I had some thoughts I thought would be worth sharing and some new information ( for me at least ) that I feel applies to me very much.....thinking, therefore a good chance of it applying to anyone else here having ADHD
Did Mozart Really Have ADHD? History Of Hyperactivity Off-base, Says Researcher
Date:
May 28, 2009
Source:
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Summary:
A Canadian researcher working in the UK says doctors, authors and educators are doing hyperactive children a disservice by claiming that hyperactivity as we understand it today has always existed.
A Canadian researcher working in the U.K. says doctors, authors and educators are doing hyperactive children a disservice by claiming that hyperactivity as we understand it today has always existed.
Hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is currently the most commonly diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorder, says Smith, and millions of children are prescribed drugs such as Ritalin to treat it. Yet prior to the 1950s, it was clinically and culturally insignificant.
He argues in a paper presented at the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Ottawa's Carleton University this week, that hyperactivity disorder as we understand it today is a modern construct that was first described as a disorder in 1957.
Before that, Smith says hyperactive behaviour existed – but it wasn't always thought of as a disorder or pathology worth treating.
However, Smith says many today assert that hyperactivity is a universal phenomenon, and say evidence of hyperactivity can be seen in historical figures such as Mozart or Einstein. Smith argues that hyperactivity as we understand it is rooted in social, cultural, political and economic changes of the last half century.
"When history is extended back beyond 1957, it overlooks all the social factors that contributed to the idea that children were hyperactive – and that that was a problem," he says.
"We need to refocus the history of hyperactivity on the period starting from the late 1950s and 60s. "By doing so, we start to understand why people started to think there was a problem with children, why they thought that problem needed to be fixed, and why it became acceptable to fix that problem with drugs."
Smith says that whether you consider hyperactivity a disease worth treating often depends on context – and the context changed in the late 1950s when the U.S. refocused its education system in response to the space race.
"If a child's playing soccer, there's a chance hyperactivity isn't going to be a problem. But if they are stuck in a classroom, it is a problem.
"We have to look at the social and historical factors that created the idea that children were distractible and that these were pathologies that needed to be treated.
"For patients and their parents, what this means is that the process by which their children are diagnosed is not rooted in a long history. If they understand that, they can develop the tools to question the diagnosis."
When I read this it explained my own frustration and thinking many times that the Diagnosis of ADHD just doesn't seem to fit in so many ways....more of how it is perceived or integrated into my world view comparing myself to everyone else. This article helps explain my own thinking in this context and is useful only in that it helps me understand where my feelings come from so many times but not being able to articulate them to others. To be sure...I'm no Einstein or Motzart if anyone thinking I included this out of my own delusions or grandeur...most of the time thinking just the opposite for what it's worth. ha ha Food for thought.
UCSD Shiley Eye Center ophthalmologists and researchers have uncovered a relationship between an eye disease characterized by an inability to focus on a target and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“We showed that children with the disorder, convergence insufficiency are three times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children without the disorder,” according to David B. Granet, M.D., a UCSD School of Medicine associate professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics and director of the UCSD Ratner Children’s Eye Center. “This is the first time such a relationship has been identified between these two disorders.”
Convergence insufficiency, a disorder that affects less than five percent of children, is a physical eye problem that makes it hard to keep both eyes pointed and focused at a near target, making it difficult to maintain concentration when reading. ADHD is considered to be one of the most common psychiatric disorders in children.
When reviewing 266 charts of patients with convergence insufficiency, Dr. Granet and his colleagues found that 26 patients (9.8%) were diagnosed with ADHD sometime in their life. Of those, 20 (76.9%) were on medication for ADHD when they were diagnosed with convergence insufficiency. “When we turned it around and looked at the ADHD population we found an almost 16 percent incidence of convergence insufficiency, or again more than three times what you’d expect.”
“The significance of this relationship is intriguing,” Dr. Granet said. “We don’t know if convergence insufficiency makes ADHD worse or if convergence insufficiency is misdiagnosed as ADHD. What we do know is that more research must be done on this subject and that patients diagnosed with ADHD should also be evaluated for convergence insufficiency and treated accordingly. Further work may aid in understanding both disorders.”
Dr. Granet added that convergence insufficiency is one of the very few ocular conditions that respond to eye exercises (orthoptics) which can be done at home.
