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FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

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Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#151

Post by raverbashing »

jasonkester wrote: post #128
nerdbaggy wrote: post #17

Seems that lots of people only think ADHD people have a hard time paying attention. If it was that simple I would be so happy. Here are just a few of the things I struggle with. - Will power. People with ADHD struggle sooooo much with will power. It’s a constant struggle with everything in life and really wears you down. - Constantly putting on a fake front pretending you don’t have ADHD. - Rejection sensitivity - Fe…

How do you reconcile this with the observation that seemingly every single child in the United States is diagnosed with this condition and prescribed drugs to treat it? Watching from Europe, where roughly nobody is diagnosed with it nor prescribed drugs to treat it, I’m always baffled, fascinated and horrified watching Americans talk about it.

Well by reading a lot of stories here to be fair this seems like a mix of:

- parents not actually caring for their children. Not putting them through the motions of life. Boundaries, schedules, motions, etc. How many of those have dinner in front of the TV? Don't "eat their vegetables"? You raise a kid on overprocessed food and no exercise, what do you think is going to happen? (not saying absolutely this is the only issue, far from it)

- Overmedicalization, sure, up to a bit. I can sympathize with people that need the medication to feel better and be productive, but how many of those have a legitimate problem and how many of those "just need a nudge". Learn to manage emotions and priorities is also part of growing up.

- "Somebody elses problem", If school is boring is the problem with the school or the kid?

Not saying that ADHD is not a real issue, but if you took a look at all aspects of that person's life, I bet you would find lots of things to fix.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#152

Post by astrange »

jasonkester wrote: post #137
bendmorris wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that by: >People thinking it’s not a real condition. the person you're responding to meant statements like yours: >Frankly, the symptoms you describe apply to pretty much everybody, and are just the things one deals with in life. According to the NIH, prevalence of severe ADHD in children is around 4% [1]. This differs by degree from "the things one deals with in life" for most people - it's an extreme vers…

You’re right. I didn’t like that bit of my comment, and was in the process of lopping it off when you were composing your reply. Apologies for not getting the edit done in time. Mostly I’m alarmed that so many parents are happy to put their small children on a lifetime supply of medicine for something that’s not immediately life threatening.

ADHD medication is perfectly safe and not addictive (at prescribed doses). If you don't want to take it, just don't do it.

Since the US makes it so hard to get (you have to renew your prescription every month) it's actually very likely you'll stop it.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#153

Post by scns »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #97
lfowles wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a major symptom that led me to seek a diagnosis. I was never diagnosed/medicated for ADHD until I was 25.

This was a major contributor for me too. Also alcohol abuse as self medication which is extraordinarily common in undiagnosed adult ADHD cases.

Smoking tobacco too

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#154

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

runawaybottle wrote: post #19
nerdbaggy wrote: post #17

Seems that lots of people only think ADHD people have a hard time paying attention. If it was that simple I would be so happy. Here are just a few of the things I struggle with. - Will power. People with ADHD struggle sooooo much with will power. It’s a constant struggle with everything in life and really wears you down. - Constantly putting on a fake front pretending you don’t have ADHD. - Rejection sensitivity - Fe…

None of you ever want to hear it, but everyone goes through this. It’s the human condition. I’m an addict, and I’ve just justified with Herculean levels of mental gymnastics to keep abusing drugs/alcohol. There’s nothing you can say to me, I will convince myself it’s fine. Edit: I spent most of my youth playing video games for 5+ hours daily. I had zero work ethic. It caught up to me and I worked hard to fix it, and…

maybe you didn’t need to struggle so hard friend.

i know you worked hard to get where you are but wouldn’t it be better if there were a way for people after you not to have to struggle like you did?

is it not unfair that you had to work so much harder than your peers to achieve something comparable?

did you ever think that it wasn’t meant to be that way?

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#155

Post by garmaine »

lurquer wrote: post #40
nerdbaggy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like somebody who doesn’t have ADHD. It sound stupid but it’s the truth. You can’t come close to relating if you don’t have it.

> You can’t come close to relating if you don’t have it. Really? How do you know that? I don’t think you can come close to relating to what a non-ADHD person knows or feels as you have ADHD.

> I don’t think you can come close to relating to what a non-ADHD person knows or feels as you have ADHD.

