have slandered the all scientists struggling to understand the human brain, millions laboring under ADHD, and the people out in field trying to help them.
While certainly some people believe genetics or biology explain mental disorders like ADHD, most researchers in this area don’t believe it’s as simple as “it’s your biology.” While brain research does give us many insights into mental illness, it has yet to find a single cause that explains a specific mental illness — like ADHD — in the majority of people.
Brain science may one day have the answers we’re looking for in this area. But it’s simplistic and simply wrong to suggest that mental disorders are simply “brain disorders” caused by genetics and biology.
I am not saying “mental illness” doesn’t exist. Diagnosis such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s have physical dysfunctions and deficiencies that have been identified with viable scientific backing. Pathologies such as depression, bipolar, fibromyalgia, and OCD are different. (Have you ever noticed during a commercial how they always say “It is believed” or “researchers think” when talking about how the drugs work?) These “disorders” are found to have common nurturing environments or pathology. Solving these problems with these drugs is no better then solving them with booze or street drugs. (Actually those might be better. At least when they go haywire, you can get your loved on off the street drugs. There is nothing you can do when a doctor is insisting you manic love one is “reporting she is fine”)
It would be nice to be able to concentrate on a subject matter for more then 5 min. The reason I can’t has nothing to do with biology or genetic. It has to do with the tumultuous environment into which I was born, chaotic upbringing, and some very well meaning parents that didn’t understand their emotional wars had an effect on the kids. Just as an athlete practices the same activity over and over again to the point that he reacts to an oncoming ball without thinking, or is my brain trained to switch tracks as some kind of defense mechanism. No drug is going to fix that. In a child, there are techniques that can be “practiced” that might improve that the ability to concentrate. But the first step is accepting that there is not “magical” outside force that caused it.
Obviously, you don’t have ADHD
For clarification, my comment was directed to LOL and all of those who think this diagnosis is just some sort of handy excuse by those of us who have it, or that the diagnosis is merely perpetuated by those who can make a profit on it.
I didn’t realize my own diagnosis until I was over 50; I decided if I was going to crack jokes about my “ADD” with my increasing forgetfulness of older age, I should actually read about it….What an epiphany that was!
I never “made excuses” for my inattentiveness ’cause I never knew I had it, but it sure explained my whole darned life. Would meds have helped then [?]. I don’t know….they don’t seem to help me focus as much as I’d like now, and the side effects leave a lot to be desired, though I do get SOME benefit. And would I have learned to adapt as I have if I had “merely” taken meds?….Don’t know about that either. Perhaps being treated without the ignorance and shaming would have done a lot more towards helping me adapt successfully in this crazy paced world.
I look “normal” to everyone else because I’ve worked my ___ off to do so, but no one could see the hell I’ve experienced throughout my life [or continue to, at times]. I’ve had to make a lot of concessions in life, personally and professionally, due to navigating my way with this diagnosis [and without the help or "coaching" many ADHD'rs receive today].
None the less, I am grateful for what this experience has taught me as both, “patient” and “professional”. Yes, it’s important to learn coping skills, “try harder”, etc. and not succomb to a victim role as an excuse for the diagnosis, but I feel some frustration when I hear it intimated that this is just some made up thing for those afflicted to excuse their “bad” behaviors….their “laziness and inconsideration”, or that this is merely a profit motivated diagnosis.
“Although ADHD is becoming commonplace in our society…” is the opening sentence in the digest link leading to this article. It says much more than the writer realizes. The real question is why is ADHD becoming commonplace? Is there an epidemic? Is it viral? In the water? In the air? Or, perhaps, it’s another triumph of marketing for BigPharma. Perhaps the epidemic is one of over-diagnosis based on the broadening of diagnostic criteria to include just about every difficulty in attention, concentration, and behavioral focus? ADHD has become what I’ve called an “identity disease.” (Bipolar is the other most popular identity disease.)It becomes the most important component of the person’s identity and the person often defines him/herself by their “disease.” They use it, to their great detriment, to explain everything in their lives and behavior, thus failing to recognize they can do to improve their functioning. In this way, the emphasis on ADHD and the other identity diseases disempowers and disenfranchises people. And, not incidentally, it reinforces the belief that medication is the answer, thus increasing BigPharma profits and dependency on psychiatry.
On another point in the article, to imply that stimulant medication has no risk of addiction is beyond incorrect, it’s dangerous. The risk of addiction has been well demonstrated empirically and in practice. The use of amphetamines and, increasingly, antipsychotics in developing brains to control mood and behavior has not been established as safe. The long term effects are simply not known. There is strong, replicated, cumulative evidence (see Whitaker, Angell, et al) that the use of these medications alters the brain and creates or exacerbates the very conditions it purports to treat.
This is not to say that ADHD does not exist. It is clear that there are some people whose ability to attend, focus, concentrate and sit still are impaired, some to the point where their lives are greatly disrupted. What is not clear is the cause despite the overblown and unsupported ads for “brain disease” and “chemical imbalance.” It is also clear that many people diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed stimulant and other medications simply have normal range problems with these behaviors. Not all behavioral or emotional problems reflect a “disease” and the pathologizing of all normal variations in ability is both dangerous and a disservice to us all.