When I read this I had one of those "holy shit!!" moments. This is me all over the place . Before I could remember I was taken in to opthomologists by my mom thinking I had some eye problem. The conclusion was mild Amblyopia in my left eye which they tried to put an eye patch on my right eye to strengthen my left one. I can tell you that this lasted about a week....even less than that remembering every time my mom would walk out of the room the patch came off. ha ha "Thinking now.....this describes my condition exactly. When I read or try and track moving objects I loose sight of them for a split second which makes it hard to stay focused on it.
Go back and look at anything I've ever written here in this forum and you'll see the results......words appear missing.....incorrect syntax or tenses. This is why I think. I used to have to proof read everything with a fine tooth comb before submitting homework since it was always present. ( still is) I don't worry about it when I just trying to communicate in writing.......the message is most important not and English grade.
The only problem I ever experienced with this came when trying to play Baseball as a kid. I loved Baseball but I couldn't hit to save my life....however, I could catch and throw very well and became a catcher oddly enough. I could track things coming at me or away from me ( like in driving or riding my bike) but hot moving from left to right because of my left eye as is with reading. I commonly jump a line or the words compress into each other and I have to go back and reread the sentence again. I read quickly and have excellent retention and comprehension as well as type very fast in spite of this????????? Food for thought.
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Thirty percent of adults with attention deficit disorder report childhood physical abuse
This strong association between abuse and ADD/ADHD was not explained by differences in demographic characteristics or other early adversities experienced by those who had been abused," says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Chair at University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "Even after adjusting for different factors, those who reported being physically abused before age 18 had seven times the odds of ADD/ADHD."
Investigators examined a representative sample of 13,054 adults aged 18 and over in the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey including 1,020 respondents who reported childhood physical abuse and 64 respondents who reported that they had been diagnosed by a health professional with either ADHD or ADD.
"Our data do not allow us to know the direction of the association. It is possible that the behaviors of children with ADD/ADHD increase parental stress and the likelihood of abuse," says co-author Rukshan Mehta, a graduate of the University of Toronto's Masters of Social Work program. "Alternatively, some new literature suggests early childhood abuse may result in and/or exacerbate the risk of ADD/ADHD."
According to co-author Angela Valeo from Ryerson University, "This study underlines the importance of ADD/ADHD as a marker of abuse. With 30 per cent of adults with ADD/ADHD reporting childhood abuse, it is important that health professionals working with children with these disorders screen them for physical abuse."
Boy I know this one. What's important to understand for us is the part about parental stress ( our current partner's stress now) and the feelings we carry with us that we are getting singled out or picked on. Both are true but without considering both sides you can easily develop a victim mentality early on. I have a real problem with victim mentality (not liking it as it goes against everything I believe about myself )and am hyper vigilant in myself anytime I find myself going there or see it in others. It creates and impenetrable wall between you and other people and is divisive because of it. I cut myself no slack here but unfortunately, it makes me less compassionate to others at times because of it. Moderation is the best course and unlearning the patterns that were formed long ago even if they are just "habit" now for no other apparent reason. Food for thought.
Study details bullying involvement for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder
Date:
September 3, 2012
Source:
JAMA and Archives Journals
Summary:
A study based on information collected from 920 parents suggests an estimated 46.3 percent of adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder were the victims of bullying
Bullying involves negative actions toward a peer and is characterized by a power imbalance -- physical, social or cognitive -- between the victim and the perpetrator. Relatively little research has examined bullying involvement among adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the study background.
Paul R. Sterzing, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., previously of Washington University, St. Louis but now affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues used nationally representative surveys to identify the prevalence of bullying involvement, compare prevalence rates of bullying involvement with adolescents with developmental disabilities that overlap with the core deficits of an ASD, and identify the social ecological correlates of bullying involvement.
The prevalence of bullying involvement for adolescents with an ASD was 46.3 percent for victimization and was "substantially higher" than the national prevalence estimates for the general adolescent population (10.6 percent). The rates of perpetration of bullying (14.8 percent) and victimization/perpetration (8.9 percent, i.e. those who perpetrate and are victimized), were about equivalent to national estimates found among typically developing adolescents, according to the study results.