I had no idea what normal people felt like until I took doctor-prescribed amphetamines for the first time at the age of 35. Most people take speed for a high, but for me I just felt "normal" for the first time ever. I could think clearly. I could remember things. I could react entirely proportionate to the demands of circumstance. It's like something clicked and I was suddenly knew that is why life's a struggle! It was no longer my failing, but something I was born with.

Anyway, point is that thanks to medication we can get a glimpse into what life is like for non-ADHD people, and it is glorious. You don't know how easy you've got it.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#156

Post by esyir »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #140
jasonkester wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile this with the observation that seemingly every single child in the United States is diagnosed with this condition and prescribed drugs to treat it? Watching from Europe, where roughly nobody is diagnosed with it nor prescribed drugs to treat it, I’m always baffled, fascinated and horrified watching Americans talk about it.

you’re insinuating that adhd (or, executive functions disorders) don’t exist. 1. there is lots of evidence showing that “something” is wrong with lots of peoples executive functions and that this observed problem is hereditary. 2. this is pretty insensitive. everybody does have these symptoms to some extent as you executive functions can’t be running 100% all the time. just like everyone has varying degrees of sight.…

That's a pretty uncharitable take of his view. Rather, he seems to be claiming that it's heavily overdiagnosed.

Looking at the numbers, I'm leaning towards that too. 9.4 percent of children are diagnosed with ADHD, and that's just the confirmed cases, nothing about estimated prevalence. Either we're screwing up the diagnostic criteria and overlabelling people (or worse, we're diagnosing them out of convenience), or we've seriously fucked our own society in ways that aggravate this, and medication is at best a stopgap.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#157

Post by astrange »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #143
The_rationalist wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one treat chronic anxiety? Xanax has a miracle reputation but like all other benzos it is said to only works temporarily as a hotfix, then you build up tolerance and you go back to your baseline Pre Xanax (or worse). What is very frustrating about such explanations is that I can't tell if it exactly put you back to your pre Xanax era or if after tolerance builds up (for a same dose) you are better than befor…

ssris are often used to treat anxiety alone in the uk. i personally found that aswagandha helped a lot in reducing my anxiety enough to start to handle it. it also totally destroyed my motovation to do anything (i took too much too often for too long). now i take 500mg ever 2-3 days but i started on 500mg a day.

I've found the same thing with all anti-anxiety supplements (ashgawandha, rhodiola, bacopa). I don't have serious anxiety problems but do have ADHD and thought they might help with the stimulant side effects - instead I just lose all motivation.

Theanine + coffee does work for me though.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#158

Post by astrange »

JamesBarney wrote: post #109
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your response perfectly sums up why ADHD confuses me. It seems to be very poorly defined, and from what I understand being diagnosed is practically still self-diagnosis because the doctor will ask you questions about your behaviour and judge whether you have ADHD or not based on that. Looking at the CDC website on ADHD [0] and without trying to force things to fit, I easily meet the criteria for inattention. Yet a lo…

> It seems to be very poorly defined, and from what I understand being diagnosed is practically still self-diagnosis because the doctor will ask you questions about your behaviour and judge whether you have ADHD or not based on that. This seems pretty par for the course. A doctor asking you questions and then deciding whether or not you meet some threshold based on the answers to those questions is a large part of me…

They don't only ask you questions, but will also ask your friends or parents for a second opinion on what you're like or how you were as a child. This happens more often if you are a child, of course.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#159

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

runawaybottle wrote: post #52
lfowles wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the actual bullshit things about ADHD is that I often can't focus even on things I do like . Absolutely nothing convenient about that.

This happens after alcohol abuse too. If you abuse alcohol enough, you cannot enjoy stuff without alcohol. It fries your dopamine receptors, this is drugs 101. Your are not going to take speed every day for years and function normally, and you will literally need confirmation bias to make sense of that reality. Also, here is another weird tidbit from life. You might not like the stuff you used to like anymore but you…

it’s super clear you’ve struggled through a lot. i hope one day you get the help you need.

Re: FDA approves new ADHD drug for children

#160

Post by eyelidlessness »

scns wrote: post #153
eyelidlessness wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a major contributor for me too. Also alcohol abuse as self medication which is extraordinarily common in undiagnosed adult ADHD cases.

Smoking tobacco too

That’s also true. And also a stimulant that has relaxing effects.
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