I'm sick of all these people who say <span title="ADHD/dyslexia/Asperger's/dyspraxia">ADHD/dyslexia/Asperger's/...</span> are over diagnosed?

Question

I have dyspraxia, ADHD and ocular vision. I have STRUGLED SEVERLY throughout my education. I pushed myself to the limit to get into a good, independant school. Which is when I was diagnosed. Finally my education became better. So for all you people or IDIOTS who say that they are over-diagnosed, SHUT IT! Just because you dont have it, doesnt mean its over diagnosed or not real.

I hope you think about your answer! The question is, why do they say its over diagnosed?

Answer 1

Get mad! I agree!

Answer 2

I have ADD and have had it all my  life. In ways it is over diagnosed because many parents insist to the doctor that their child has it when they don&#039;t and their doctor will give in and agree with them. Sometimes without even seeing the child.

Answer 3

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!               I have asperger&#039;s so i know what you mean.      but also adhd is a little bit over diagnosed         i mean sometimes kids are misdiagnosed with adhd when its really childhood bipolar.     also the same is true with it sometimes actually being Asperger&#039;s Syndrome

I actually was misdiagnosed with ADHD when I was 8 years old       Now we know i actually have asperger&#039;s syndrome

Answer 4

I see your view and I wholeheartedly embrace it. However, lately so many parents have been using ADD/ADHD/other disorders as an excuse to keep from disciplining their child and some are in a hurry to get their kids on drugs to keep them under control. I think that is WRONG and should NEVER happen.

ADD/ADHD/dyslexia/Asperger&#039;s/the others are ALL legitimate medical conditions.

Answer 5

Some of those really ARE overdiagnosed. That doesn&#039;t mean they are not real conditions that some people really do have. It just means that too many kids are being misdiagnosed with them and are therefore not getting what they need.

What really sucks is that because those conditions are overdiagnosed then some people don&#039;t take it seriously when someone is said to have them, because they assume that they&#039;re just one of those who have been misdiagnosed. And then there&#039;s of course the annoying ignorance of those who refuse to believe those are real medical conditions and just say &quot;all those things didn&#039;t exist when I was a kid&quot;.

Answer 6

The fact that you actually suffer from those disorders doesn&#039;t mean that they aren&#039;t over diagnosed. Of course they exist, they just aren&#039;t nearly as prevalent as people like to think. Look around you. I&#039;m willing to bet that the vast majority of other people you see who apparently have the same diseases as you didn&#039;t struggle nearly as hard as you did. If anything, I&#039;d think you&#039;d be angrier then anyone about how badly those disorders are over diagnosed, because you really know what its like.

Why do people say that they are over diagnosed?  Well, because they are. Most doctors and psychologists would agree with that statement. Mental illnesses are tricky things. Most people, at any given time, show symptoms of mental illnesses. That’s perfectly normal. Those symptoms become an illness when they pass a certain level of intensity.

With that out of the way, the problem lies in two things. Fear and personal responsibility. When people show even mild signs of a mental illness, they become convinced that they have it. They then expect to see more symptoms of that illness, and provide them for themselves. Someone who becomes convinced they have schizophrenia will eventually start having delusions. A child who is told they are hyperactive will start behaving that way. The behavior becomes excusable by the illness. After all, they can&#039;t control what they do, right?

Drug companies also play a huge role into this. They put on commercials for ADD medications and say &quot;Is your child restless, have trouble concentrating in school, and very active? They may have ADD&quot;. Well, every child has those symptoms sometimes. That’s perfectly normal. The parent then becomes convinced that their child has ADD when that child is completely normal. The parent then tells the doctor that the child has ADD, and the doctor, figuring that the parent knows the childs behavior better then the doctor does, prescribes medication for a perfectly normal child.

And this is where personal responsibility comes in. A parent may not be willing to deal with perfectly normal behavior in a child. Perhaps a child is hyperactive because he never gets a chance to go outside and play. A child, after all, is not designed to sit around and read all day without moving. The parent gets tired of constant demands to go outside, and decides the child is not simply active, he&#039;s hyperactive, and that can be controlled with medication. So instead of going outside to play to solve the problem, they use medication.

The illnesses you&#039;ve described manifest themselves in many different ways. The symptoms could be caused by an illness, yes, but it could be many other things, as well. Bad behavior and grades could have many explanations. If a child is having trouble learning to read, yes, it could be dyslexia. It could also be laziness, boredom, lack of support to study in the home or a thousand other things. There is an attitude that when you are diagnosed with an illness, suddenly your behavior, no matter how bad it is, is perfectly acceptable. It’s the easy way out for many people.  It’s much more socially acceptable for a child to be dyslexic then lazy. The label doesn’t solve the problem- not being able to read very well- it simply makes it acceptable.