Victimization was related to having a non-Hispanic ethnicity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, lower social skills, some form of conversational ability, and more classes in general education. Perpetration was correlated with being white, having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and getting together with friends at least once a week. Victimization/perpetration was associated with being white non-Hispanic, having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and getting together with friends at least once a week, the results indicate.
"Future interventions should incorporate content that addresses the core deficits of adolescents with an ASD, which limits their verbal ability to report bullying incidents," the authors comment. "Schools should incorporate strategies that address conversational difficulties and the unique challenges of those with comorbid conditions."
The authors also concluded: "Inclusive classrooms need to increase the social integration of adolescents with an ASD into protective peer groups while also enhancing the empathy and social skills of typically developing students toward their peers with an ASD and other developmental disabilities."
This was really interesting for me to read and caused to reflect on both sides of this after reading that people with ADHD were both the perpetrator and the victim. Thinking....and related to the last article about abuse. I hated bullies and still do but not so much because I was bullied excessively or was a bully myself but, I remember being singled out or targeted plenty of times even by friends or playmates. With these people I became hurt as I wanted to fit in and want them to like me so I would do what I could to hide or minimize my behavior around them. Many times simply not saying anything and moving on but still feeling hurt. In the face of actually bullies which were clearly not my friends I had an rather quick and immediate response which came in the form of verbal retaliation and confrontation...squaring off and posturing physically without violence but threatening for sure. And in a few extreme cases as a child in grade school...punching the bully as hard as I could in their face which usually served to stop their attempts and prevent any further attempts in the future. Once you've been threatened by the "best" ( my father thinking here) other kids on the playground seemed far less threatening even ones who were bigger than me.
But there are plenty of down sides here even if your not doing overt bullying as this article is suggesting. One of the criteria they used here was that you were with friends at least once a week and had a number of classes as a child. I'm assuming this has to do with the amount of exposure you have with peers and the potential for conflict either being bullied or bullying yourself. I think this is where the passive aggression comes from. Without the ability to control your ADHD behaviors other people call you out especially when your a kid. A bully sees and easy target and tag...your it. If you are defenseless physically the next best thing is to slight them or embarrass them publicly in front of others as a preventative measure or better yet....make them the butt of a joke. Sarcasm is an effective tool as a defense from bully's and can be funny....but it can also come out when you don't want it too if it becomes a way of speech that not everyone appreciates...at least not all the time. At the end of the day it's still negative and a second cousin to anger.
I was also the "Boy named Sue" thinking about the song by Johnny Cash....I have a girls first name which never really appeared as a problem only that I always had this feeling that I needed to prove myself worthy of having a girls name for a guy with new people at least at first. ( I love having a girls first name by the way....so much fun to be had and I have many times! ...to this day I still get feminine hygiene samples in the mail..ha ha) I definitely feel in light of this fact that any singling out came from the same as discussed in this article not my first name....most definitely!! It's wasn't hard for me when reading this to understand my own feelings (as small as they might appear today ...the "Kernel of Truth" that Melissa has mentioned) and where they come from even if it is a vague and distant memory now.
I figured I will just add to this topic from time to time instead of creating a new one. The thing that I have come to realize about my time here on this forum is that the predominate group mind or collective consciousness here really makes it difficult for a guy especially with ADHD if they happened across it as I did with the idea of getting help or support and finding themselves immediately in the hot seat without being prepared ( or worse really needing to reach out for a hand thinking that this would not be the right place for obvious reasons: )
From the looks of things at times....I think that might be exactly what has happened taking all things into consideration. ( also referencing a post that Melissa made last spring to this effect ...not gender specific but about having a separate ADHD side of this forum which I supported NOT doing .....and still feel this way for the same reasons I just made )
Personally...it was exactly what I needed to here at the exact right time for me but.....this would not have been true in previous times of my life and might have sent me into depression immediately and caused me to retreat and withdraw out being becoming overwhelmed. This forum is not for the faint of heart if you are a guy with ADHD but is a great resource for someone like me who had some time to process and is looking for ways to improve and manage their ADHD better.
