When the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, reports that 11% of children in school are diagnosed as being affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), smart people in the academic and medical worlds start to see a disturbing trend.
Either there is something in our environment, in our food, or in the vaccines and medications that are administered to our children… or there is a bigger problem regarding the criteria used to label these children as ADHD.
One has to wonder, what is different in our society today, compared to life in the 1950s? A time where there was no mention of clinically diagnosed ADHD in children.
What was once considered normal for a child… running, playing, not sitting still, not liking things they see as “boring,” not concentrating on things they don’t have any interest in… is now a serious medical condition.
A condition the medical community does not have answers for, besides feeding more and more drugs to our children, and sending them to behavioral counseling.
As this problem seems to be growing every year, it’s obvious that the solutions the medical community are providing are not solutions at all. Just “band aids” on a wound that never heals.
Many believe that the medical community has not made the effort to dive in, and uncover the real causes of ADHD behavior. What’s really behind children’s propensity to talk too much, jump and play on beds, and stop reading a book because they became bored.
And address why a child’s habits of living “in the moment” and being impulsive in their actions, are considered part of a disorder… when adults who live in the moment and act on their impulses are considered to be living life to the fullest. Adults who are considered “go getters” that are the opposite of the general population that sit in front of a TV most of their lives, and complain about what they don’t have.
In the business world, the most successful entrepreneurs all have tendencies of what would be considered ADHD. They are on the go, get impulsive ideas, and are generally referred to as a “genius.” And they are leading our communities, our economy, and our world.
As far as what needs to be examined about the factors that are contributing to the apparent “misbehavior” of our children, many people look to our society, and the way we live in our modern world.
First there’s all the stress, that’s prevalent anywhere in the developed world. And that stress finds ways to seep into our lives at every chance. From families living with deep stress from financial problems, substance abuse or even divorce… to pressure placed on employees in the workplace, to pressures placed heavily on our young children in school to do well.
Here’s a good one to think about. What happens to the mother of an expected child, as she has to go through all of the daily stress of working, managing a family, and dealing with her pregnancy, plus many other things? And not just the mother, but what happens to the child inside, as they are along for a stressful ride that seeps into them every day?
Then there are the stresses of childbirth, certainly on the mother. But what about the child? What about children of mothers who didn’t practice common sense in their pregnancy? What about the mothers who have a very rough pregnancy, for months. Only to have an even more stressful delivery, or in most cases these days, a C-Section, where the baby is literally ripped from her body? How does that affect the child being born into a world of stress?
The affects of all of this must be considered, before a child is diagnosed with ADHD, then put down the path of taking drugs for the rest of their life, that have a questionable benefit on their health and quality of life.