So like I said when I started this whole thing- people say that those illnesses are over diagnosed because they ARE over diagnosed. If anything, you should be angrier then the rest of us about it, having actually suffered from them.

Answer 7

Neurological disorganization is common.  My objection lies in calling it thins like dyslexia, ADHD ect.  Each person needs individual assessment and specific remidial action.  I do not like current terminology as it tends to cookbook treatment.  So yes they are overdiagnosed.  They should not be diagnosed at all.  People shoud be labled according to their brain deficits not hashed into catagories.

Answer 8

the school which my child (aged 5) goes to said and I quote &#039; your child has ADHD&#039; due to this comment our child had to see the educational shrink, who tested him and said your child has the mentality of an 8 year old and he finds the class work boring, due to him been so clever, the school are still not happy and now he has to go to a special school, how stupid does all this sound, they are mis diagnosing him and sending him to a special school because he is intelligent, I believe he has been wrongly over diagnosed by a teacher, yes a teacher!!

Answer 9

rant much?

Answer 10

Because it has become the excuse for a problem student.  Child doesn&#039;t pay attention put him on meds because it&#039;s ADD.  Child has a hard time reading they say the kid is dyslexic and don&#039;t bother to check the vision half the time.  Really... Are you a parent with a grade schooler these days?  I am and I had one teacher that said my son had ADD.  He doesn&#039;t, the doctor said he has ADD without even asking serious academic questions.  Now new doctor, and teachers who are there to teach not just collecting a paycheck realize my son races through his work and doesn&#039;t have ADD he is just lazy when it comes to school work.  If I wouldn&#039;t have paid more attention to it he would probably be on the latest new drug for ADD.

Fact of the matter is, is that many parents expect the teachers to do all the work, many don&#039;t help their child with homework problems, they expect the teacher to be the only person that helps their child suceed in life.  As a parent I know it is my responsibility to make sure I pay attention to my sons homework and ask his teachers what he is doing in the classroom.

Many of these problems of over diagnosing is because there are still teachers out there that don&#039;t give a c**p as long as the check comes each month and there are parents looking for excuses to not have to parent.

Answer 11

because you were diagnosed with it correctly that means it&#039;s impossible that it is overdiagnosed in others?  I suggest you take some courses on math/statistics/probability and ask the professor about anecdotal vs empirical evidence.

Answer 12

I think people say it is over diagnosed because sometimes it is misdiagnosed. My fiance has ADD and he has dealt with many frustrations throughout his education, like you. I think most people do not understand what sort of difficulties come with these conditions. People think that people with ADD are just being lazy...it&#039;s very sad, because that&#039;s completely untrue. It&#039;s really just a lot of ignorance going around. Also, many doctors do not know how to properly diagnose these conditions and end up misdiagnosing people, so it becomes over diagnosed for that reason.

Sorry, that was a cluttered paragraph. Anyway, I see your point of view and I hope that I helped explain some of it. Also, I don&#039;t think there is such thing as just HD...I think it&#039;s just that there is a spectrum, with some people being very hyperactive and some not at all...like the way there is an autism spectrum with varying degrees of symptoms.

Answer 13

I think it is because when some parents cannot control their children or do not know how to properly and effectively discipline them, they run to the doctor seeking drugs that will put their kids in a daze, for easier handling.  At least, that is what I&#039;ve seen.  But of course, I am only referring to ADHD.

Answer 14

Saying that something is over-diagnosed is definitely not the same as saying it&#039;s not real.  Of course there are people with the (diverse) disorders you named who have struggled severely and benefit greatly from having the disorder recognized and treated.  I&#039;m glad you got the help that you needed.  One of my children had selective mutism and being identified and treated has changed her life dramatically for the better, as well.

However, it&#039;s clear to me that ADHD in particular is overdiagnosed (I don&#039;t know about Aperger&#039;s, dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc.)  Unlike, say, strep throat, ADHD is something that can&#039;t be definitively diagnosed, and sometimes it ends up being misdiagnosed.  I personally know two kids who were diagnosed with ADD and then turned out to have sleep apnea that was causing them to be exhausted and show symptoms of ADD. When they got their tonsils removed they slept better and the &quot;ADD&quot; disappeared.  It also happens that teachers or parents occasionally identify bored or antsy kids as &quot;ADD&quot; or &quot;ADHD&quot; when in fact they are simply just bored or antsy kids.  

That is not an insult to you, a sign that ADD or ADHD aren&#039;t real; or a statement that people who need treatment shouldn&#039;t get it.  It&#039;s just a statement that we should be careful to give help where needed and not needlessly medicate kids who either have different problems or are just being kids.