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ADHD being a “disease”, is treated with excuses & lack of intervention. ADHD is not a tortuous diagnosis you cannot overcome. I’ve watched how people never grow up or mature, because “IT’S ADHD!!!”. Mommy & Daddy, teachers, everyone will allow abusive violence and even emotional violence. Siblings and peers suffer because of it. These golden children impose it on others, rather than learning the necessary coping methods to operate in society. It’s literally a list of traits… not an illness. My older brother smashed out my teeth, broke my bones, and busted my lip as a little girl. We both had the same problems, but nobody cared about MY WELLBEING. I found my own coping mechanisms, and figured my shit out, because I wasn’t living on the graces of a “condition”. I was actually held accountable for things. Alter your environment if you want to find happiness, change your routines or methods. Society is over sensitive, and needs to get it together. Grow up, life isn’t always comfy. Psychopathic behavior is still psychopathic behavior. Parents need to stand up for the vulnerable siblings & peers, it’s abusive in so many cases.

A psychiatrist's test for me was taking his ruler and scraping it down my arm to test my histamine levels. Hence, this was his proof that I had severe ADHD. ADHD is simply, symptoms caused by simple or severe stress as a baby, child or even an adult. It happens mostly empaths, deeply sensitive to their surroundings. If you added this to your magnificent speech, I feel it might help people to understand why symptoms happen to some and not to others.

Sorry, but I feel compelled to comment on the organisational approach which you adopt. I watched to get a sense of what your central argument is. You took nearly 12 minutes not to tell me. Perhaps you should re-think your introductory video, if you want more people to watch?

Wow, this list is so incredibly ill informed.

Shallow points and not much science going on here. Science must be based on evidence, not beliefs. The "statistical" example at the end is a good example of a circular argument: "Imagine the numbers confirm my theories. You can imagine that. See how I'm right now?" Thanks. As the author mentioned, his "theories" come from a "virtually" new book from the '90s. Thirty years ago. Great.

I think "ADHD" evolved humans now and always has. Group thinking is the most devolving in the advancement of humans to me at this time. We have "immortal" jellyfish regenrating their organs. THEY DEFINITELY HAVE TO BE LAUGHING AT US HUMANS.❤

Brilliant!

Hi Thomas, here from Peru. After watching this video, the first thing I did was to re-design my English lesson based on that golden insights about their brains and friendly brain activity such as: they need opportunities to choose and positive peer learning, besides the emotional factor. All of this knowledge made my lesson more memorable and meaningful getting a positive answer from my teenagers students. I would like to thank you for the webinar. Massive thanks!

You are very interesting Tom

Wow....😂 why don't you go to the house of every single person that truly suffers from this cognitive disorder, spend a day with each of them, and then explain to them why you don't believe they're suffering from a real issue, but something that they have built up in their head. I'm sure you'll help sooo many people....

The adhd leaving my body as soon as Thomas Armstrong says that it’s not real:

This is pseudo intellectual word salad masquerading as fact with a sprinkle of irrelevant truth for credibility. Your not speaking the truth, your speaking what you think is the truth and people listen and accept it. Shame on you.

I completely agree !!!!

I was put on Ritalin but was never diagnosed with anything. I never heard of adhd or add until years after i was taken off of it. Its lazy teachers that are biased against boys.

Interesting perspective 👍🏻

it’s not a disability

I was diagnosed with ADHD 18 years ago as a teenage. Spent my whole life fighting ADHD. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my wife recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

Money. Money. Money. There's another reason.

Multiple intelligences is rubbish myth.

Your videos have been very helpful, I hope to apply them in the social care field and do some good

ADHD doesnt exist im gonna too the grave with this

ADHD causes difficulties with starting, organizing, and sticking with tasks, ADHD is not a matter of willpower. It is a problem with the dynamics of the chemistry of the brain.The ADHD Brain: Structurally DifferentSeveral studies have pointed to a smaller prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia, and decreased volume of the posterior inferior vermis of the cerebellum - all of which play important roles in focus and attention. There are a lot of myths about ADHD on the internet. Here are a few: It's not a real medical condition. All children with ADHD are hyperactive. Kids outgrow ADHD .......... The adhd brain tends to show differences in structure, chemistry, and function, leading to the characteristic symptoms

Brats who dont know how to control themselves in an enviroment where noone else is allowed to control them. Thats all it is, and its no coincidence that the rise of adhd came along around the time corporal punishment became taboo.

i think ADHD is set of symptoms. i dont think it is a disorder anymore and i did and i would get sooo offended by hearing sth like this lol. but. i think we are as society extremelly permanently STRESSED. you know what permanent stress causes? feeling of... being overwhelmed. and that is just a top of iceberg honestly.

This is an interesting and concerning video for my family. If an elementary school boy K through 5th has been described as fidgety, impulsive, disruptive and doesn't listen during class, is this not ADHD behavior that should be treated or is this just young boy behavior?

