Have you ever had a day when you feel like you were wired backwards? Do you ever feel like you are charged with so much energy that you will go mad if you don’t get it out? Do you find yourself reading a question and then rereading just to soak it in? For someone living with ADHD these are daily struggles. There are thousands of people who must carry this label and new diagnoses every day. Both children and adults are stricken by this disorder. Giving them the label causes greater problems than the disorder itself. Individuals with the label of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience increased peer related issues, have a higher documented rate of injuries inflicted, and are known as defiant and disobedient due to the implied symptoms of this disorder. Individuals with ADHD experience social rejection and a lack of long term friends because of their impulsive behaviors. “Children with ADHD have 3 times as many peer related problems than those without a history of the disorder.” (CDC.gov citation needed) Parents report that children with ADHD are 10 times more likely to experience difficulties that interfere with making and keeping friends. Due to the general harsh judgment of society daily life is difficult on anyone who is “different”. Because of that harshness many children with this diagnosis experience bullying which becomes physical. Also these children lack the ability to filter thoughts before they escape the mouth. This causes them to say things that would otherwise be kept silent. These thoughts in addition to the social rejection hinder their ability to create long term friends. Because of their impulsive behavior these children are also more likely to suffer injuries. A higher percentage of parents with chi... ... middle of paper ... ... want to accept these individuals as normal. Soon this disorder will be known as a mental handicap. ¿Labeling someone with this disorder can hinder their social acceptability, allow them to excuse their behaviors as a disease, and may also promote a depressed and unhealthy lifestyle. It would be helpful if the intended resources were implicated appropriately but this system is failing our youth. The labeling should be removed for the betterment of our children. There is a level of understanding that needs to be used but we need to hold our youth accountable for their actions regardless of a diagnosis. The next time you see that child in the grocery store that appears to be old enough to know better but is still acting like your toddler just remember, he may not be able to control it. We should not pass judgment on others based on our socially mislead knowledge.
182). Social rejection leads to social isolation and even social ostracism. The deficit in behavioral inhibition lead ADHD students to make choices impulsively and to overreact emotionally (Hallahan et al., 2012, p. 182).
First, there are two different types of ADHD. An individual can be diagnosed with hyperactivity or impulsivity. Those with hyperactivity cannot sit still, talk excessively, and always act as if they are “on the go (intuniv, 2013). If diagnosed with impulsivity symptoms are blurting out words, have a hard time waiting on others and interrupt others regularly. These symptoms make you think of an undisciplined child and are not ones that will make you think of a disease. This disorder can go undetected for quite some time and that can cause unnecessary stress to an individual’s everyday life.
In many ways, I partially subscribe to the world-view that my parents hold. As such, until recently, I've been skeptical of my brother's diagnosis. In particular, at the time, it seemed to me that distractibility was something that I too suffered from. I didn't enjoy forcing myself to concentrate, but I did it because I knew that I had to. In addition, my brother seemed perfectly capable of concentrating when he was playing soccer, watching the Discovery channel or playing video games. In my mind, his problems appeared to be that he was spoiled and didn't like being told what to do. In addition, I think that ADHD gave everyone in my family the excuse that they needed.
In the book, “Rampage”, it is discussed, because many kids who go through the school system are not known well enough to see the warning signs. No one wants their child to have this negative stigma that goes along with mental illness, so they blind themselves to what is there. Most parents make excuses for why their child is exhibiting behaviors of mental illness, and hope that it goes away. However, for some children it does not. And these are the children who slip through the cracks in the school system and go unnoticed by others.
Additionally, many people who fetishize mental disorders also do not comprehend the importance of setting boundaries—especially socially. For example, I, as a person who is
At least one in four families in the U.S. is affected by mental illnesses. Unfortunately there is no cure for this range of illnesses, which have been around for thousands of years. Of the American adult population, 5.4 percent have a serious mental illness. These health conditions are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, behavior, or some combination of these. They are also associated with distress and sometimes impaired functioning. In 1990 the total cost of mental health services in the U.S. was $148 billion. According to a new report by the Mental Health Foundation, one in five children suffer from a mental health problem. Attention deficit hyperactive disorder is a mental illness that is diagnosed mainly in young children and doesn’t always disappear in adulthood.” All we know is that this genetic, inherited condition [ADHD] is not due to brain damage at all but rather a variation in how the brain functions.” Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) includes symptoms and characteristics that can be placed in one of three categories: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. These characteristics commonly leave a person with ADHD with lack of attention span, easily distracted, fidgety, struggling to stay seated, having trouble engaging in calm activities, impatient, and talking excessively or out of turn. A new study by researchers says that hyperactive children have behavioral differences due to under active parts of their brain, a biological malfunction, rather than due to way they were brought up. This was revealed by a magnetic scanning device that allowed researchers to look at the brains of children diagnosed with ADHD. These studies and statistics reinforce the claim that mental illnesses are not invented simply to justify drugging of children and a disease that needs be educated to the public for better understanding. Rather, ADHD is an illness that affects many people throughout their lives. This topic is often misunderstood by the public. The media and medical community need to educate the positive side of this controversy and not just show the opposing view, which often times misrepresented by the media.
