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What is your views on it? (Or just plain ADD).

I think it's just a bunch of lies that doctors use to get parents to buy ritalin or other drugs for their child. If they have plenty of energy, get them to do something constructive. Sports, for example, are a great way to expend energy. Or as they get older, they can start making things, such as houses, woodworking, smithing, etc.

Get them into doing what they like. Heck, it may become a lucrative hobby. Like if they are able to make computers, they can sell the made ones for a hefty amount. Or if they play sports, they may become the head of the football team for high school, be accepted into a nice college, go professional and make millions a year.

Also, with this 'disorder', a lot of the time the kids are not being challenged enough. They never have to think, and you as the parent wonder what the heck is wrong with your child! You ask your doctor, and end up buying pills for your kid! Just get them involved with something. Don't let them become 'couch-potatoes' and end up 'obese', which is also a personal choice (Which I will not go into detail about).

What do you think?

(This was a rant started by talking to one of my friends about being hyper, as I frequently am, for no reason at all, do I blame ADHD? Heck no!)

Edit: Spelling corrected, and edited for less one-sidedness.

I'm not sure but it sounds like you've never met anyone with ADHD. They tend to lash out a lot, act aggresivly and be overall very hyper, but hyper isn't the only thing. Overall the only reason this affects anyone's learning is because they can not concentrate on the work they have to do. It is a real disorder and people are affected by it, try talking to someone with it when they are off their meds, it might change your mind.

I thought ADD was more centered around the fact that you aren't able to focus properly and have a short attention span?

A lot of my friends have it. So I see it alot, hell, I may have it.

A lot of this 'disorder' is induced because the child never had to think when he/she was younger.

my friend has it and doesnt take his pills so hes always hyper.... (well not really my friend anymore)

You have never seen an Extreme case of ADHD. I have overcome ADD, myself. (I swear, when I was eight they diagnosed me with it and wanted to put me on ridlin. My dad said no, and I love him for that) But this kid i used to know, Alex something or another, literally cannot sit down. He needs to walk in circles all the time, he stutters, he gets angry easily. It might not be so bad if he weren't spoiled out of his mind by his mother.

Plus, he was 12 at the time and simply an idiot.
He lost three plastic blue balls and yelled 'Has anybody seen my balls?'
Everyone laughed, at which point he replied with 'What? You think the way I talk is funny??'

Dumb, dumb ass...

I don't think I've ever met someone with true ADD or ADHD, but I don't think it is a lie. I think that an inability to pay attention for even a short time is a serious and real disorder. Now the cause of it I'm not sure of. As you said it could be due to not being challenged, but it also could be due to something wrong with the brain, which may even be a result of the environment they are raised in.

Hmm this could be a nature vs nurture thing. Does the environment you live in cause ADD which causes a change in your brain, which therefore makes it appear to be something caused by something being wrong with your brain? Or is it that there is actually something naturally wrong with your brain?

See I was just reading this book about the human genome and it had this one chapter and in this one part it was talking about testosterone. One question it was talking about was does the environment shape our behavior, or do our genes shape our behavior.

Now with the testosterone it was saying that often our biology is at the mercy of our behavior and not the other way around. Testosterone levels correlate with aggression, but is it due to the hormone causing the aggression, or the release of testosterone caused by aggression? The book says the latter is more correct.

It said the mind drives the body which drives the genome, we are not a brain running a body by switching hormones, nor a body running a genome by switching on hormone receptors, nor a genome running a brian by switching on genes that switch on hormones, we are all at once.

That's what I was hinting at. I think it's more of a situational disorder than a hard wired one. You don't hear of many people in the early to mid 1900's haveing it, becuse they worked more. I'm sure that a few people do 'have a screw loose' in their brain, but not everyone.

How active were you as a kid? How much did you have to think before school?

Well i'm pretty intelligent (i.e. top 1%) so i don't have to try much. Boredom + ADHD = bad grades. I just stopped caring last year.


ADDITION:
Oh, and yes i was very hyper as a child.

Exactly. I have a very high IQ (you won't beleive me, so I won't even post it), and yet I suck in school because school is designed for the least common denominator, and this is only enforced by the 'No Child Left Behind' bullblam.

People say that Honors / Gifted classes are Elitest. HAHAHAHA!!!
Contemporary Issues (Gifted), basically the equivilant of the Serious Discussion section here, has taught me so much more than the other classes. I don't know, everything is just so boring. Even Honors Math, I kick everyone's ass.

Yeah i'm a freshman in highschool right now and i'm trying to test out of my math class since its so ing boring.


ADDITION:

It's supposed to be "advanced" but i'm seriously falling asleep in there.

Exactly how I feel.

Well I was told I had ADD by a doctor once.

Almost forgot:

Kids are supposed to have extra energy and not pay attention, at least when they're younger. Adult ADD may be an actual disorder, due to ther maturity.

Woot! My topics don't usually get this many posts xD

People use ADD as an excuse for their stupidity, if they were truly intelligent ADD wouldn't affect them as heavily. Yesterday someone in Op SEN said he had ADD and that he was in 9th grade. I asked him to name the 5th president and he said he can't because he has ADD, I told him that he was retarded, then he said that he saw no use in learning the names of presidents. Now was that the fault of ADD, or was it because he was an idiot? I think we know the answer.

Well, since I'm smart I can overcome my ADD. Sorta.
Usually I don't need to do anything but write down the homework assignment. No need to listen to the lecture portion of class if I already know eveyrthing they're saying.

That's what I was trying to say. People use it as an excuse to not do well. 'I have ADD, woe is me, I'm so stupid!'

Isn't it Monroe? (I hafta do an outline on him this week)

I'm an intelligent person and I get good grades. Even if I find something extremely boring I don't feel that I can't pay attention. I think that I pay attention very well and I'm really good at listening. If I want to pay attention to something and focus on it then I will.

I just won't drift off and think about something else unconciously.

how can you tell if u have ADD

Pretty much the same here. In 4th grade, I have straight A+'s...
In 5th, I was just so bored...
6th was worsem almost failed...
7th I started to realize that I should get my crap together, passed with C's...
8th began recovery, passed with varied grades, from A's to D's...
9th grade, we shall see....