The real problems here #1. The rampant entitlement of shitty parents who care more about protecting their manufactured & shallow reputations than they do about protecting their minor & often vulnerable children. #2. The people who have all of the power & control to make real change happen, don't want to actually DEAL with or FACE the systemic issues that would proactively protect children, while holding the adults responsible for their negligent & abusive behaviors & choices, that have led to their children being overly & unnecessarily diagnosed & medicated (basically punished for being born into these maladaptive & highly destructive enviornments) The "solution" to abuse & neglect became medicating children. As far as I'm concerned that is absolutley criminal

As someone who has severe ADHD, I can agree with this man to some degree or another. ADHD is regarded as a disorder within the confines of our neurotypical society more than it is a disorder as a whole. For example, for those of us with ADHD we have our diurnal rhythm shifted by about 3-4 hours, in previous generations this could have suited us well for positions that require intense focus during the night, as it is during this time that most of us with ADHD have peak levels of focus! While I do still regard ADHD as a disorder, I do see the other end of the spectrum that states that it's only a disorder within our neurotypical society, and not a disorder in its entirety.

You are not an authority in this subject. In fact many patients who were prescribed these drugs were functioning fine, until some ivy league college kids who were getting them illegally. These Ivy league families were scamming Change Healthcare. The government is now investigating how these drugs were obtained by fraud. People who abuse government funded programs, meant for the poor will be penalyzed and brought on charges. You all better hope your names don't pop up on the data base.

ben si les parents incompétents engendrent des enfants incompétents(socialement) comment voulez-vous avoir des enseignants compétents? normal que l'incompetence prolifère.

Most mental illnesses root cause is a trouble with living! as Dr Szasz said. This is the core issue since there are no empirical ways to measure the 'disorders' with stigmataizing and believing in a disability a person loses his free-well. It is indeed a complex issue. Thank you very much, Dr. Armstrong. Your video was both engaging and informative, effectively highlighting how diagnostic approaches can fluctuate over time without a stable benchmark or consistent method for change.

I believe adhd was made up in order to intentionally and maliciously overly medicate children.

ADHD isnt even real

The hate this video gets is only proof of reason 1. To those of you defending the fake existence of this disease, please, what is your medical, and not anecdotal or procedural proof? Like most psychology, this theory suffered from lack of science.

"I'm a willfully ignorant, reality-denying moron therefore ADHD isn't a legitimate medical disorder."

nuh uh

Wow… as someone who suffers with ADHD this is the WORST take I’ve ever heard, I’ve had a friend who had incredibly severe adhd and I’ve had to help her talk and translate for her because it was difficult for her to speak. And adhd isn’t just “oh look a squirrel” it’s much more complicated than that

I have ADHD. Over a decade ago, I got tested for the DRD4 7 Repeat allele through FamilyTreeDNA. I was told that I didn't have it. I was a bit disappointed because I strongly felt that I had it. I can strongly relate to the DRD4 traits which I see in my mother and run strongly in my maternal grandfather's side of the family. From what my mother and paternal Aunt Carrie told me, my father had them too. After doing testing through the DNA company Sequencing around a year and half ago, I found out that I have a 5 Prime Untranslated Region (5'UTR) single nucleotide variant 11-637294-C-T in the Promoter (according to Encode, EPDnew) in DRD4 and has an allele frequency of 5.169%. Promoter is a binding site in a DNA chain at which RNA polymerase binds to initiate transcription of messenger RNA by one or more nearby structural genes. I have three single nucleotide variants that are in Enhancers (according to Encode) in DRD4. Enhancer is a nucleotide sequence that increases the rate of genetic transcription by preferentially increasing the activity of the nearest promoter on the same DNA molecule. One is a 2 KB Upstream variant 11-636929-C-T that is 365 base pairs upstream of 11-637294-C-T with an allele frequency of 3.415%. One is an intronic variant 11-637622-C-T that is 328 base pairs downstream of 11-637294-C-T with an allele frequency of 5.871%. One is an intronic variant 11-637933-G-A that is 639 base pairs downstream of 11-637294-C-T with an allele frequency of 22.86%. Finding out that I have these DRD4 variants has definitely increased my interest in DRD4 by a lot to the point that I had to make a blog post about it. 11-637294-C-T has been reported as Uncertain Significance for Hereditary Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in ClinVar. Both my mother and I have the 5'UTR Promoter variant, but the Enhancer variants data are unavailable for my mother. My father is dead, and so I have no way of knowing if I inherted DRD4 variants from him. .

The most messed up symptom experts put is non-compliance. Many creative and leaderlike people are non-compliant. But the experts want us to think that being a sheep to authority is healthy. Also most kids who have non-compliance symptom are not severe but just energetic boys who want to play more.

LMAO someone needs to rip your license to practice away. ADHD has been medically noted since the 1700s. It’s not new, and abusive mental health workers make our lives abject hell.

I was diagnosed with ADHD....your video is too long for people like me.

