ADD/ADHD traders

Quote from uexkuell:

Lots of hard evidence that the numbers of ADHD diagnoses are far off the real numbers.

Right.
The bad thing is that many people are looking for quick and easy solutions (very much like in trading).
That means to most: Not having to put too much effort into it (e.g. take pills, not think about changes in behaviour).
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I don't question that doctors are over diagnosing ADHD. But the 75% figure quoted doesn't sound realistic.

In the case of my son, something was needed quick. He was getting so hyper he was starting to clobber his sister (who was 6 years older than him)
and the neighborhood kids over the head with a 2x4. Ritalin calmed him right down. We knew he had a problem
way before that but like some say here, didn't want to drug him. We actually waited too long to take him to the doctor.

I would bet a lot of people that don't get help end up in prison. And I don't mean being the prison guard as mentioned in an earlier post.
 
Anyone asked why it only seems to be American children that are suffering from such a massive ADD problem? I'm making an educated guess but I'd suspect over 95% of all global AHD sufferers are in the US.

Why is it the rest of the world doesn't suffer from these problems?

Drugging your child should be the LAST option any of you do.

Common sense suggests you first try all the other alternatives but as one of the posters drying points out - you all want the easy and quick short term fix.

I just hope that the short term fixes don't become long term problems..........
 
Quote from AK100:

Anyone asked why it only seems to be American children that are suffering from such a massive ADD problem? I'm making an educated guess but I'd suspect over 95% of all global AHD sufferers are in the US.

Why is it the rest of the world doesn't suffer from these problems?

Drugging your child should be the LAST option any of you do.

Common sense suggests you first try all the other alternatives but as one of the posters drying points out - you all want the easy and quick short term fix.

I just hope that the short term fixes don't become long term problems..........
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I grew up in Asia. ADHD children are everywhere, not just in the USA, although they may not be labeled as such. However, not many countries drugged their ADD/ADHD population the way America does.

If you can get the child to take up yoga, meditation, qigong or martial arts, it may be more beneficial in the long run.
 
Quote from gettinglucky007:

The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum (Chp. 2)

The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes. Parents and guardians are often quite too negligent in regard to this. It is very common for a father to say, for example: "I have five boys. I will make Billy a clergyman; John a lawyer; Tom a doctor, and Dick a farmer." He then goes into town and looks about to see what he will do with Sammy. He returns home and says "Sammy, I see watch-making is a nice, genteel business; I think I will make you a goldsmith." He does this, regardless of Sam's natural inclinations, or genius.

We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose. There is as much diversity in our brains as in our countenances. Some are born natural mechanics, while some have great aversion to machinery. Let a dozen boys of ten years get together, and you will soon observe two or three are "whittling" out some ingenious device; working with locks or complicated machinery. When they were but five years old, their father could find no toy to please them like a puzzle. They are natural mechanics; but the other eight or nine boys have different aptitudes. I belong to the latter class; I never had the slightest love for mechanism; on the contrary, I have a sort of abhorrence for complicated machinery. I never had ingenuity enough to whittle a cider tap so it would not leak. I never could make a pen that I could write with, or understand the principle of a steam engine. If a man was to take such a boy as I was, and attempt to make a watchmaker of him, the boy might, after an apprenticeship of five or seven years, be able to take apart and put together a watch; but all through life he would be working up hill and seizing every excuse for leaving his work and idling away his time. Watchmaking is repulsive to him.

Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed. I am glad to believe that the majority of persons do find their right vocation. Yet we see many who have mistaken their calling, from the blacksmith up (or down) to the clergyman. You will see, for instance, that extraordinary linguist the "learned blacksmith," who ought to have been a teacher of languages; and you may have seen lawyers, doctors and clergymen who were better fitted by nature for the anvil or the lapstone.
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Good stuff! I would wager that some Greek or Chinese writer 1000+ years ago said pretty much the same thing too. Amazing how so many in a so-called 'scientific' profession can ignore such basic truth.
 
Quote from FortuneTeller:

Most kids do want or need to focus at school. The odds are low at becoming a tech startup pioneer, or an adventurer or whatever. As far as the other jobs you mention, not most want to be a prison guard, squad cop or whatever you mentioned.

And it's not like ritalin or whatever prevents you from doing such. It isn't a lobotomy as far as I can tell.
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No, most kids need to find their vocation in life, and focus on that. Some vocations can be learned at school. Others cannot.

The odds for a randomly selected member of a population to succeed are low. But that is completely irrelevant, because no parent is the parent of the general population, they are the parent of specific children. Thus it is not the general odds that affect you or your offspring, rather it is conditional odds - what is the chance of someone succeeding at something *they already show aptitude and passion for*. And that is a lot higher than the odds for succeeding at a randomly chosen vocation. And the conditional odds of succeeding at something they are *unsuited* to and bored by (for example, and ADD kid succeeding at becoming a good accountant) are far lower than the general odds. Attempting to put square pegs in round holes doesn't work. Square pegs fit best in square holes.

As for 'most people' - again, we are not talking about the general population. We are talking about what's best for an individual kid or person. Most people would hate being a soldier, but some love it, and actually wish for war so they can experience combat again. If you are one of the people for whom that is a natural calling, then you will be bored if your parents have shoehorned you into becoming a dentist or a patent lawyer.

You seem fixated on the idea of "doing well at school", as if that is some kind of panacea. But there are plenty of people who did well at school, then failed in life. Schooling and grades are not the only important things in education. Understanding your nature and your talents, and then pursuing them, is just as important. If Ritalin results in you thinking all is ok with your kid, then you may end up successfully treating the symptoms but ignoring the disease - a bit like giving pain killers to someone with early-stage cancer.

Several people have posted resources on this thread - why not read them? At worst, you will come away with a bit more knowledge and perspective, and even if you don't change your mind, you will understand better. At best, you may find some way to improve the effectiveness of your approach.
 
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