wow...

if a kid is out somewhere and he's acting up...chances are there is a need that is not being met. be that drink, food, diaper, runny nose, toy to fiddle with, needs a nap, is hot, etc.

my son doesn't do shit except charm people in public...why? because I don't take him out without a nap, take snacks and juice, take yodas and shit to play with, pay attention to him and bullshit with him, keep him in the conversation even though that crumb eater doesn't know wtf I am saying, and whatnot...etc.

what I've noticed about parents in my short time being one, is that most of them discount the amount of autonomy and preference that a child has. they give the kid no credit. I mean shit, they're humans and have tastes and thoughts too. they think he's just being fussy when there's usually a reason for it...one just needs to be attuned to notice it.

people are for the most part, fucking dumbass unobservant douchebags. and these people become parents.

I also think people now are just too damn lazy to parent....my sister is 27 and has 3 kids, and for YEARS she would pawn her kids off on the rest of us....she would make up some BS excuse and beg us to babysit, and end up going out and partying or stay out past when she said she would be back. She's matured a bit in that regard, but still I see a lot of times when she just doesn't want to take the TIME to pay attention to the kids...she wants to chat with friends and watch TV and shit. I think one problem is that too many people today become parents WAY too early, when they're far from ready for that responsibility. They think it's like a hobby or something.

i totally agree with cannonball. people have no idea how to parent and think however they were raised will be good enough. but the general idea of being a parent is to make things BETTER for your own child.

theres a lot of push for ways to make soon to be parents educated on how to be parents. but a lot of the ways people say are too infringing on their rights. i think it should be mandatory somehow
but then theres no way to do anything if the kid's just unlucky and born to assholes because its still not legal to sterilize !

Wow... I agree 100%.

It just bothers me when people call ADD a "made up" condition because I grew up with friends and known children who genuinely do have it and really benefitted from treatment. I mean, consider the following:

1) Its symptoms mimic those of normal childhood.
2) There are other conditions whose symptoms are very very similar and can easily be mistaken for ADD.
3) As far as I know, there's no real test for ADD.

So it's no wonder that it's such a mis-diagnosed illness (both in terms of being diagnosed in kids that don't have it and kids not be diagnosed with it that should)

so how many kids have ADD in general?

as a non-doctor, I would guess very few.

I had one friend growing up back in the day who was (but they called it "hyperactive" back then, there was no ADD). and I only know one adult who is, but he is also a brilliant architect and musician. when on his meds he is a boring, no humor having fool though.

here's a news flash for all the shithead parents out there...kids have short attention spans. gasp! that's why sesame street runs in 45 second segments before moving to the next one.

I guess every kid is ADD...fuckin society...

ADD and ADHD is far more than not being able to sit down or talking to much in class. whoever said that it mimics some emotional disturbances was right. it is a result of brain chemistry (is what they say now) and a lot of symptoms of ADHD/ADD are not what people typically expect like:
being tired all the time, mood swings, paranoia, social anxiety, phobias, insomnia, high impulsiveness of course but often times associated with aggression. in addition to not being lazy or inconsiderate but literally not being able to remember periods of time or responsibilities

there are also two forms of the disorder, inactive type and active type. you could guess how those two are similar and different

i hate when people say things like "oh man my brother cant ever sit still hes been ADD since he was born"

no doubt. I mean I get fidgity waiting for the popcorn to pop.

I'm ADD.

so do you take drugs and see a doctor for your disease?

i went to a doctor a few times but quit going. had a few prescriptions but never took them. when you have severe ADHD its hard to keep track of meds. i just worked harder to deal with the symptoms without anti psychotics because those are pretty powerful. if i keep busy, have lots of reminders, a great social support system and i workout i dont have any problems
well i shouldnt say that its still hard, i still get frustrated with my self really bad, but i dont want certain people to pop in with omggggggggggg blah blah blah

I was kidding. the only disease I take drugs for is beeraholism.

As for the answer to who here works with small children, i have for several years now in settings from VBS to public schools. When i said kids shouldn't be allowed in public i should have added what I was thinking with that in that they shouldn't if their parents cant keep track of them.

Anyway, back to ADHD being close to emotional disorder, i really think that the kids know they are having the problem, and try as they might, cant fix it because they keep getting told to just "sit down and be quite" instead of being given tasks that actually require their concentration. There was one kid in a class I was assisting with last year that had that problem (on top of being diagnosed as having emotional problems with it) and my heart broke for that kid. You could tell his parents had probly just beat his ass a whole lot because he was almost afraid of adults....in a bad way. What the teacher had to do to control him was make a mark on the carpet with some tape in an isolated area of the room, and when he started getting out of it (you could tell just by looking at the kid...his eyes went all weird), she would tell him to take his work over to his secret place (this is kindergarten mind you) and she would be over in a minute to help him....She was the only teacher that got a response out of that kid in the whole school it seemed, and all it took was a teacher that gave a damn....not someone with a belt.

also, another fun story

My roomate 2 years ago was severely ADHD, but he found a field he liked and when it got to where he couldnt focus he would start working on a project for that particular class or whatever he had that involved that field,...after about 3 hours or so pounding away at that he would come back to the task at had and be ok for a good while. Which means he found a way to use that sort of focus, or lack thereof, to get more done....It was really weird.

I know a family who has a severely ADD daughter. She was hyper, causing constant trouble in class, getting into fights, overall being a MEAN little shit. Not constantly, but frequently, and at seemingly random times. Her parents were good about punishing her, but it never seemed to sink in. They finally got her into therapy and got her on medication (aderall, I think) and they say it's been like a miracle transformation. She's not zombie-like, but calm, pleasant, still energetic but in a constructive way. They haven't quite gotten her dosage figured out yet, so there's still times when she degenerates back into her old hyper, cranky self, but there's no mistaking the improvement that the meds have made.

That having been said, I've also known kiddos that were diagnosed with ADD, given ritalin, and cycled between bouncing off the walls and being zombies. Really fuckin' freaky, that.

i'm not going to quote everything in these posts but my statement relates to what glen and impala have said..

adhd is misdiagnosed quite often

bad parenting is to blame for odd behaviors




my first point was that there are more and more stresses on young kids today because of how the world has changed...that can have a huge effect on development and the easy way out is to say the kid is adhd, stick them on mood/brain altering chemicals and go about the daily routine like nothing's wrong


we as human beings were never meant to ingest these crazy ass pharmaceutical concoctions...we come up with these weird ass pills that are supposed to make things better but usually end up making things worse...and people will have children while on these fucked up chemicals and their kids have developmental problems...AND WHAT HAPPENS? That gets treated with drugs

DRUGS ARE GOOD FOR YOu!!@!1

Drugs CAN be good for you, but, as noted, sometimes ailments are overdiagnosed and people are on meds when they really don't need to be. This is especially the case with mental/emotional conditions.

But ADD, depression, etc. really do exist and these drugs are very helpful for the people who actually have these conditions. Sometimes people are just taking the easy way out with drugs for themselves or their children, but please don't be so quick to dismiss people as bad parents JUST because their kids are on meds.