Does ADHD Exist?

[jason]

Originally published at .... You can comment here or there.

This is an interesting topic. I have ADD/ADHD. All my life. The question of its existence is not an issue for me, ADHD is a descriptive of a state, not a pathological designation. It may be a disease, but that’s not my issue. [and this is my personal, not professional opinion] That is, you need to recognize it and engage it, not drug it and ‘fix’ it. To me it IS a social construct… no less than genius or all of the descriptions of intellectual impairments; that is we have created these constructs to deal with something that pre-dates the construct. I don’t get why this is a problem to people, but people sometimes seem to want unassailable truths.

Myomancy: Does ADHD Exist?: “This is not as stupid a question as it sounds. We can’t do a blood test or brain scan to diagnoses ADHD so how do we know it exists? Yes some children are more active than others and have worse concentrations but does that mean its a disease, a mental health problem needing billions of tablets to treat? Is a ADHD a social construct?”

Comments

[jumpinjulia.livejournal.com]

The problem begins with referring to ADD/ADHD (or whatever it's being called this week) as "a mental health problem". Sorry, but I know plenty of people with bona fide cases of manic depression, depression, and schizophrenia... those people have mental health problems. I've also known you for a few years now & have also taught a few students in my time who clearly had ADD (even if they weren't saying so) & I feel like I can say that ADD is not a mental health problem compared to what these other people in my life have. oooh... that just has made me so mad!! :-|

Maybe because I'm a life long asthmatic, I've always thought of ADD as I do asthma. It's just there. It's not really a disease -- because my brain equates disease with death. And if it's something which you happen to have, it just is what it is. Normal. Nothing special. Even when no one around you can relate. ADD, like asthma, is something you learn to live with and manage yourself. But when one is young, we tend to rely too much on adults to teach us to manage these things; unfortunately, not enough adults have healthy attitudes towards chronic conditions in otherwise healthy "normal" people.

To some extent, all chronic conditions & how they are handled are socially constructed. The condition is very real, the maangement is socially constructed. And unfortunately, there is a lot of bad management out there.

OK... I'll stop ranting now. Sorry. That just got my knickers in a twist!

[complicittheory.livejournal.com]

people like to pathologize things, don't they! Like you say, it is 'real' but how we approach it can be handled differently.