My understanding of the parent and grandparent comments are that they are lamenting that boys are being diagnosed and/or dosed with ADHD medication just because they aren't given time and space to work out their energy. So schools and society are dealing with fidgety unfocused boys by giving them false diagnosis and inappropriate medication.

This is all distinct from people who actually really have ADHD and in which case medications can be appropriate.

I have properly clinically diagnosed ADHD- for me in HS there was a definite correlation between time spent exercising and grades- when the sports season ended, there was almost always a dip in my grades from tests and the like two weeks later. Call it anecdata if you will, but there's got to be at least some sort of correlation between exercise and mental state- I doubt it's just a thing for people with ADHD, either.

> Runnning around does not make a child with ADHD more sedate or perform better in the classroom. "Just go do some exercise" is like telling depressed people to "just cheer up".

You are completely right.

What I meant is that I have a feeling that often ADHD is diagnosed out of convenience rather than a real illness. I certainly didn't mean that all ADHD diagnosis are a scam.

There is a anti medication bias because these psychotropics medications were not designed to be used longer term. I’ve tried medication, it warped me into a shell of my creative self. We’ve got to stop using psychotropic drugs to fit people to society. And starting helping people integrate.

We’ve had risings rates of mental illness for years. And these method of diagnose and prescribe is only making it worse.

There’s obviously benefits to medicine but we’ve gone insane with how we’re describing the mass amount of personal mental variance in the world as illness and trying to eliminate it.

These medications have lasting long term effects that are unknown. If kids that are the brightest are struggling to succeed change the rules not the kids. I learned more when I dropped out and studied what I love instead of following curriculum. We've got to have more varied paths towards success.

I don't have any stigma against medication, but I do think our current understanding of treating things like ADHD is primitive. I have a kid that's too young for a formal diagnosis, but has a genetic predisposition for it and has a lot of signs. His sensory input issues might be unrelated, but making sure he gets proper proprioceptive and vestibular input help him regulate (a sensory diet--or exercise). As does nightly melatonin to make sure he's sleeping properly. These are things others in his family never had the attention paid to.

A lot of the complaints and stigma I've seen are from people who took medication growing up. They saw the need and value, but loathe the side effects.

My daughter has a lot of energy and without some exercise, my wife thought she was demonstrating signs of ADHD; thanks FB Moms, you ignoramuses.

Signed her up for gymnastics and ballet and she calmed down a whole lot and did better in the classroom as well.

To me (and a lot of other people), most ADHD diagnosis is clearly not something that should be medicated, especially at such young ages. So this is not a general anti-medication bias, but something that is specifically related to ADHD, and how it is over-diagnosed and over-medicated.