This is a bold topic to cover and a bold title, so before you get ready to comment and reticle this article I would like this disclaim that I’m not a psychologist. This article is merely just my opinion from cumulated research.
ADHD is a bold topic because most of the world could be diagnosed with it. Millions of people have been diagnosed with ADHD and the numbers aren’t decreasing. I used to think I had ADHD because I used to act without thinking and I had a hard time paying attention on tasks. I would often get distracted very easily but I never seen a therapist to be diagnosed with it. But today my focus is razor sharp and all the impulses and fidgeting went away.
What Is ADHD?
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. The “AD” of ADHD is the attention where your attention is either super focused on a task for hours or no focus at all, there is no in-between. Then you have the “HD” of ADHD and that is where you get sit still and you’re fidgeting.
“ADHD is one of the most common neurological disorders in children that normally last into adulthood.”
Symptoms Of ADHD (These are from CDC.gov)
Inattention:
- Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or with other activities.
- Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.
- Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
- Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked).
- Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
- Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
- Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools, wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
- Is often easily distracted
- Is often forgetful in daily activities.
Hyperactivity and Impulsivity:
- Often fidgets with or taps hands or feet, or squirms in seat.
- Often leaves seat in situations when remaining seated is expected.
- Often runs about or climbs in situations where it is not appropriate (adolescents or adults may be limited to feeling restless).
- Often unable to play or take part in leisure activities quietly.
- Is often “on the go” acting as if “driven by a motor”.
- Often talks excessively.
- Often blurts out an answer before a question has been completed.
- Often has trouble waiting their turn.
- Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games)
And these symptoms are not from me, they are from CDC.gov
To actually be diagnosed with ADHD several of these symptoms need to be interrupting your life. Some may have these symptoms but it may not be interrupting their life so there is no need to be go see a therapist for help.
Seems like a lot of these symptoms are often inside of a classroom. Basically any place that would be considered boring for a child, these symptoms may arise.
Treatment For ADHD:
Although there is no cure for ADHD, the only solution is making the symptoms less apparent. For the people who have severe ADHD, they get prescribed a drug class called Amphetamines. Sometimes called a stimulant. Caffeine and sugar is a stimulant also, and stimulants heighten the central nervous system, making you feel more awake and focused.
The most common type of medication used for treating ADHD is called a “stimulant.” Although it may seem unusual to treat ADHD with a medication that is considered a stimulant, it works by increasing the brain chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine, which play essential roles in thinking and attention.
For example, when you play a new video game or watch a new TV series, are you focused or not focused? Most people are going to be focused because they are getting a rush of dopamine from the new novelty. A similar thing happens when you take stimulants or Amphetamines. Your brain’s reward center gets a rush of dopamine, causing you to focus for long periods of time. This focus is so intense that you forget to eat or drink.
The ADHD Hydroxycut
Before Amphetamines were used to treat people with ADHD, it was used and abused for people to curb their appetite and help them lose weight. Circling back around to the example we used above, Amphetamine is highly addictive because it hijacks your reward center causing you to get almost like a high feeling.
The Most Abused Drug On A College Campuses
Amphetamines and stimulants are the most abused drugs on college campuses because your body adjusts to the drug fairly quickly. This drug helps you do schoolwork and sit through a 6 hour science lab. The reason for this addiction is because the body is always at a balance and when you artificially give your body something that unbalances your dopamine like amphetamines(adderall) it has to come back down to a balance. The body always comes back to a balance. How the body does that is by lowering your dopamine receptors so your normal 25mgs of Adderall or Ritalin is no longer enough because there are less receptors available. Now you need to the double the dosage to get that some dopamine rush.
Why I Believe ADHD Is Not Real
Let’s go back to where ADHD stems from and that is childhood. And where is the symptoms most apparent? Inside a classroom, where your focus and patience is truly tested. A child has such a free spirit, it wants to run, jump, climb, and play all day long. But at such a young age, kids are forced into a classroom and is told to sit still and focus on boring subjects. Although a child’s education is so important, it is unjust to diagnose a 11 year old kid with ADHD because he can’t sit still or focus on how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
So during a parent teacher conference, Jimmy’s teacher tells his parents that he never pays attention, and he can’t sit still. The teacher suggest that the parents take Jimmy to see a therapist to help him focus more. It’s not that Jimmy has an issue, it’s the fact that Jimmy is bored in Mrs. Boatright’s history class.
Have you ever been so bored before? Are you fidgety or still? Are you focus or not focused? I know whenever I’m bored I can’t sit still, I need something to get rid of this boredom. If there is something that you truly enjoy, I doubt these symptoms from above will show up, and if they do, it’s less of them. The reason why you have ADHD symptoms is because you are bored with your life. You’re bored with your relationships, career, school, and friends.
You take that same boy who can’t focus in the history class and give him a PS4 controller, I bet you will get him to sit still and focus. You take that girl who can’t focus in that same class a barbie doll house set, I bet you will get her to sit still and focus also. Although ADHD is more common in boys, girls can still share a lot of the symptoms.
Rather than slapping a ADHD label on a person with bad short term memory, poor planning skills, and lack of focus, it would be better to work on each one. Once you put a label on someone, those symptoms of the label like ADHD start to become more apparent. This is a called a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Once I started to only learn and do things I’m interested in, my focus became sharp. All because I’m no longer doing things I don’t want to do like sitting in a boring history class. It’s hard for anyone to hold their attention on something that they have zero interest in. Our education system is outdated, because you are teaching kids through their ears when they learn better through their eyes. Hence that’s why kids will learn more and retain more watching a documentary than a whole semester of school.
Conclusion:
I’m not saying that your experience with the symptoms of ADHD aren’t real but the label that you place on it is not real. Sure we all forget things, we misplace things, some more than others, and sure we sometimes can’t focus on tasks that cause us to procrastinate, and sure we become impulsive to a point where we don’t think before we act. But to slap a label on it and get put on pills is not the answer. The answer is to work on which one that is affecting your life and develop a system than to try to chemically mask the problem.
Thanks for reading 🙂
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