EBDblog

Over her blog, Letters from Lisa, Lisa Fischler’s got a very thoughtful statement about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She titled it “Does ADHD Exist?” and, as you might suppose, it starts with a string of the indictments that are routinely thrown at ADHD. But within two paragraphs, she’s begun to dismember and eviserate those arguments. After many insightful comments and a host of thoughtful analyses, she concludes with this paragraph:

Point being, it’s not simple, and I really dislike when people pretend it is. I think it’s disrespectful to trivialize the issues that people face when they have attention problems by saying that those problems don’t really exist, or that it’s all the fault of one thing or another. It’s so impressive what these kids (and adults too) are able to accomplish and handle, but heartbreaking when you see the misunderstanding and suffering that can come with it. Hopefully the kids I’ve worked with will grow up to have their own understanding of what ADHD means to them, and gain a sense of mastery over their own environment and destiny.

Follow this link to Does ADHD exist? on Letters from Lisa (where one can also find other sensible posts). It’s worth the read, both because it’s a sentient analysis of pop-psych babble that usually passes as argument and because it’s just dang well written.