New York Times Asks: Is the ADHD Diagnosis Helping or Hurting Kids?
by ParentCo.
February 02, 2016
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.
Source: NYTimes
ParentCo.
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