Hi Joolz
Thanks for posting that. My son has ADHD and stuff like this makes my blood boil. To quote from the article.
My son was subjected to 7 years of bullying throughout Primary school and is most definitely affected by his ADHD. While I try to make as little of it as possible to him his differences from other children are obvious, something which has made life difficult for him at times.
Our nephew has ADHD( he was also a premmie baby though at first appearences you wouldn't know that he's tall for his age) he is very immature about many things despite every family member trying to help him deal with the things in life he struggles with. The only person he really loved to relate to passed away on Boxing Day 2008 that was his Grandfather and male role mode, and he's been a big handful since then. He finds it difficult to talk about many things to anyone else and has had his share of fall outs with his mum but you expect a little stroppiness from any teenage boy. His lack of grasping an idea and thinking it through is only now showing him that his actions have consequences. He has had sessions where he's broken things and expected someone else to take the blame or fix them for him without him admitting what he's done. It drives his mum mad but she knows he doesn't understand like other kids do. It has taken it's toll on her health too she's on anti-depressants and tablets for high blood pressure. Our nephew is never going to achieve good qualifications when he leaves school but he does try to do well in practical things he's learning to grow vegetables and fruit and skills that he can physically use.
To be honest not that many kids with ADHD can wait for long periods of time for something.. our nephew struggles to see a movie through to the finish but he does try. Only those who have a child in their family with ADHD understand the full scope of how it affects those children medical professionals are entiteld to their opinion but parents know what's best for their child/children and journalists should back off and let families enjoy a couple of weeks together in less stressful circumstances where the whole family can join in the fun.
I'm not sure ADHD is over diagnosed.
Quite often we work with families with children who are not diagnosed until they are in their teens, and are in trouble with the police or excluded from school, and have developed conduct disorders because their self esteem is so low. It is only after things come to a head that somebody thinks it might be helpful for them to see a paedicatrician and it turns out they have ADHD. They had it all along but because everyone just assumed they were naughty and lazy they just grew up being constantly punished for something they couldn't really help, and they get to the point where they don't bother trying to conform anymore.
In girls, who are often missed, it often comes out when they have mental health issues as teens due to their low self esteem.
Last year I was talking to our local police officer responsible for Youth Offending and Crime prevention. He has a fairly large patch of about a third of Herts. He told me that he has figures showing that over 70% of the children in our local Young Offenders Institute have a diagnosis of ADHD, AS or Tourette's Syndrome, but that the majority of them were only diagnosed once they were in the Youth Offenders Institute.
What a tragedy! Who knows how much better things would have been for those kids if their difficulties had been picked up sooner.
You don't get the BBC talking about how badly these kids have been let down, and how much it is costing our society, do you?
OK rant over!
