The New York Times gathered several opinion pieces from experts in the field debating whether the ADHD diagnosis is helping or hurting kids.
The contributing writers -- special educators, behavioral pediatricians, authors -- share their thoughts, research, and experience diagnosing -- or not diagnosing -- childhood ADHD.
While the issue is publicly debated on a national stage among the experts, it's also a hot-button topic among colleagues in the workplace and within families at the dinner table.
Many of us have deeply personal experiences with ADHD through our own diagnoses -- or those of our children, siblings, and friends.
In his piece, Growing Up ADD, Erik Reedstrom, a developer for Parent.co, shares his powerful story about the impact of receiving an ADD diagnosis as a child.
By my teenage years I had discovered that I thought quicker and more expressively when I forgot to take my medicine. And as part of the required rebellion and independence that accompanies one’s teens, I simply refused to take them anymore. That was it, I was done with psychiatrists and medicine. I still believed ADD was a real thing — I was somehow mentally deficient; however, I was perfectly happy to be so.
Clearly, a discussion missing from the larger conversation about ADHD is the potentially negative impact of receiving the diagnosis as a child, versus the possible clarity and relief gained when diagnosed as an adult.
