my parents hid my aspergers from me

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I wasn't told until i was almost 19. I am not entirely sure how i feel about it. I understand that they didn't want me to develop a sense of learned helplessness but i still feel i had a right to know. My entire childhood made sense to me all of the sudden. My father tore up the documentation of my diagnosis and is still completely in denial. It just pained him to much to have a mentally deficient son. I remember thinking over and over again throughout my life, "am i ret*d and everyone is hiding it from me?" I remember seeing how the down syndrome children were treated and spoken to in a way where they aren't even aware they are different. I noticed similarities in how i was spoken too. I was put on medication for years... all i can say about medicating your children is DONT if you can go without it in any way DONT medicate your children. Medication made me completely psychotic during the period i was medicated. The medications i was given robbed e of my personality and robbed me of my morality. I was an unfeeling zombie for years, and it was the meds. The medication made me behave in such a way that it was easy for everyone to say i was crazy, and the behaviors the medication caused led to further diagnosis and guess what... more medication. One day i realized that i had just spent several years fighting psychotic urges that seemed to be coming from an outside force, i stopped taking my medication. Suddenly i was an intelligent young man. I go to college for psychology and sociology and i am far more intelligent than either of my parents. I am still very socially awkward though. In college sociology i learned about something called the medicalization of deviance. The theory goes as such, doctors and the overall medical industry are pushed by pharmaceutical companies too diagnose more and more behavioral disorders and something physiological and genetic, once the problem is diagnosed as something you cannot face because it is part of your genetics they sell you a cure or treatment. The pharmaceutical industry largely relies on this. And overall if you look at accurate unbiased statistics on the effectiveness of medication, particularly anti-psychotics, and psychotropics, you find they don't work hardly at all. So hopping your child up on drugs that are generally similar chemical compounds to meth (for example: Ceroquil, Ridalin, Adderal) is not the solution except in particular extreme cases. Oh and ADD isn't real. You generally dont get diagnosed with ADD unless you are in America. Other countries have Hyperkinesis for which the behavioral effects are much more severe than what has been diagnosed as the standard behavioral effects of ADD. ADD is diagnosed purely behaviorally, there is no provable physical characteristics of ADD. ADD is generally diagnosed when children don't pay attention in school. This is what was once called being a child, what child in their right mind could happily pay attention to school, kids want to play. If your child wont calm down and stop running in circles, take them to the park or beach to run. ADD is generally a just a lack of stimulation resulting in children who desperately need to play. It is often just a result of the lazy parenting that has become common place in the modern day. It is just easier to feed your children sedatives than to take them out three times a day. The amount of activity required to raise a happy child is simply considered too much of a bother in the modern day.

Sorry for getting off topic im prone to ranting.

Mine did too, was diagnosed at 9 years old, discovered at 18 years old. Never been on any meds though

I certainly sympathize about your parents' denial, but...

Er, if this means it doesn't exist then I suppose that goes for ASDs too?

Ya my parrents kept my diagnosis from me too...they did not want to "lable" me, but labled my self with far worse things...like being FUBAR-ed (military term for "F**ked up beyond all recognition")

Not necessarily, there is much more supporting evidence for autism, and it is a far more visible behavioral disorder too. For one autism is actually recognized outside of the US, ADD( as far as my sociology professor knows) is not. When looking at someone who is autistic it is generally, uless they are high functioning, quite apparent they are different from the norm. ADD they might just not care personally about what they are supposed to be paying attention to.
And isn't there provable physiological characteristics of autism, i though some form of results were found as far as brain scanning goes, ill look into it..

My parents hid it from me too. Unfortunately one of my teachers let it slip (to the whole class, in my absence) when I was about 14.

priceless.

I think you are entirely correct for some cases. I have a cousin..a smart young man, he is a fairly good student, very good musician and exceptional sportsman. He also has inexhaustible energy. He does around 25hrs of sports and training per week, his parents keep having to pull him back from doing more as hes the one that wants to be in the rugby team, the soccer team, the basketball, the swimming, the running team etc, but they say if he didn't do that much activity he would be in massive trouble, and be classed a hopeless case of 'ADHD' - he wants and needs that level of activity and it works for him very well.

