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RichardKennaway comments on Do you have High-Functioning Asperger's Syndrome? - Less Wrong
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Someone other than me should say this, but: please don't let one person drive you away.
It's just that the comments you've made so far on LW are all at least a step removed from actually telling what you think and why.
Yes, I'm sorry, I had a mini-panic episode. It's absurd for me to react in these ways, all my posting so far was automatic talk which I didn't actually think. I'm still recovering from years of untreated anxiety and ADHD. I will post something coherent when I'm better.
I upvoted all your comments, and I understand completely: you're saying that ADHD is an accepted clinical diagnosis and that you don't think people here would agree with the bizarre, lunatic-fringe conspiracy theory that it's just a way of drugging kids who misbehave. Unfortunately, there are even people here who believe in 9/11 conspiracies, so don't get your hopes too high.
Unfortunately, it is both. There are people who have a real clinical disorder who need drugs. But there are also people who are getting diagnosed with ADD or ADHD with minimal justification.
At a greater rate than for other disorders? Any diagnosis will have a possibility of error, but that's different than calling into question the entire disorder, which is what the conspiracy theories try to do.
Right. I'm not calling the disorder's existence in question (people who do so are being stupid), but the extreme difference in European and American diagnosis rates suggests that the US has a very high overdiagnosis rate. I don't think it is useful to compare it to diagnosis rates in other disorders since many other disorders have much more clear cut standards for diagnosis. I don't know if ADHD has a higher level of incorrect diagnosis compared to other mental health disorders.
Why wouldn't it suggest that Europe has a very high underdiagnosis rate?
Good point; mental disorders are much more blurry. I'm curious, for instance, if there is an ADHD spectrum, like the autism spectrum, and if it blends into normality, or if there is a sharp divide between NTs and people with some degree of ADHD.
Exactly what I thought when I read the argument in question.
If the studies referenced in the back of Hallowell are to be believed the prevalence of ADHD has been found to between 5% and 8% across 5 continents.
To paraphrase a FAQ in the same source: Is ADHD over-diagnosed or under-diagnosed? Unfortunately, both. In some regions it is over-diagnosed and over-medicated but in others it is underdiagnosed because people (teachers, parents or doctors) "don't believe in ADHD".
Very much a spectrum, in a similar way to an autism spectrum. In fact, a majority of people who qualify for an autism diagnosis would qualify for an ADHD diagnosis too if they didn't have the autism label already.
There is no sharp divide. There are also many people who have ADHD traits in the extreme who would not be said to have ADHD because their personality (and brain functioning in general) is not interfering with their life. So roughly speaking ADHD means having a certain cluster of traits to a significant degree greater than average or in a way that obviously interferes with your life.
My conclusion in that regard is based to some extent on anecdotal evidence in that I've seen in the US people diagnosed where it seemed clear that they didn't. I'm aware of multiple cases where a diagnosis was essentially an excuse to get Ritalin as a study aid.
I wholeheartedly advocate the gaming of the medical system to get what you need or want out of them. Both because i disrespect the competence of that system in giving people what they need and because the institutions and lobby groups in question have no intrinsic right to control access to treatments or collect rent in the process.
My advice to all moderately intelligent patients is to have one (or multiple) doctors that you use for their expertise and another doctor that you go to to get then to scribble on those ridiculous pieces of paper. The latter you lie to as necessary if it helps you jump through the hoops more efficiently.
Lying to doctors is in general a very bad idea. Lying to them about what drugs you are taking is dangerous. Part of their job is so know what drugs will interact with what other drugs or diseases. Lying to doctors makes them much less likely to be able to do that well.
If someone would benefit from Ritalin as a study aid, doesn't that mean that they have difficulty focusing and studying as much as they would like? Isn't that essentially what ADHD is?
That's not the definition of ADHD as it is normally defined. Indeed, many (if not most) humans would be more focused if they took Ritalin. But using it so that one can for example waste a few months and then spend 72 hours cramming for a test definitely doesn't count as ADHD by most reasonable definitions.