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Programme on ADHD this evening

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lovethepuppies Wed 19-Aug-26 00:20:05

I haven't seen it but have heard about it. I'm not buying it. There are documented cases of what would be called ADHD now that go back to ancient times. Brain scans show differences in the brains of people with ADHD. ADHD existed well before there were screens. ADHD is real, though I don't disagree that over use of screens and lack of old fashioned play time, especially outside, are problematic and no doubt cause issues.

And I've trained social workers and take a bio-psychosocial approach to everything. I believe ADHD is rooted in biology but psychological and social elements can have an influence for better for worse. I've noticed that medication does have a place for some people (helping them get through university, for example), but I don't think most ADHD children would need medical if they weren't expected to conform to an educational system that doesn't suit them.

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Boadicea Wed 19-Aug-26 00:17:40

By the way, I agree with you on the getting children to move around bit.
It's why many of them ( me included) constantly ask to be excused for the toilet - nothing to do with the bladder!
(At least not until now!)

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Boadicea Wed 19-Aug-26 00:14:34

I have mixed feelings about this.
I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD till I was in my 60s but had there been more understanding of it when I was a child (NOT necessarily medication) I feel I could have achieved so much more.
I supposedly had a high (158) IQ but was easily distracted, labelled "Dolly Daydream" and "Butterfly Brain" as I rarely finished what I'd started (except books - I could lose myself in books for hours) and could never cope with "read, learn and remember" subjects like history (as it was taught when I was a child anyway) and always did better in exams than class work.
"Could do better" was teachers' constant comment so I always felt like a failure.
Poor memory has always been a problem too, now of course made worse by age!
Many women don't suffer from the physical hyperactivity that used to be associated with ADHD but instead the constantly churning brain, never able to switch off, stupid phrases and snatches of songs or conversations on an endless loop...
I'm sure there will be others on here who can identify.
But I haven't seen the programme in question because we don't watch live TV or BBC iPlayer. (Refuse to pay for a licence).

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Luckygirl3 Tue 18-Aug-26 23:44:22

I was fascinated by this.

I have long felt that the concept of this "diagnosis" being of a developmental or brain disorder was false, and that it is more of a social construct. The programme showed that to be so. The diagnostic criteria for ADHD are about as vague and subjective as you can get.

I think we will look back at this mass medication of children with horror.

The featured lad in the programme was on meds and then was taken off them for 6 weeks as an experiment. All went fine - he got his personality and sense of humour back, the family was happier, he was happier. But eventually he went back on them - why? - because they made him easier to teach .... think about that for a minute.... what the heck?!

As a social worker I was taught to look at the context before you look at the person and ask why they had a problem.

One criterion was that the child squirms about in their chair - maybe the problem is the chair and the need for the child to sit in it for lengths of time that do not fit with being a child.

The wonderful HT at our local primary gets the children to stand up and jump around after about 20 minutes of sitting because she knows that it is not normal for a child to be confined to a chair and sitting still.

We cannot medicate our children into an education system - maybe we need to have a system that provides education in a child appropriate way.

In days of yore we fitted the child to the system through corporal punishment - now we do it with drugs.

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