Yep. ADHD and ADD are sets of behaviors that can be ascribed to many causes. I can attest to exhibiting ADHD behaviors myself when my work life and family life have me maxed out. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Fortunately for me though, I am normally able to find balance in my life that prevents me from exhibiting this behavior often. As public educator of 16 years (have taught 4, 5, and 8th grades), every student that I've had that carried with him/her a label of ADD or ADHD had either 1) a very complicated and stressful home life, or 2) An underlying hurdle that made their education more difficult than the typical student. These hurdles might be some form of learning disability (so often expressive or receptive language difficulties) that made their learning especially difficult for him/her.
On the positive side of medicating, I've seen medication help, as a cast and crutches help a student with a broken leg recover. The medication, along with family counseling to address the underlying stressors, helps an ADD/ADHD student develop positive habits in and out of school to produce positive outcomes.
Unfortunately, more often as well, the medication is used to address only the symptoms long-term, without ever addressing the underlying causes.
As someone who is also working with kids who has ADHD, Autism, Asperger syndrome. I have seen no long term positive effects from medication and ADHD. Instead what I have noticed is that kids who are taking Ritalin etc stop responding logically to other treatments and positive changes in their environment. With these medications, what you are left with are young children who suddenly experience extreme highs and lows. Looses appetite. Starts "seeing things" that are not there. Some become introverted, some become the opposite. There's suddenly no logic to anything when on medication. The side effects are awful and we really don't have any evidence that the medication work or indeed that ADHD really exists. The answer is that this is really just big business and creating junkies out of our kids is highly profitable. Related: Playlist with criticism about psychiatry and big pharma
As someone who is currently prescribed Adderall, I did have some issues with the appetite factor when I first started taking it, but I've grown past the lack of appetite by forcing myself to eat until it became a natural urge. I wouldn't want anyone younger than teenage taking it. Too much of a risk for children to not feel like eating.
If people were given the known "facts" about ADHD and the drugs which are used to treat it, I would have very little problems with it.
I actually say: Let people use whatever they want to themselves, if they use it without inflicting pain or suffering on somebody else. I'm no anti-drug advocate. But today, ADHD is portrayed as a real disease, much like cancer or malaria. Which in turn comes with medicines like Adderall that is said to treat it. But ADHD is nothing factual like Cancer or Malaria, it cant be compared to real diseases.
There isn't a doctor in the world that can point to where "ADHD" is suppose to be in the brain. There's nothing to look at or measure. It's a fictional disease. This information needs to be given to all parents which at this time are sitting in front of a psychiatrist who is giving out dangerous drugs while only attesting to their positive values and merits.
I think Adderall and other stimulants have a real potential to be abused by those with disordered eating patterns or full-blown eating disorders. I'm not saying I think these people would try to get a prescription just for that benefit, but if you have a child or teen with those underlying issues who also is considered ADD or ADHD, I think you have a potential recipe for disaster. On a less severe level, I've heard more than once of people who want to lose weight so they just "take their medicine" until they lose it, and then they go off of it - which teaches terrible eating patterns and dependence, by the way. (In both cases these people were in the group that felt that ADD medication made them boring, so instead of taking it daily they took it "as necessary." Which is an interesting tactic to think about in and of itself, I guess.)
I agree with this so much. I struggled at school from about 16 and it took me six years to complete my degree. Everyone thought I was ADD, but when I finally got myself into therapy, it turns out my dad had NPD and mum was very likely BPD. Their behaviour stressed me out so much, I couldn't cope at school. Once I addressed these emotional issues, my life did a complete 180 and I've never been this consistently happy ever. I think sometimes it's best to try and search for underlying issues first, before just slapping a prescription for ADD/ADHD in every kid's hand.