Do I Have ADD?

When I was a young child I was, in a word, a spaz. I learned last year that my brother used to sneak up on me with our family camcorder and record me while I danced to Michael Jackson songs and talked to myself. I rarely stayed in one place for more than three minutes, and used to fidget constantly. Unfortunately, my parents have the videos to prove it.

Since then, I have grown up quite a bit. I have a beard now instead of a six-inch rat-tail, and have contacts instead of glasses. One thing I haven't grown out of is being a spaz. I routinely make incoherent noises just to fill those awkward silences in the car with my friends. I don't hesitate to break out with a completely goofy dance when a weird song comes on the radio either. But do these things, in addition to my short attention span in class, point towards a medical disorder?

When people think of attention span, most immediately think of Attention Defecit Disorder, or ADD. In recent years the number of children who have been diagnosed with ADD has risen sharply. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 4.5 million American children between the ages of five and seventeen have been diagnosed with the disorder since 2006. Thats up from only 500,000 in 1985. Was I one of these 4.5 million?

If my Mom had taken me to a doctor and described my behavior as a problem, would I have been diagnosed with ADD? It is impossible to know, but I am very glad that this didn't happen. I believe that the types of psychostimulants prescribed to treat ADD, while effective in many children with legitimate hyperactivity disorders, fundamentally cahnge a person's personality. This is the main reason why it is so disturbing that the criteria for diagnosis of this disorder are so vague.

Let's take a look at some common symptoms courtesy of the National Institutes of Mental Health.

• "Impulsiveness: someone who acts quickly without thinking first.

• Hyperactivity: someone who can't sit still, walks, runs, or climbs around when others are seated, talks when others are talking.

• Inattention: someone who daydreams or seems to be in another world, is sidetracked by what is going on around him or her."

According to the above description, I am in the clear. I don't act without thinking, and can remain in my seat for hours at a time. Occasionally my mind wanders in class, resulting in doodles or daydreams, but I still manage to take notes and come away from class with a good understanding of the material presented.

But does this description really outline a true mental disease? Much of the criteria for diagnosing ADD seems subjective. This could potentially be dangerous. Imagine if the criteria for diagnosing a brain tumor were similarly vague and subjective.

• If a growth on the brain seems to be abnormal, or resembles a walnut, the growth may be a tumor

• A greenish-yellow color usually indicates a malignant tumor, while a blueish-green color may indicate a benign tumor

These criteria for diagnosis are so vague, that a real risk of misdiagnosis presents itself. Medications used to treat ADD, such as Ritalin and Adderall are powerful psychostimulants which can be addictive and have side effects such as siezures, strokes, and heart-attacks. Placing someone who is does not truly have ADD could lead to serious troubles, including the abuse of their medications.

Perhaps ADD isn't a true disease at all, merely a fabrication of modern society in an effort to compartmentalize today's kids into categories of "normal" or "disruptive."

"In The Myth of the ADD Child, Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. disavows the existence of ADD as a disparate medical condition. He refers to the fact that child can be distractible and hyperactive because he's bored, anxious, depressed, allergic, because his temperament is conflict with his environment, because he's been hyper-stimulated by the media, or for any number of other different reasons. He indicates the negative effect that the label ADD has on the way people view children. He states that it causes people to see the disorder and not the child. As a result the child is treated as if he were the disorder, and not the vibrant individual he really is. " - Quote from The Autism and ADD Epidemics: Just a Case of Misdiagnosis by Jennifer Claerr

Whatever the case, I'm convinced my lapses of concentration in class aren't caused by ADD. Hopefully I can dig up some more information regarding what affects the attention span of adolescents like myself in an effort to shine some light on this common problem. Even though I was a spaz as a kid (and still am today) that does not automatically mean I have ADD.