Rising Number of People Seeking ADHD Diagnosis Without Treatment, say Experts

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From The Guardian. “People are increasingly seeking to an obtain an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment, according to experts who have called for more research to understand why.

Some people now regard ADHD as “an identity, rather than a disorder”, with the result that many obtain assessments from poor quality private providers, which lead them to “believe they have a condition needing treatment”, said the psychiatrist Dr Marios Adamou, the founder of the UK Adult ADHD Network.

Adamou was speaking ahead of a new Channel 4 documentary airing on 18 August titled The Great ADHD Myth?. It is presented by the NHS psychiatrist Dr Max Pemberton, who concludes that ADHD is a “social construct” rather than a medical condition, and that schools should adapt to better support a wider range of children rather than medicating them into fitting into a restrictive norm.“

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Note: The Channel 4 documentary includes former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dinesh Bhugra, who we recently interviewed. 

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  1. ADHD is a construct. Social, clinical, it’s still a construct.

    There is no valid and reliable evidence for ADHD.

    There are a “cluster” of OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOURS, that are called “symptoms” so that they can gain clinical traction and standing. From a clinical standing, ADHD can be monetized – grants, funding, research, researchers, Universities, phaRMa, experts, medicos, et al. can all gain financially as well as in other ways.

    It is interesting that pathologising children’s behaviour is heralded as a normal course for society’s main influencers to take. They could just as easily say “put better qualified teachers in teaching environments” “put qualfied and experienced teacher assistants into classes” “assist the child, children with their presenting needs, in real time” and so on. The Departments of and for Education would then be responsible accountable in all ways. That burden, financial and other resources, is too great for them to want to willingly undertake and handle.

    If educators, teachers, parent/s can see nothing untoward about the current ADHD processes, then that in itself is telling and troubling.

    It is proposed, that for every child drugged from a psych perspective, those doing the prescribing be mandated to provide proof for their reasoning and decision-making processes. Followed by quarterly reviews of their prescribing habits and justifications, along with bi-annual full blood assay checks, with ongoing comparison to the initial foundational blood test attended to prior to prescriptions being written and handed out.

    Parents should insist on these baseline checks.

    Oh, and since amphetamines are helpful (as stated in the provided article) they might as well be approved for all other observable behavioural “clusters” and problems, such as but not limited to road rage, drinking in excess, not wanting a new hair do to get wet when it suddenly rains, being annoyed when having to wait for hours to see a booked specialist who is running behind schedule, and more … . Just make “it” up, cluster “it”, turn “it” into a problem, but first ALWAYS ensure that loads of money can be made.

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    • Or put your stimulant-seeking children in more stimulating classrooms. It’s been known since the 70s that so-called “ADHD” kids are indistinguishable from “normal” kids in an open classroom environment. The biggest cause of “ADHD” is developmentally inappropriate expectations from adults.

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