#decadesofdistraction

While growing up, going to school, learning anything I could get someone teach me about, and still seeking more, had me feeling pretty good.  Not knowing anything about ADHD I never questioned why I bounced from subject to subject and why I couldn’t leave “that’s just why” as an acceptable explanation when I wanted more detail.  It seemed to me that most people were content with just knowing that something works, and not why it works. They also seemed to care even less as to how something was made.  

Being interested in so many different topics even had gotten me in trouble from time to time.  The burning need to know more details sometimes went to far, made me “annoying” or “pushy”.   I took those times and learned to keep myself in check.  This continued on throughout early adulthood.  

During my late teens and early twenties I played music for a living and worked as a mechanic in a custom shop, jobs that catered to these need-to-know feelings in my head.   This ultimately lead to learning more and more subjects and topics.  I went on to do audio recording and eventually full on media work.  Now older I realize that I needed to take steps to get medicated.  I researched medications and talked with people whom has tried different kinds.   Several months of this had passed prior to deciding to go talk to someone.  I knew what I wanted to try and my doc agreed with my decision.  I got them and everyone noticed a positive working improvement as well as more patients and improved focus. It was a notable improvement over all other non-psychopharmacological treatments had such this effect. Which brings me to why I am writing this post.  I have been flooded with comments, conversations, and posts about how ADHD is not real and that it’s one big-ass conspiracy from the government and/or drug companies.  

The biggest issue with the aforementioned interactions was that the topic of these interactions was often not about ADHD but it was about the system and the over medicating of our youth and so on.  Well I have to agree that there is a problem; Too many children are medicated, when they are simply bored or under stimulated.  This seems to directly affect the influence of naysayers and those who would try to convince everyone that ADHD doesn’t actually exist.  

It’s a struggle with some people to understand that YES I have ADHD and YES I agree that we have a problem in this nation.  How could I be on both sides of the fence?  Because I know better.  I went to school for Psychology.  I have talked to hundreds of people who were medicated as a kid for no reason and some that absolutely required it.   An issue here is that it’s not that it’s not real, it’s that the detection/test is less than definitive.  It’s also that the name “ Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” that allows for misrepresentation of the actual problems: Lack of focus, difficulty learning beyond a certain point, being too open with people, difficulty with tact, etc.  There needs to be change in several areas here.  We shouldn’t be so quick to diagnose and medicate, we shouldn’t deny the problem, we should develop better tests.