I have autism and ADHD. I really liked this video. I tend to agree. a few minor mistakes but overall pretty good.

Oj, I don't necessarily disagree. But I have been wondering sometimes if some of this is hyper-nervousness due to a lack of one of our biggest deficiencies - we are low on magnesium in our bodies. Especially, magnesium glycinate (there are different magnesiums) has been shown to calm down the nerves, naturally. I think it worth to try this over-the-counter capsule nutrient.

This whole thing ignores all the people without co-morbidities, all people with severe ADHD symptoms and all adult ADHD (which differs).

When people correlate trauma PTSD or CPTSD with ADHD, that does not mean that they are the same. They are not necessarily significantly correlated enough to be the same. This is a point of conjecture but it’s not a clear case that the DSM or ICD should be reorganized. Besides, the DSM and ICD don’t define them all exactly the same, as CPTSD (which is much more correlated with ADHD) is not in the DSM. ADHD has dissociative symptoms in sone cases. That does not make it best described as part of the dissociative cluster.

The main idea here is telling parents their kids don’t have a disorder. I’m interested in what that means in practice. What I think the implication is they will grow out of it and be fine, without pharmaceutical intervention. That is true of many kids. But for many, no pharmaceutical intervention has permanent negative implications, and for many, they do not fully grow out of it. I think one or the other of these outcomes is true of approximately half of diagnosed patients. The point should be does pharmaceutical intervention work, when does it work, and for whom and how much. You need to understand the trade-offs. Too often the wrong medication or the wrong dose is used, and either the child or parent stops treatment altogether because they do not like the side effects or simply are concerned with emotional and affect flattening and blunting which is not technically a side effect, but is a consequence of over medication. Or they become concerned (overly) about drug addiction. Drug resistance is not drug dependence. Drug resistance can be combatted with drug-free days or weekends or with drug vaccinations. These drugs should be used as sparingly as is still significantly effective. I think pharmaceutical wariness, or wariness about transitioning from methylphenidate to amphetamine is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences in how these drugs at appropriate minimum therapeutic effective doses affect ADHD brains vs how they affect non-ADHD people or how they affect people at drug abuse or over medicated doses.

Stimming is helpful. That does not mean it is evidence of ADHD not being a disorder. That does not follow.

I know why you feel that way. You do not understand the meaning of the word disorder. A disorder is any collection of correlated traits or symptoms which cause impairments in ordinary living and enjoyment of ordinary aspects of life and which are correlated enough to be reasonably grouped together as opposed to being disparate traits or as opposed to some or all being classified into another group or other groups and which group’s symptoms cause significant impairment in ordinary living and enjoyment of ordinary aspects of life. Such impairments are usually defined so as to exclude purely social non functional or performance reasons like prejudice which are outside the control of the patient and which are dependent on the society in which the patient lives. So for example left handedness is not a disorder because it does not represent significant impairment, even if the society discriminates against left handedness, but having only one hand would be even if you are royalty and this not expected to perform manual tasks, as the fact that you could enjoy tasks involving both hands but for only having one right hand is a significant impairment). Of course there are grey areas. In a population dominated by right-handedness, things are often made with right handedness in mind for convenience or to preserve resources or reduce costs. Thus, there is a socially caused impairment with fundamentally biological roots. But the important distinction there is whether the impairments are significant. Transgender people, intersex people, and other gay people thus are not defined as having a disorder, but gender dysphoria is defined as a disorder of it causes significant impairments to happiness or other important aspects of life.

Your message is amazing. I work at a non-profit organization in Korea. In Korea, we are also carrying out a neurodiversity movement that calls for a paradigm shift from disability to diversity. Your writings are of great help to us. It would be a great honor if we could network with you.

It is a very real and extremely problematic condition. It needs treatment and the meds are often the only practical answer with only upsides for most once the right medication and dose is discovered.

As a 50 year old man with ADHD, I disagree with your conclusions. As an adult, I still struggle with the core deficits of ADHD. I grew up in a loving home, played outside most of the time, and only consumed media on Saturday morning. I do aggree with your assessment regarding outside play resulting in a reduction of symptoms. I find regular excersize leads to an improvement in execitive functioning, but it's not a cure, and when I no longer engage in regular exercise, my executive functioning declines. It is a lifelong condition that is physiological. It is the most common comorbidity amongst people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and appears to be a hereditary condition in a similar fashion as ASD. There are many variables that you haven't considered that have taken place in the last 30 years that strengthen the case for it being biological or physiological in nature. One example is the mothers age at birth. I believe that Autumn and ADHD are different manifestations of a similar core structural issue in brain development, and with ASD, the prevalence of ASD goes up with the age of the mother at birth. There has been a trend in the last couple generations of families waiting and having children later. My mother was 33 when she had me. Two of my 4 girls have adhd, and my wife and I didn't start having kids till we were 30. Perhaps you are too fixated on your societal causation theory and need to step back and consider biological origins.