Stating The Obvious 0431 – Book Discussion: ADHD Nation Part I: It’s Not Easy To Sell Minimal Brain Dysfunction. Better Change The Name.

Let the games begin. We begin discussion about the book ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic by Alan Schwarz.

This is a great book. Well written. Hints of humour and sarcasm. Compelling narrative. Avoids killing you with hard data and big words.

Did you know that ADHD was originally called MBD. Minimal Brain Dysfunction. The name was changed in part to help make it more socially acceptable. So people would want to be “afflicted” by it.

MBD was not self-reported by children. It was “identified” by teachers. The same teachers who care about the childryns.

Dr. Peters testifies that he has never, not once, seen or heard of any parent being pushed by a school system in to medicating their child. So help him God.

A parent then talks about how many years the school spent threatening legal action against her and her husband if they did not medicate their child.

The checklist for diagnosing ADHD includes the following items. Remember that we are talking about 8 year old children here.

Easily distracted.
Doesn’t seem to listen.
Has difficulty organizing work.
Needs a lot of supervision.
Runs about or climbs on things excessively.
Has difficulty staying seated.
And much, much more.

In addition to a number of these being repetitive notice how the words are emotional (specifically the emotional response of the teacher) not quantifiable. “Excessively”, “a lot”, “easily”, “doesn’t seem to” are not measurable and objective criteria. These are nebulous descriptions of the teachers emotional response to having to deal with the child.

If anything this are reflections of the teacher, not of the child.

Maybe the teachers should be on medication. Oh wait, in 2017 they are.

Drug companies fund CHADD. CHADD seeks to convince more people they have ADHD and ADHD is totally normal. Nothing to see here. Move along.