{"id":38238,"date":"2013-04-02T19:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=38238"},"modified":"2021-09-25T19:38:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T00:38:30","slug":"over-diagnosis-of-adhd-indicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/over-diagnosis-of-adhd-indicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Over Diagnosis of ADHD Indicated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Source<\/strong>: “An ‘astronomical’ rise in ADHD diagnosis,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, published in\u00a0Omaha World-Herald<\/em>, 02 April 2013.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why this is so surprising. Common sense has indicated for decades that children were being drugged for no other reason than to keep classrooms calm and to allow parents to control their children with little effort.<\/p>\n

“Nearly 1 in 5 high-school-age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children overall have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder … About one in 10 high-school boys takes ADHD medication …” This reflects a continuing rise in diagnosis. “A 16 percent increase since 2007 and a 53 percent rise in 10 years.”<\/p>\n

“‘Those are astronomical numbers. I’m floored,’ said Dr. William Graf, a pediatric neurologist in New Haven and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. ‘Mild symptoms are being diagnosed so readily, which goes well beyond the disorder and beyond the zone of ambiguity to pure enhancement of children who are otherwise healthy.'”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the American Psychological Association plans to ease the definition of ADHD. The result will be that more people will be classified as having the disorder and more will be medicated. “The new rates suggest that millions of children may be taking medication merely to calm their behavior or to do better in school.”<\/p>\n

The real problem is that there is no objective test for ADHD. Supposedly it is determined through extensive interviews of the child and everyone involved with him. The diagnosis is supposed to come after ruling out all other possibilities, but this is too often skipped because of expense, time, and pressure from parents and teachers to “do something.” “Unfortunately, misuse appears to be growing at an alarming rate.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: “An ‘astronomical’ rise in ADHD diagnosis,\u00a0The New York Times, published in\u00a0Omaha World-Herald, 02 April 2013. I don’t know why this is so surprising. Common sense has indicated for decades that children were being drugged for no other reason than to keep classrooms calm and to allow parents to control their children with little effort.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1031,42,1028],"tags":[1370,372,508],"class_list":["post-38238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childhood","category-issues","category-parenting","tag-adhd","tag-drugs","tag-mental-illness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14112,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-handle-a-child-with-add-or-adhd\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":0},"title":"How do you handle a child with ADD or ADHD?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A Christian friend has a child that has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I keep this child once a week and I have several questions for those of you who are familiar with ADD or ADHD. The mother doesn't want to give me much information because she feels\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Childhood"","block_context":{"text":"Childhood","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87392,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/educations-stance-against-boys\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":1},"title":"Education’s Stance Against Boys","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Brian Mark Weber, \"Boys and Young Men Are Hurting,\" The Patriot Post, 30 May 2025. \"School has changed in ways that favor girls, and work has changed in ways that favor women. Boys are often seen as troublemakers, and men have heard that masculinity is 'toxic.'\" \"Schools have become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adolescence"","block_context":{"text":"Adolescence","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/adolescence\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51533,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/teenage-suicide-its-causes-and-its-cure\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":2},"title":"Teenage Suicide: Its Causes and Its Cure","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Harold Fite Guardian of Truth\u00a0- June 20, 1985 If the trend continues, 50,000 suicides will have occurred in this country by the end of 1985. Ten thousand of this number will be committed by young people between the ages of 15 and 34. Suicide is the second greatest killer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/family-time-together-is-essential\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":3},"title":"Family Time Together Is Essential","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by W. Frank Walton in\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 5, No. 8, August 2005 Time together is the bonding mortar that binds family members together before God in love \"Hear, my son, and accept My sayings and the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adolescence"","block_context":{"text":"Adolescence","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/adolescence\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0014-300x254.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":57940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/living-together-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":4},"title":"Living Together Before Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ray Fowler Here are some statistics on living together before marriage from Michael McManus, the president of Marriage Savers. Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce. The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-and-the-poverty-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":38238,"position":5},"title":"The Bible and the Poverty Problem","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford In 2003, social scientists Isabell Sawhill and Ron Haskins noticed\u00a0three striking differences between poor people in America and the nonpoor. First, poor people generally hadn\u2019t completed high school; the nonpoor had. Second, nonpoor people kept a steady job; poor people didn\u2019t. Third, nonpoor people got married\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}