The Origins of ADD/ADHD

Where does ADHD come from? Many people will claim that ADD/ADHD is some kind of mental disorder, much like depressions. Any doctor of science text will tell you that depression not only has to do with negative events in your life that impact you, but that misfirings of synapes and diodes deeply embedded in your brain are the cause of prolonged depression. It may very well be true. But what exactly is going on as far as ADD/ADHD go? Why does it seem that America is the only country truly suffering from this new-age 'disease'?

A self-proclaimed researcher of sorts can try to argue that ADD/ADHD is caused by (enter mumbo-jumbo scientific-sounding jumble here.) The truth is that ADD/ADHD is a 'ghost disease' caused by ourselves and those around us. According to borntoexplore.org, "Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD/ADHD, is a psychological term currently applied to anyone who meets the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for impulsivity, hyperactivity and/or inattention." Let's explore the symptoms of this disease...impulsitivy, hyperactivity, and/or inattention. That sounds very much like normal child-like behavior to me. But what can possibly cause normal child-like symptoms to develop all of a sudden into a medication-riddled disease? I blame mothers.

Yes, mothers. Today's mom is not a normal mom. There are some moms who dedicate large amounts of their days and lives to their children. Those are true mothers. But then, there are those mothers who think they can dedicate 100% of themselves to their work life, as well as 100% of themselves to their children. This is an impossibility. When a child is born to a mother, that baby should be taking priority. But many woman are too worried about how fast they can climb the career ladder. These woman are pre-occupied with their jobs, and leave their children on the back burner. The back burner can be anything from an abundance of after school activities, all the way to daycare and even ending up in the grandparents' home. These mothers put their children in a serious danger. The danger is this: The child begins to understand that the mother is too busy in her life to dedicate any time to the child. The child begins to be influenced by the media, TV, and other uneducated, crass children who probably understand sex at an age when sex is supposed to be a slightly shrouded mystery. The child will get influenced negatively without the proper maternal guidance that a career woman can never give. But then, the child will also try to gain any shred of attention from the mother by doing bad in school, yelling, screaming, being defiant, and acting wild. Wait...don't these sound very similar to the symptoms of ADD/ADHD? Yes. We have shed light on the problem. The child that is misbehaving to a greater extent is merely trying to gain the love and attention of his/her mother. The child recognizes that even if she/he is being yelled at for their misbehaviors, it's better to gain any attention than none. And that's simply sad. This is the part of the familiar story that brings the mother to the doctor complaining of the child's problems, even when the problems are generated by none other than the mother. The sympathetic doctor writes a prescription script for Ritalin or some other form of the street drug known as 'speed', and sends it away to get dispensed.

As a pharmacy technician, I have seen this familiar scenario. A mother in an shiny, new expensive gas-guzzling SUV pulls up to the drive thru. She's jabbering away on a Blue tooth while one-handedly checking her Blackberry and reaching for a Star bucks drink in another hand. She's dressed like a career-woman is supposed to. She barely pays attention to the pharmacy technician. You look in the back seat, and see a little child, no more than 8 years old, staring out the window in a zombie-like state. Or eerily enough, the child is looking straight into your eyes, into your very soul, as if to say: "Please don't sell her the medicine. I'll be good. I just want to be loved. I am just a little boy!" As a pharmacy technician, I must dispense what the patient is prescribed. I can't let my personal convictions get in the way. But I feel bad in my heart knowing that I just gave a horrible, career-driven mother a bottle of street speed in order for her to get on with her life by mentally incapacitating the child.

Most, if not all, ADD/ADHD medicine used are a form of methylphenidate, which is a stimulant. It seems a little strange to give a hyper child a stimulant, but in the doses that are prescribed by doctors and dispensed by pharmacists, the speed takes on the opposite effect. The child becomes sluggish, drowsy, tired...which in turn, makes for a more 'attentive' student and 'well-behaved' child. Isn't it alarming that mothers everywhere are using speed to deaden their children and their natural ways in order to have more times for themselves, their jobs, and their social lives? Shouldn't the mothers have thought about their priorities first before opening their legs and inserting a baby-spewing cannon? These mothers are monsters.

I am 32 weeks pregnant at the time. I stopped working because I know that for the health of my baby girl, I can not stand for long periods of time as a pharmacy technician. I know that my cervix had cancer removed at one time, resulting in a weakened cervical wall making miscarriage a huge reality. I know this. And I also know that my career dreams have been put on hold. Why? Because I want to be a good mother. I want to be there for my baby girl. I want to be her influence. I don't want MTV to raise her. I don't want the sad little hoodlums of the neighborhood to hassle her in daycare. I don't want to just drop her off at grandma's house while I go party, drink, or whatever it is that bad mothers do these days. I don't want that. I want to raise her, take care of her, be there for her. I want to be her friend. I never want her to feel like I am not around. So I have decided to put my career life on hold until she can go to school. Yes, that's a long time. Yes, my husband doesn't make much in the Air Force. But we knew that we wanted to be parents. We knew what kind of challenges being a mother can bring. We knew that we weren't rich, and probably never will be. But we also know what kind parents we want to be. And we definitely don't want to be the kind of parents that drug our children for the sake of staying sane, mentally or career-wise. Being a responsible parent is a full-time job, regardless of what anyone says. And when you, as a mother, decide to put your career and social life over your children, your children will learn to resent you...not only for ignoring them, not only for medicating them with a disease that does not exist, but for placing a material object over them, who happen to be your own flesh and blood. When a mother shoves her children in the back seat of life, that's when the hyperactivity begins. That's when the impulsivity starts. That's where the inattention to school and projects take root.

And that's where ADD/ADHD is born.