Articles like these only help me understand myself and why I think and feel the way I do and I think it's worth sharing with others for the same reasons thinking.....this is an open forum for everyone to learn and share on all sides and shouldn't be limited only to the majority of people here....on the contrary, for those who are on the other side of the coin...this kind of info would be just as useful to them and it was for me coming from the same stage in the process but certainly not for everyone here for sure:)
Responding from the perspective of my ADHD family history
Submitted by CosmicJoke on
I'm not a doctor. Not an expert. Just a mere human trying to navigate my family's ADHD issues/history.
My father-in-law was put on Ritalin in the early 1940's. My mother-in-law's father, a physician. would not give them permission to marry without first insisting my father-in-law have a psychological evaluation. (He came from a wealthy family, never finished college, and was a larger than life "adventurer" who never met a stranger he didn't find fascinating and never had a thought that wasn't uttered without filter...) When a series of heart-stopping events led me to suggest my husband see a psychiatrist who confirmed my husband had severe ADHD...his parents then (when my husband was over 50 years old!) finally revealed this family history.No, the label ADHD did not exist decades ago. I assure you, from painful experience, however, that the condition DID.
Both my sons have ADHD to varying degrees. My younger child also has dyslexia. As with ADHD, there are many degrees and permutations of Dyslexia. My son's dyslexia takes the form of being unable to process sound in a way that allows him to spell correctly. I have been told by doctors that dyslexia often is concurrent with ADHD--related issues along the same spectrum. My son was something of a child prodigy in ballet (his then undiagnosed ADHD and Dyslexia had so demoralized him at school that I sought to involve him in something beautiful and physical). He had great technique and expressiveness and learned real discipline-- but as choreography got more complex, he hit a wall. Only later, after his diagnoses, could he articulate how his dyslexia had led to confusion about right vs. left...which made dancing suddenly a nightmare. (FYI Dyslexics can learn strategies to help them dance...but it was too late for my son, who, fortunately, then channeled his athleticism into a different sport, much to his joy.) Your dyslexia, I would suggest, is quite likely related to your ADHD.
Good luck to you as we all try to understand these challenges. I share in case this is of interest.
Facinating and Concurrent Feelings with Much Appreciation
Submitted by kellyj on
You opened up a great topic to add to this and one I've had strong leanings to myself. Hearing your description about you son and his Grandfather only intrigues me now even more! One of my best childhood friends has one form of dyslexia that wasn't diagnosed in him until he was in med school and needed to figure out his learning problems in order to graduate.
Being a physician, we've talked about his dyslexia compared to my ADHD and there are some really amazing correlations. I'm no expert either and this is hearsay from my friend but...the way he described his dyslexia simply saying it like " a wire on a circuit board that has places with a "gap" or "short' that momentarily interrupts the normal electrical flow of that curcuit.....so the brain fills in the gap with what it can to complete the continuity of the curcuit....sometimes reversing, flipping or diverting the current to another source in the process. This was simple enough to understand and it immediately made me consider this and what happens with me too. I can pick out hundreds (maybe thousands )of situations where it appears very much like this for me yet the outcome or results at the end of the line (the circuit) is different yet without any factual evidence on my part confirming that this description is exactly what it feels like for me too having ADHD.
I also think I have a little dyslexia to only saying this because as a child only I had trouble with left and right getting confused. "your other left hand' used to get mentioned to me quite often as a kid. ha ha But this went away as I got older and it really never shows up anymore?? But also now wondering the same things you just said...are these comorbid features ( over lapping from a different source) or are actually shared features of as part of ADHD in that the processing is exactly the same? Fun to think about at least but not so important when it comes right down to doing things differently for me.
I say this since you brought up your son and his ballet that I can share some of my own experiences in similar ways which might give you some more insight too.
