When starting school, younger children are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD

Re:When starting school, younger children are more likely to... by saulrh on Thursday November 29, 2018 @09:29PM (#18566112)

It doesn't help at all that the common medications are mild, situational nootropics with grossly inflated PR. Usually you say something like "I got a prescription for X and, instead of overdosing and dying, stopped having episodes" and people immediately realize that you're not making things up. Unless the prescription that fixed your brain was Adderall, in which case they just accuse you of being addicted to speed and try to lecture you about drugs.

I've started saying that I have a neurological issue that interferes with memory and concentration. Having been diagnosed at age 27 also helps. People react much better when they're not being blind, bigoted asshats.

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Re:When starting school, younger children are more likely to... by benj111 on Friday November 30, 2018 @03:52AM (#18567703)

How does this reconcile with wampingwillows original comment, (must have shown symptoms by age 7)? If you don't mind my asking.

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Re:When starting school, younger children are more likely to... by roguecoder on Friday November 30, 2018 @05:27PM (#18573314)

You can show symptoms and not be diagnosed. For example, "at his parent's request, had his hearing tested 4 times before age 8 despite there not being any difficulties" could be evidence that inattention was evident, even though it was mis-diagnosed at the time. They may have been labeled "lazy" or "space-cadet" without being offered any practical support: especially among women who grew up in the 80s, it's pretty common to have not been diagnosed despite having a clear history of symptoms.

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Re:When starting school, younger children are more likely to... by saulrh on Friday November 30, 2018 @09:29PM (#18574694)

> They may have been labeled "lazy" or "space-cadet" without being offered any practical support

Yep. For the longest time I just thought that I was lazy and disorganized and that all the "brains" everyone said I had were useless because I just made stupid mistakes continually. Everyone knew I had issues, including myself, but because everyone just thought I was forgetful and lazy the only help I got was well-meaning advice from friends and self-help books.

The really fun part: other people have stated in this thread that therapy, absent pharmaceutical assistance, has effectively no value for ADD. I believe it. All of the advice I got and tried, over a decade and a half of real effort, had about as much of an effect as spitting into a hurricane. People's personal organisational tricks are woefully insufficient for ADD, just like with every other real mental health problem in existence.

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Re:When starting school, younger children are more likely to... by benj111 on Sunday December 02, 2018 @09:47AM (#18582495)

I understand that.

The parent for example had a gap of 20 years. It just seems strange to be relying on 20 year old notes, rather than what you see before you.

I don't know anything about the subject, and not saying anyone is wrong or anything.

It just seems very strange to me, how many parents didn't bother taking their children to the Dr X number of years ago either because of money, or just because ADHD wasn't a thing, so the parents thought the child was just naughty? Unless you start relying on the 20 year old recollections of random family members, which doesn't seem better in any way better than diagnosing them based on the here and now, which is ultimately what is important. I would far rather we treat people that have ADHD now, rather than had it 20 years ago.

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