You probably should avoid making offensive, sweeping generalizations on the basis of the statements of a single professor whose field of expertise is not even the one being discussed.


There is emerging research into physical characteristics of autism. The same goes for ADHD, which would be readily apparent if you spent about three minutes with Google.

People with ADHD and autism (and there is a huge amount of overlap by the way) each get enough crap from people who have neither. The last thing we need is to be giving it to each other.


How can "ADHD isn't real" be correct in some cases?

I have no doubt that in some cases it is wrongly diagnosed (like every other disorder in history). That is totally different from saying that it doesn't exist.

The cousin you describe seems possibly to be a person who meets the criteria for ADHD other than that it significantly impair his functioning. (He sounds very fortunate to be in a position where he can adjust his lifestyle such that it doesn't.) It is not as though there are not plenty of people for whom the same is true except they would have autism, not ADHD.

Last edited by dougn on 30 Jul 2011, 4:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

My intention was certainly not to be offensive, and i feel you have entirely misunderstood what sociology is if you believe it is an unrelated field, i feel you are taking or little debate entirely too personally and i ask that you keep it analytical. I really do want to continue this discussion and said what i said much in the hopes of aving this exact debate. I feel it is a very important issue. If you can prove ADD to me i will concede my point immediately. I have been diagnosed with ADD, or ADHD im not sure i wasn't paying attention when the doctor told me, so i feel i have some personal know how on the matter. I am absolutely certain there are scientists backing the existence of ADD and ADHD because there is alot of money on the line in its treatment. Please do not take offense i am attempting to be analytical and please do continue this discussion with me.

I have no doubt that in some cases it is wrongly diagnosed (like every other disorder in history). That is totally different from saying that it doesn't exist.
I am not saying there isnt such a syndrome, like i said other countries have hyperkinesis, the description of which is essentially ADD but far more severe. ADD didnt exist 100 years ago, they had hyperkinesis. Hyperkinesis has provable physical characteristics, recognizable by patterns of brain activity.

Either your sociology professor is having you on, or he is a complete numpty who should be sacked.

I didn't expect that you meant to be offensive. Most people who say things like "ADHD doesn't exist" probably don't mean to be offensive. However, it is. It's offensive to people with ADHD to say that they have been sold a bill of goods by a bunch of unscrupulous drug companies and their pseudoscientist lackeys and that their very real difficulties don't exist.

And I know what sociology is and I didn't say it was unrelated, I said it was not the field being discussed. Nevertheless, when making pronouncements about a neurological disorder, it is probably best to consider the opinions of people who study fields including neurology as well as those of sociologists.

You are taking as gospel the opinion of a single sociologist that a neurological disorder with which millions of people have been diagnosed is a scam concocted to sell drugs. Does that not strike you as a bit off? Shouldn't you at least do some more research before forming such a firm opinion?

can you find me proof of its existence outside the US?
the other debate im in on the subject forced me too look into it, ive been at it for about an hour and im not having any luck. I think they might have it in the UK but i not sure yet.

http://apps.who.int/classifications/app ... 90.htm+f90

It is farcical for you to claim that ADHD "isn't real" because in some countries the terminology is slightly different.

You could much more plausibly argue that the diagnostic criteria used in the US are overly broad and thus it is overdiagnosed there, than that the entire disorder is a scam.

(By the way, by definition, if the criteria used outside the US simply exclude a subset of those who would be diagnosed in the US, this means many of the ADHD diagnoses in the US are actually valid, and would be made outside the US, too. By saying that it "isn't real" you are denying the existence of the difficulties suffered by all people diagnosed with ADHD, not just ones who have been incorrectly diagnosed.)

Last edited by dougn on 30 Jul 2011, 5:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

We have what is described as ADHD/ADD here in New Zealand, it is supposed to affect 4% of the population.
In fact here is an interesting but small study on use of 'micronutrients'
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3 ... stonishing