We Over Diagnose ADHD and it Ticks Me Off

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADHD, is marked by the inability to focus, tendency for constant motion, and impulsivity. Unfortunately, these are the same symptoms of another serious condition: childhood. In the video we watched last Friday during class the narrator noted how the increase of young children, especially elementary school age children, has increased in correlation with the number of standardized tests children are forced to take. Teachers, desperate for their students to attain high scores on these standardized tests, are forced to sequester their students inside classrooms where they sit at desks and learn in such a way that is completely stagnant.

Children are energetic creatures. They are in the earlier years of their physical and psychological development and as such their body produces more energy than that of the average adult already fully grown. As students, being kept inside a classroom all day with only an hour at maximum to run outside and play, children are unable to burn off the excess energy their body is naturally producing. As a result of all this pent up energy, children feel the constant need to move. They jiggle their feet, wiggle in their chairs, if an authority figure yells at them for constantly moving the movement become internal, flitting from one idea to the next, and teachers, having to be responsible for 30 of the small humanoids tell the parents that they should have their child checked for ADHD because what else are they supposed to do?

So, the parent takes the child to a psychiatrist for screening and more often than not they child tests positive for ADHD symptoms. I myself remember my own screening process when I was eleven years old. I was, thankfully, tested at an age where most of my classmates were beginning to settle down in the classroom. I, on the other hand, was not, so I was given little pills that really did help. However, with the growing popularity of diagnosing kids as having ADHD so has the number of kids diagnosed while still in elementary school. This is ridiculous. Children are by their very nature hyperactive and they don’t have the experience to reign in their impulsivity. They want to go out and do and see and explore because everything is new to them. Pumping these children full of pills is not helpful to them nor does it help the individuals who actually do have ADHD.

ADHD is caused in large part by the brain’s inability to process and produce certain chemical reactions which is why it is called a disorder, because something isn’t quite working right. Scans have shown that there is actually a physical difference between a normal and an ADHD-positive brain but because it is over diagnosed in children and associated with behaviors that are markers of childhood it is not taken seriously as a mental disorder. More times than I can count I have had classmates claim they know they are ADHD simply because they are feeling especially hyper that day. They use something that I have to struggle with every day as an excuse for their disruptive behavior. They laugh and they joke andnothing makes me angrier. But it is the social perception. ADHD is a joke simply because “everyone has it”. It’s somehow become the universal disorder and that needs to stop.

I do not believe a child should be screened for ADHD before middle school at the earliest. Instead,

the educational system should be reminded that children are bouncing balls of energy. Standings in the corporate world have been shown to do wonders for the productive power of adults, they can easily be incorporated in classrooms as a way to help children burn off excess energy. Desks that are basically stationary bicycles with flat tops on them have also been shown to be effective in promoting children’s ability to focus on the task at hand. I do not believe that medicating students into submission is the answer, rather better understanding and accommodation of children’s physiology is required.