Many of the challenges children on the spectrum face, continue to be areas of hardship during adolescence. The transition from childhood to adolescence is a vulnerable and challenging time for typically developing children, but even more so for those with ASD. Bullying and peer-victimization increases during adolescence for these children, as their lack of social skills and close friendships makes them easy targets. According to Fisher and Taylor (2015), out of thirty students with ASD they surveyed, 73 percent had experienced at least one
Challenges due to poverty could be addressed by providing financial assistance, food, and clothing. Time spent with parents is essential when dealing with children who have behavioral issues because parents or guardians may not have the funds or time to spend with their children due to other obligations needed to support the family. Parents and guardians play a major role in helping children grow and develop to their fullest potential. As children grow, they depend on their parents or guardians for basic needs and support such as food, shelter, education, protection, and care. During their life difficulties and times of crisis, they depend on family for guidance. Mental disorders in childhood and adolescence can be chronic, require proper attention, help, and support from caregivers and teachers as well. Parents and guardians living with children with mental illness disorders have additional responsibilities and roles to care for them as they do for healthy children. The best way to help those families are to have them participate in their own income generating activities such as respite services or programs accepted by Medicaid where they receive counseling from social workers or other healthcare professional. Pelham et al. (2007) found that using a cost of illness (COI) framework examines the economic impact of ADHD in childhood and adolescences and identified studies; therefore, most conducted on existing databases by using diagnostic and medical procedure codes focused on health care costs. The costs were examined for ADHD treatment and other health care costs, education, parental work loss, and juvenile justice. According to Pelham et al. (2007), this incomplete evidence base estimated that annu...
After reading the articles Driven to Distraction and Lost in Translation, both from Today’s Parent magazine, I have learned many new things. I learned that it is sometimes not very easy to pick out a child with ADHD, even if it is your own child. It could take years to discover that a child has ADHD. It can be easily detected once the child has entered elementary school. One of the signs of ADHD is falling behind in school, or acting up and not being able to pay attention for long periods of time. This causes frustration for the child, the parents, teachers and the other students in the classroom. It is difficult for parents because they do not want to believe that their child has a disability. It is even harder for the child because they are the ones that have to deal with the name calling, being held back a grade or two and just knowing that they are different. The issue of being different for a child living with ADHD is very stressful and could make the child not want to learn new things or pay attention in school. They just give up on trying to learn.
disorder it is not just that one person that has to learn to deal with it, the
While the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association) put forth a list of behaviors which predominantly fall in the category of ADD and/or ADHD, many researchers still maintain that there is no set way to diagnosis or develop a treatment program to these disorders which will be guaranteed to work. At the same time there is another set of researchers who maintain that these disorders actually do not exist at all. However, in the real world, parents and educators still continue to struggle with the task of coping with children who are hyperactive and who have very low attention span and whose behavior often interferes with schooling and family life. [Armstrong, 1997]
ADHD is a disorder that has been on the rise for several years now. The disorder is one that can cause many impairments to a child’s attention span, making it difficult to concentrate and to keep on task, especially on schoolwork. (Graham, 2007) The statistics have been growing ...
What is ADHD? Attention Deficit Disorder (AD/HD) is mostly an organic problem, which tends to run in families. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood. An estimated 3 to 5 percent of the general population suffers from the disorder, which is characterized by agitated behavior and an inability to focus on tasks.
The American heritage Dictionary defines Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as, “an attention deficit disorder in which hyperactivity is present.” Attention Deficit Disorder is defined as, “A syndrome, usually diagnosed in childhood, characterized by a persistent pattern of impulsiveness, a short attention span, and often hyperactivity, and interfering especially with academic, occupational, and social performance.” ADHD is most often diagnosed during childhood and was formerly believed to have lessened and ended as the child matured but recent studies have found that between 35 and 50 % of all cases persist into adulthood.
The purpose of this research was to describe and understand Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the most effective treatment options that are available today. ADHD is a mental health disorder that affects 3-9% of the population in ways that, if left untreated, can wreak havoc on the mind of the sufferer. It makes concentration difficult, large tasks seem insurmountable, and causes impulsive and hyperactive tendencies. Fortunately, research and experiments have led to new and effective treatments to help those who suffer from this disorder (Dupaul 8). This research examined journal articles and internet sources on the topic to help unlock the complexities of the disorder through scientific research. It also was a way to separate the myths of the disorder from the truths, while discovering the causes, diagnosis methods, and best treatment alternatives to battle this prevalent disorder.