FYI: I took ballet in college when my roommate at the time (being the defensive captain for the university football team) was told that ballet was good for football but didn't want to be the only straight guy in the room ( a little ignorant and homophobic I think) and talked me into taking it with him which proved to be a really rewarding experience with some comical results on our end too in class if you can imagine. I love going to the ballet from time to time now but probably wouldn't have had any interest at all if it hadn't been for taking that course. lol
I've mentioned before how I used to swim competitively since I was 6 years old through college which probably sounds like insecure boasting ( which I don't care about really) but I believe it is the single reason I haven't had as much trouble with my ADHD exceeding any other thing I've ever done to help in my entire lifetime. And specifically swimming because of the repetitive symmetrical coordination that it requires to be good at it. Also...technique is everything. It's the difference between being gifted, strong, athletic etc....and excelling. Someone who has good technique will trump or beat a stronger more gifted person in the end always. Of course if you are both then you go to the Olympics! lol
Again...this is very unscientific based on what I learned long ago : If I do anything repetitively long enough without interruption and stay with just that one thing over and over....it's like a mud puddle in the middle of a dirt road that everyone goes around which eventually creates a permanent detour around the puddle that everyone continues to use from that point on. I learned this as kid which is where this analogy came from which I learned from thousands of hours going back and forth doing the same thing ( swimming) over 12 years of my life continually without interruption.
By the time I was in my late teens...any problems that really showed up when I was really little having ADHD ( but not knowing it at the time)..seemed to have diminished substantially by this time aside from the worst aspects which I'm still left with today. But even with those I do the same thing now as I did back then and that's to go into hyper focus mode and practice practice practice!! over and over and over until I get that thing down and then move on to the next thing once that happens. I've been doing this since I was 6 years old and not knowing any better adopted this as my way to get around problem areas the same I did when I used to swim.
I think the problem with ADHD is it just takes us a little longer but....it takes longer and you have to immerse yourself into that one specific thing long enough for it to take hold and most people just aren't willing ( and not understanding this ) to put in the time and be patient enough to stay on course without quitting too early and then saying I tried but it didn't work.
This is what I learned from swimming....repetation and duration in a concentrated way. I can say that in my case the results are 100% throughout my life and I know this before I even begin to do anything new. I expect to fail at first and ignore other peoples input or criticism because it has never failed to prove to work for me in everything across the board if I can put myself in a position to do things just like I said.
It's when I can't do things this way ( get too spread out with too many dissimilar activities at one time) is where I run into problems especially when the reason I can't involves other people and integrating with them and trying to explain and they look at you like you don't know what you're talking about and dismiss this theory ( based on them and everyone else of course...a logical assumption unfortunately N/A to me)
My thinking is that if you're son had been me and would have stayed with ballet long enough eventually he would have caught back up too but I totally understand the reason for needing a certain amount of success at times or you lose your motivation and interest in doing it after a while. I also did other sports like baseball and skiing which proved to add to all of this as well in the same way. I don't think you can go wrong here. This is what I have come to realize that I have to do now at times even without successes and immediate gratification that comes with that......and live with the repeated failure and loss of motivation that comes with that knowing that I need to give things a chance and wait long enough for the payoff instead of giving up and quitting.
I also use this in school...learning to play musical instruments ( I play 3 ) and anything and everything I do across the board including......learning to be more/better organized and less messy as I'm writing this now. I'm dedicating myself in this exact same way to my household chore and responsibilities even in the face of my wife many times telling me to do things differently. That in itself has created a lot of conflict and controversy but....over time I see it working and so does she a more and more as time goes on. I keep telling her she needs to let me go and do it my way in this one case despite everything she's seen in the past and give me the time to stay the course.....to the point that our therapist has said to ignore her and not react if this is what I'm doing ( as long as this is what I'm doing of course!!!) I still fall down too but...falling down doesn't mean trying another strategy....it means doing a better job or staying on top of this same one which at times in my wife's eye is not the best one based on her and how she would learn or do something.
It requires patients on both sides and a lot of compassion, understanding and dedication for it to work......it's not always easy! :)
Like my mud puddle analogy...I have to give my brain enough dedicated time to rewire itself permanently and every time I do this it works 100%.
I learned all of this from swimming as a kid. My therapist said it saved my life and I would have to agree with him now even If I couldn't see this before. For all good reasons...I will never know what life would have been like if I hadn't done this but I suspect that dyslexia and some other related issues may have surfaced more in light of this thinking....I may have done better than I should have without knowing any better but now....this would be really useful info as a means to do some further exploration as you said. I think your thoughts and your personal experiences with your family are great to hear from my side of things especially because I believe I have some coexisting things with my ADHD like a touch of dyslexia ( and like the convergent eye thing ). What I really found interesting was the speculation about the eye condition causing ADHD symptoms to be worse. Until they know for sure this stuff is more than just a little interesting:)
Much appreciated. Thanks
J