When it comes to kid issues, too often I hear simplistic answers to issues that can be very complex.
My favorite answer to almost everything is, “My kid has ADD.”
Listen up everyone. With determining ADD/ADHD it’s not like a dental X-Ray, where there is objective proof of something like a cavity or some other dental anomaly.
Even when some doctors trot out fancy (very expensive, I might add) electrode type of testing with the semblance of objectivity (“See it says here on this bar graph based on the electrode neuro- testing that we did that your child has this thing called ADD or ADHD.”), there may be many, many other reasons why kids are not functioning well with school. I listed many of them in a recent post so I will not repeat here (see 20 REASONS KIDS DON’T PAY ATTENTION) .
Think of kids’ brains somewhat like a car battery. There are a slew of things that can be draining the battery.
Part of what inspired this post was a 13 year old girl that I consulted with recently who has a myriad of “girl drama points” occurring in her life. All of these drama points are draining her mental energy.
She recently underwent one of these fancy neuro-electrode types of ADHD assessments and was told, “Yep, you’ve got it. You’ve got ADHD,” as the physician scratched his beard, wisely.”
When I probed further and asked about her social life and how she was feeling about it, she started to cry. When I asked if any of the professionals that “diagnosed” her asked her about her social life, she shook her head no.
From where I was sitting, her social life was greatly draining the car battery.
Takeaway Point
It’s really easy hooking electrodes up to a kid’s head.