Oh good grief! Mental illnesses may not be scanned or blood typed but that does not mean they are not visible. Many times you can see it on an MRI that there are changes in the brain. How those changes got there isn’t the issue. It’s how to fix it. And if meds work then they work. I came from a family that was calm compared to most. However, in my old age my sister and my brother (there were three of us) have found out that they have ADD. So have I! That says something to me about genetics. Back when we were young it was not easily diagnosed. But now we realize we all have the same thing. Concentration is difficult for us not because of how we grew up, but because of our brain chemistry.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is, according to Wikipedia, “entirely controlled by and subject to policy directives issued from the Church of Scientology,” and we all know what THEIR agenda is: don’t let Psychiatry fix you; let US fix you with OUR incredibly expensive, dubious pseudoscience.” Check out this New Yorker article about Paul Haggis, the director or the Academy Award-winning movie “Crash,” and his struggles with this “religion.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright
If Scientology had motives other than causing harm, they wouldn’t invent other groups to spread their poison (like having Tom Cruise slam Brooke Sheilds for taking anti-depressants when she dealt with post-partum depression).
How about a discussion of disorder theory itself & its social/cultural implications. Certainly among the most troubling aspects of the ADD/ADHD moniker is stigmatization & the entire debilitating aspect of being labeled. E.g.: Being blind isn’t a “disorder” or an “illness” but rather a condition which society, to be humane, must adapt to meet the needs of the individual, as well as taking the time & energy to teach the individual how to adapt to be able to function. The entire anti-labeling movement in the field of those with physical “impairments” can be easily applied to mental “disorders”. From my experience leading “Adult ADD” groups & treating similar clients, the label sucks.
Someday (I can only hope), dimension theory may overcome disorder theory, labels will disappear, people will support each other, & it will be a perfect universe (LOL). In the meantime, for myself, I avoid the label of ADD (the hyper part in my case is debatable). I am learning to function in ways that suit me very well, thank you very much, through mindfulness, attentiveness, & non-self-judgment.
The topic is so much larger than most articles & short discussions allow time, space, or energy for. Maybe I will learn to write professionally about the topic myself.
(P.S. I say that “mental illness” does not exist. I say that those individuals with challenging physiological conditions of chemical brain imbalances, etc., are not “ill” & treating them as such dehumanizes the individual. I’d like see the term “illness” disappear, as I find it fosters attitudes not much improved over those of the earlier sanitarium days, that is to say, stigmatization & isolation from society.)
I am a 67 year old female who has had ADHD all my life. I was “officially” diagonised 10 years ago.Yes, the “H” part has pretty much disappeared but there is still a restlessness inside of me.
Since no one knew why I was the way I was, I was labeled from first grade on. It has affected every part of my being. During my working years I had 34 different jobs. It was always the quest and when I got the job, I quickly needed to move on. Numerous projects were started and never finished so I learned to do very, very short term projects to be successful. I was on Adderall for a while but stopped taking it due to adverse effects. I do believe that it is over diagnosed and that our children are put on medication way too frequently and unessarily.
I no longer define myself by my ADHD but embrace the fact that having ADHD has given me a greater understanding of myself and the world and people around me. It has taught me to be compassionate and not to judge others.
All disease – indeed, all human behavior and experience – is brain based. To say something is due to a dysfunctional brain means very little in and of itself. The oft cited “disease” associated changes in the brain – that are not as strongly established as implied in marketing literature – may be the result, the cause, or simply irrelevant to the problem. The brain – including gene expression – is also changed by the way one thinks and acts. The point is that the brain and its functioning are much more complicated than the “________ is a brain disease” advocates purport. All human experience, including wellness and illness, are biopsychosocial. Each factor, biological, psychological, and social, can impact the others. A reductionist approach is incomplete, unsupported by the data, and harmful.
I a 43 year male with ADHD, In school i was always having trouble, getting kicked out of 3 schools i was labeled a bad kid.
My mom took me to the top head Dr. in the area back then and i was told i had ADD and put on Ritalin, the next 3 years i was on the honor roll and graduated top of my class,
After school i stopped taking the Meds and really forgot all about the ADD ,
went to College struggled and dropped out, went on to work many Dif jobs, bouncing from 1 to the other. At 40 my life was a mess, looking for help i went to see a head Dr. again and ADHD came up again
Now on a new ADHD medicine im back in school and finishing that up, and personal life is much better, My main problems were with focus and memory but on the Meds i feel normal, I can hold a conversation and even remember names.,
People will never understand this issue unless they go thru it personally., they just continue to label it lazy or they just dont care,(lazy one always baffled me, as i worked many hrs of labor type jobs, just didnt stay at one for to long. moved around alot)
whats bad is with people with this problem getting no help, tend to believe what others have told them their whole life and feel useless, and battle depression on top of the ADD