ADHD & Dyslexia?

Real conditions or just contrived by psychiatry and drug companies?

I have no experience with these conditions at all.. My question is merely to gauge the public perception as I have noticed a real sea change in the attitude to both of the above. The change seems to suggest that neither exisits. Many thanks

Laura & Gnomes - I say above that I have no experience of these conditions at all, which is why I am asking the question.

Im a secondary teacher who works with special educational needs children.
I honestly believe that there are those children who suffer with the above conditions and then there are those who are simply diagnosed.
Take ADHD for example. This is a condition that affects the neurons in the brain. The drug Ritalin (given to extreme ADHD kids) works as a stimulus to those neurons in the brain that arent working properly. Therefore, those with ADHD taking Ritalin, I see a noticable improvement in their behaviour, whereas there are those on Ritalin with no improvement in behavior at all, giving rise to the question 'is it truly ADHD that is causing them behave that way?'

Dyslexia is becoming more a more of a problem in secondary schools as it is failing to be picked up on early enough in primary schooling where a real difference can be made to a pupils language ability. However, I tell all my dyslexic pupils that they should never use it as an excuse, as many dyslexics have gone on to get degrees, write books, even win noble prizes.

Btw, I thought I would just add that out of curiosity I did an ADHD test and the results came back saying that I have strong traits of ADHD...?! Hmmm.

I'm pretty sure I have dyslexia, either that or I'm just stupid,

they absolutely do exist. do you know anyone with those conditions? i know many with both. it effects their life and learning severly. it takes control of who they are and often can make them quite depressed. why would people all make something up like this? it's not like it is something new.

I've seen ADHD and the response to medication, which has no such effect on "normal" people. Just because some people have ADHD symptoms, but not the condition, and some who do as well as some who don't use it as an excuse for behaving badly, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

I watched a kid so desperate to behave and be quiet that he taped his own mouth shut in my classroom because he knew he couldn't control himself. Medication would have helped him so much, but his mother wouldn't even consider it.

Not nearly as much experience with dyslexia, but I believe it exists, too. Certain kinds of training and accommodations make all the difference for these folks.

I work with adults with special needs. Some of my students have another learning disability as well as ADHD and it is definitely real, if you compare their learning to that of other students - the way they behave and their thought processes. There is a particular approach that you have to take and use different ways of explaining things so that they understand concepts, as well as specific ways of motivating the students to interact in a class and one to one situation.

yes most definatly real conditions. i am a parent of a child with adhd and trust me this is very much a real condition.

in fact the history of adhd goes way back in time and was originally known as brain damage, it is only in recent years that more research was made and now treatments are available to help with the symptoms

Both these conditions are real. i know people with dyslexia, very many of them highly intelligent. This is the problem, their minds cannot cope with the structure of language. Each case is different in the way this inhibits their ability to get their thoughts down on paper. This is a basic way of explaining it. Often thought of as dreamers. A.D.H.D is also very real the main characteristic of this is an inability to concentrate, or pay attention to something for a length of time, very often resulting in behaviour problems. not through defiance as generally thought but through an inability to retain instruction. Again this is a basic explanation and each person is affected differently. The gift of these people is they are able to think outside the box.

My younger brother (11 years old at the mo) suffers from both and it's a real problem for him at school because he's incapable of sitting down for longer than literally 5 minutes and he can't concentrate, unless he takes his daily dose if 5 tablets.

Yes there is a difference between the two, but if you are unfortunate to have both, this can be extremely difficult to handle as i have a son with both, and a daughter who just suffers with dyslexia, i have found a website that gives/shows you ways of handling people with ADHD, and i have learnt recently that dyslexia is a problem related to eyes, as i am not up to scratch yet with this form i can only tell you that it is to do with colours and certain types of see through paper that rearranges the lettering for the sufferer in order for them to read.
ADHD is very much like a child with a temper tandrum, but is very much harder to handle, technically you have to walk away from them, and let them simmer down in their own time, never argue with them even if you know you are in the right, just say okay and leave it, always let them finish what they want to say as they can lose concentration very easily. When working alongside a person with ADHD, they often will see a job through if you are with them, left alone they will do what ever comes into their minds, and this is very often the cause so it leads to jobs being half finished. The main thing to do is always let them know, that you are always there to help them if they need you. ADHD will also start to show from an early age if you know what you are looking out for, one sign is strength, in younger children they are strong, but not strong enough to stop you from holding them down (if their condition gets worst) ie temper tandrum, attack you. As the child becomes an adult so does there strength increase, and often they try to hide all sorts of behavioural problems, ie stealing, lying, cheating, violoence etc. However with the violence, this is often regretted after the offence has taken place, because they do not realise how much strength they have got, but there is a drug that can be taken towards helping a person with ADHD, but it's getting the adult version who is suffering to take it, the younger the child is diagnosed the easier it is to treat the ADHD. I hope this has helped in a way for you to understand.

Hello James,

I was always very sceptical about these conditions! I did believe that they were excuses for bad behaviour and laziness!!!


I am 20 and my mother got remarried and had 3 more children when i was 13. Two of my siblings are the perfect (or as near to perfect as children can be) Children. However my brother Matthew who is the middle child has Autism, Dyslexia and very mild ADHD.

I now withdraw my previous assumptions as i was completely wrong. We have all had the same up bringing, same standards and same rules, yet my brother can be a very awkward child. He is, for want of a better phrase, slower than most children his age. He throws tantrums like you have never seen when he is upset. He is a wonderful little boy and i would not change him for the world.

(I'm gonna get cheesey now!)
He has shown me that i should not jump to conclusions as i did. That these are real conditions and i shouldn't speak idley about things i have had no experience with!! I have changed my views completey!!

Respect to you for asking about it and not jumping to your own conclusions without having experienced it first hand like i did!

x x x x

Uh-oh, here come the conspiracy nuts.

My personal experience is that a lot of this stuff is made up, mostly to make money by the big drug company's. In the final analysis it's all about the money.

i don't know very much about these conditions either...so it could be completely wrong of me to say that i am slowly becoming adhd/dyslexic these days.

After having worked with people who have both conditions, I can definitely say that it is real. Each of these people had different symptoms per se, but the overall conditions they had were the same. Hyperactivity, a lack of attention span, a need to focus, trouble reading, etc. They were all there.

It's weird to think that the public thinks that these conditions don't exist. Is it merely because they don't know anyone who has the condition? Or perhaps the Tom Cruise crusade against Psychiatry has had a real affect on the public perception. Either way, these conditions are something that affect a great deal of people.

I had a friend with ADHD and it's definately real. And Dyslexia is also real, my cousin has it.