ADHD Scam
September 19, 2010
Boring things are boring, and interesting things are interesting. If you give a child - or an adult - speed, then the person will be able to power through mundane tasks. Why call this a disease?
Because if ADHD didn't exist, then neither would doctors who study ADHD. Voltaire said that if God did not exist, then man would create him. If ADHD did not exist, then BigPharma would create it. There is profit and power in forgiving sin and curing illness. Before you may redeem a man or cure him, you must make him sick.
A friend who is very smart and sober was offended when I told him that ADHD was a fake disease. His response, "The ADHD meds I've taken are life-changing." He was right, as was I.
Has anyone here taken Adderall? It really is fantastic stuff. I've always used some stimulant - primarily caffeine or ephedrine. When dieting, I have low energy. When bored, I have low energy. If I can take a pill to give me more energy, why not take it?
Adderall is superior, but it's still speed. Any of you old timers who took "white crosses" or "black beauties" back in the day should pop one for research purposes. Then ask yourself, "Should I really be giving this stuff to my kid?!"
Oh, here's the genesis for this post:
Despite its moniker, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) might be better considered as a problem in the willful control of attention as opposed to a pure deficit in the ability to pay attention.
Duh. I have an appellate brief to finish this week. I am blogging and reading about ADHD. I should be working. That I am blogging does not mean I have a disease. It just means that I'd rather goof off than work. Thus, one can understand ADHD as a cultural illness.
I was in an Afro-Carribean area for vacation. In non-Protestant Work Ethic countries, people would rather goof off than work. I'll wager that no one has ADHD in countries where people think life means more than 60-hour workweeks and mind-numbing drudgery to earn money that we won't have time to spend.
In the United States, sitting in a classroom for 8 hours is miserable. I got poor grades in grade school and high school, but near-perfect grades in college. Was I sick in high school, or was high school what was sick?
I actually enjoy writing appellate briefs, but do not enjoy doing document review or engaging in discovery disputes. If doing discovery is really hard for me to do, does this mean I'm sick? Or does it mean that the discovery process of our legal system is sick? It could mean both, although it does seem that no one enjoys doing discovery-related work.
More from the high priests:
Parents of children with ADHD, for example, may find it hard to fathom that a child who can spend hours engrossed in a video game has a problem with attention. Teachers may be confounded by a student who is fully engaged in a music lesson but is distracted or disruptive in other classwork.
Right. Boring shit is boring, and fun shit is fun. Homework is boring. It's also pointless. Unless education exists to train a man and woman to perform worthless, make-work functions in a cubicle. In that case, being robbed of the joy of childhood to do math homework (even though math teachers admit that most of us won't use anything above Algebra, ever) does have a point - though we might not want to admit what the point of education really is.
Part of the problem, he and other experts say, is that there is so much individual variability in the symptoms and behavioral manifestations of what is broadly labeled as ADHD.
Translation: Your kids would rather ride bikes than do homework. Mine would rather play video games. Your neighbor's kid would rather play sports. My neighbor's would rather chill out, doing nothing. How can we say all of these children are sick with the same illness, when they all seem very different?
Don't worry, the scientists will find a way to diagnose all of your children. The age of priests declaring us all sinners in need of redemption may be over. The will to power is timeless, however, and the new priesthood wears white robes. You are damned, and must turn to them for salvation.