Attention to Over-diagnosis: A.D.H.D. and the mislabeling of childhood.

If one believes recently released estimates, millions of school-age children are affected by a diagnosable mental disorder that impairs their ability to learn and even function in daily life. But if one sees through the recent trend to medicalize everything, this same group of children is simply behaving normally. What twenty years ago would have been passed off as kids being kids is now labeled as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or A.D.H.D. As the NY Times reported (link to article), nearly 1 in 5 high-school age boys has been diagnosed with A.D.H.D. and nearly 1 in 10 are being medicated for the condition. In the past decade alone there has been a 53% increase in A.D.H.D. among school-age children in general. Either kids are rapidly losing their ability to function, or the medical establishment is recklessly pathologizing normal behavior as deviant. Contributing to this overdiagnosis are parents and teachers who find it easier to pump kids full of medication rather than address behavioral issues directly. Increasingly, children themselves are to blame. As the pressure to excel academically increases, high school and college students have become desperate for anything that can offer them an advantage. They are well aware that medications used in the treatment of A.D.H.D. can increase focus and mental stamina, and students will sometimes fake symptoms in order to obtain them. The ever increasing numbers of kids diagnosed with A.D.H.D. is not an indication of a worrisome epidemic. Instead, it is an indication of society’s desire for quick fixes and easy excuses. Certainly there are some children who are genuinely impaired by A.D.H.D. For them proper medical care can make the difference between making decent grades and failing out of school completely.

Arguably however, the majority of children diagnosed with this condition do not need medication. While they do have an attention deficit, it is a deficit of attention to the children from adults. Parents and teachers can remedy what is viewed as problematic behavior by addressing children individually. But this takes actual time and effort, and with short-cuts made available by all to willing doctors, medication becomes an enticing alternative.

However freely available these medications become, the fact remains that they are powerful psychostimulants with the potential to cause real harm. Adderall is one of the most common drugs prescribed for A.D.H.D., and it is essence nothing but brand name amphetamine. There have been numerous reports of Adderall induced psychosis, and symptoms of addiction often manifest in children trying to taper off usage of the drug. Adderall dependency can develop, and children who begin on a low dose may need to continually increase the amount taken in order to simply function. Other drug choices have similar profiles. Even non-stimulant medications such as Atomoxetine pose a danger. In a 2009 drug safety report, the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency found that "Atomoxetine is associated with treatment-emergent psychotic or manic symptoms in children and adolescents without a history of such disorders." By treating an illusory disease, doctors may be inducing genuine mental disorders.

America has a predilection towards reclassifying normality as disordered. This tendency is driven by the pharmaceutical industry that is all too eager to market its latest cure for some manufacture disease. It is further abetted by adults who prefer automatons over children and lack the patience of inclination to deal with kids directly. Again, A.D.H.D. is a legitimate disability, but it has become the diagnosis dejur, recklessly given to far too many children. The term A.D.H.D. is simply a greenlight to medicate the masses at an early age, get them hooked into the medical-pharmaceutical complex, and perpetuate legalized drug dependency. Perhaps if adults were more attentive to these facts, they would again recognise that the behavior of most children isn’t all that much of a problem. Besides, there is already a cure for short attention spans and hyperactivity among kids; it’s called growing up.