Source: wikipedia

Well, the jury is in. My husband and I are bad parents. That’s because we have a child with ADHD.

According to 1,000 people who took part in a survey conducted by The Child Mind Institute on children’s mental health, not only are we endangering our son’s health by putting him on medication, its even worse because his ADHD probably isn’t real, and is really the result of a combination negligent parenting, lax discipline, and our desire to have a zombie child.

Sure, we’re responsible for J having ADHD.  After all, he is the product of our mutual genetic material.  But, did we cause ADHD in any other way?   Nope.  No way.

I haven’t seen the full survey, and I’m trusting that The Child Mind Institute conducted it with good intentions in an effort to gauge public opinion about children’s mental health issues.

Here’s my take on the results.  I put them into three main categories.

Are you F*cking kidding me?

32% of parents said… ADHD is sometimes more a result of insufficient or absent parenting rather than a true medical condition.

Ok, we’ve already established that I’m a shitty parent, but thanks to 320 people for rubbing it in.  Guess they don’t know how much time parenting an ADHD kid takes. Or, how they complete monopolize the entire house with their ‘antics’. Oh, also, guess they haven’t seen the imaging of an ADHD brain in action.

13% of parents said… ADHD should not be treated as a medical condition, but rather as a behavioral issue that can be corrected with discipline.

OOh, let’s teach a child who has impulse control problems to hit when they don’t like something someone does.  Hey 130 people, have you tried to spank the seizure out of an epileptic today?

6% of parents said… Psychiatric or learning disorders are more common in single parent families.

No comment except, those are 60 stupid people.

10% of parents said… Extended time on standardized tests give children with learning disorders an unfair advantage.

Holy shit. Obviously, those 100 parents are big fat sucky babies who think because their kid didn’t get the highest score because the other kid got more time.

16% of parents said… Kids who take medication now are more prone to drug or alcohol addiction later in life.

Actually, kids with ADHD who go untreated are more prone to addiction and legal problems due their impulse control problems.

Food for thought

45% of parents said… Kids with learning disorders tend to have other behavioral issues that hamper their learning.

This is true. For example, my boy has ADHD, a learning disability, and he’s gifted in the 100th percentile.  Poor guy.

52% of parents said… Starting kids on medication so young in life is dangerous.

Any medication at any time in life has side-effects and should not be taken lightly.  A child on medication should be monitored frequently for side-effects. For example, we see the psychiatrist anywhere from every 3-6 months, depending on how J is doing, both physically and socially.

74% of parents said… Kids are often put on medication as a quick and easy fix.

I actually agree with this one.  My son saw a psychiatrist for three years before we took the leap into the world of Concerta.  Here’s a list of 50 conditions that can present as ADHD.

72% of parents said… Doctors and parents are too quick to put kids on medication for ADHD rather than looking for other solutions.

First of all, HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS? Did you call everyone of us and ask us if we’d tried anything else?  If these 720 people are speaking from experience, get another doctor.  There are other options, depending on the type of ADHD, the behaviours, and the impact on the child’s well-being.  That being said, cutting out fruit roll-ups is not a cure for ADHD.

63% of parents said… Too many children are being diagnosed with ADHD when they just have behavioral issues.

These are the only 630 smart people who took the survey.  Even my son’s psychiatrist said that ADHD is definitely over diagnosed. I myself went through hoops with my elder son when the school thought he had ADHD. After extensive testing, we found that he had a fine motor delay and a weak eye muscles.

The ones that I wish weren’t true:

50% of parents said… Many doctors downplay the risks associated with putting kids on medication to treat ADHD and depression.

I really hope that doctors are discussing all of the side-effects of any medication that they prescribe.  I really hope.

45% of parents said… Normal children are being labeled as mentally ill or having learning disorders simply because their teachers can’t handle them.

I am sad to hear people think a teacher would tell parents that their child has a mental illness to make their own life easier. I really hope that this one is ignorant opinion and not based on fact. Because, I would really be disturbed if it was true.

(You can see the results on the Parents Magazine Website, as well an article about the survey in the Globe and Mail.)