[hakanderyal]

This mentality is the biggest part of the problem. "Lack of discipline", hah!

With ADHD, with autism spectrum, whenever you label something that's caused by a different brain wiring, something that's caused by something pyhsical in the brain, you are doing unspeakable level of harm to those people suffering. I know, I'm one of them, I suffered from this mentality for 30 years.

If you can "fix" your difficulty with contentrating with "discipline", all the more power to you. Don't assume it's the same with everyone else.

Medicating vs not medicating is a worthy topic to talk about. Labeling the hardness people face as a lack of discipline is just cruelty, whether it stems from ignorance or lack of knowledge.

[sceptic123]

> The ADHD epidemic is less about the discovery of a disease and more about the construction of one. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the normalization of drugging children into classroom compliance — an act made possible only through the coordinated actions of pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals, school systems, and parents, all embedded in a culture that equates emotional and behavioral difficulty with biomedical defect.[1]

While I think lack of discipline is over simplistic, I also think that labelling and diagnosing children is a simple and effective way for parents to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own failures. Parenting is hard, but admitting that is harder.

I'm definitely not saying ADHD and Autism don't exist, I'm just saying that it's possible that ADHD diagnoses are higher than they should be. It's easier to externalise and medicate a problem than it is to look at your own behaviour as a parent.

[1]<https://ebm.bmj.com/content/30/Suppl_1/A52.2>

[matheusmoreira]

There is a certain truth to this. The history of psychiatry isn't pretty.

It's called a "disorder" because it is maladaptive: it causes the individual to fail to adapt to the environment. Children and even adults with "attention deficit" often fail to adapt to school, leading to diagnosis. Plenty of teachers get fed up with impulsive children that are incapable of paying attention or even sitting still in class, and they send them to doctors in order to "fix" the kid so they can do their jobs.

It's somewhat self-contradictory though. When you look closer at these patients with "attention deficit", you find that a high number of them are capable of hyperfocus. There's almost always something that deeply engages them. For some it's computers, for others it's car engines, there's always something. You find that all these people with "attention deficit" can suddenly display the ability to pay attention to specific things for ten hours straight.

I make it a point to identify instances where the person is capable of deeply concentrating. I always try to disprove their notions that they are "dumb lazy kids". For me it's a matter of basic human dignity. Once that's out of the way, I may offer them drugs to help them cope with the environment they find themselves in. Not before.

Maybe the problem is just that these people are not compatible with the mass education system where you listen to lectures for hours on end. Maybe that's just the most efficient method for the school, not the best teaching method for these kids. Perhaps there is an environment where they are well adapted, where the disorder does not manifest. Until such an environment is found, drugs and therapy are available.

[hakanderyal]

I agree with this also. I'm not living in the USA, but from afar it looks like overmedication is a very valid concern that should be explored more.

I draw the line at overly dismissal point of views, telling those who suffer to just put themselves into it and show some discipline. I'm 38 years old and been gaslit by well intentioned people for 30 of those. It needs to stop.