When Did Shyness Become Social Anxiety Disorder?

There is a pretty huge difference when an adult is taking adderal vs. a six-year old child, but I reckon long-term use of any stimulant drug probably isn't too good for anyone, regardless of their age.

As far as brain scans go, most ADD is diagnosed by school teachers who have absolutely no qualifications to be making such diagnoses -- not by brain scans. The teacher says the child is inattentive and hyperactive (normal traits of normal children), and the doctor writes the prescription based on that alone. No real testing is done.

I do believe there are real personality traits that are in line with so-called ADD, but I have no doubt it is overdiagnosed and often misdiagnosed. Simply eliminating refined sugar and artificial colors from a child's diet, as well as supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids can make a profound impact. Everyone is quick to take the drug route without doing their own research first.

 

The majority consesus here seems to be ADHD is bullshit

That warms my heart

 

interesting topic...in my opinon i do not like the words adhd,mental disorder,shyness,social anxieties,phobia's...
we are all different...our youth,education could be a key to HOW we act later in life...
I had few girlfriends who said they had a problem with HOW they looked..skinny,fat,not able to make contact with anybody,just name it...
I often think that we are shy because we see a defect in ourselves..be it bodily or mentally...and then we withdraw and block ourself..
fact is...if you see this in others..It's often judged in a negative way and frowned upon by people who think they act normal...
nobody is normal...we all have some disorders in us...we should learn to accept it,talk about it with a true friend who does NOT judge..
I can say much more..but anyway..just think at it in a positive way...it's not the end of the world,is it?
me myself..i often fell into a black hole..but...i picked myself up...and started all over again...in a positive way(ah)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_hZyzst6i0

 

Yes it is over diagnosed and misdiagnosed regularly, but all Karen was pointing out is the proof that for some people it does exist. I believe it has something to do with the bridge between the two halves of the brain being smaller slightly, so they don't communicate together as well.

I was diagnosed by a doctor specializing in kids behavioural disorders btw. He did extensive testing from what I can remember, though I have never had a brain scan. I do feel like my symptoms fit though. Even now, if you were talking to me in real life you would hear that I often start to stutter at the end of sentences, not because I have a real stutter but because I start thinking beyond what I'm saying too fast and then get lost and don't realize my mouth hasn't caught up. Sometimes it will get to a point at the end of a sentence where I just start choking out a bunch of half words, then realise what I'm doing, give up on the sentence and just sort of shout a super concise version of the idea out. It's actually why I prefer talking online like this. You can't tell, but it takes me forever to write posts sometimes and I stop and do other things a bunch in between.

Still, I don't think shoving ritalin down kids throats is the answer.

 

That's funny. I am the same as you describe.

 

I can echo some of the sentiment here about ADHD--it might be the result of a "one size fits all" teaching style. Many people I've met, diagnosed with ADHD, are bright and energetic, and totally capable of learning and functioning (unmedicated!). These kids can focus and be still for hours with a bit of a different and creative approach to learning. What I see far too often is that teachers, or other, well-meaning adults, tell parents that their child has ADHD (they should never do this, professionally, their job is not to diagnose). The parent takes their child to the doctor, the doctor prescribes them some medication...then the child has side effects, and they are prescribed something ELSE to deal with the side effects, and this keeps snowballing to the point that the child is on a cocktail of medication by age 10.

I'm not saying that this is a scheme by drug companies to make money, or any other sort of crazy conspiracy...there are a lot of problems along the way. Beginning with an increasingly sedentary life for children (not to sound like an old bat, but kids today aren't as mobile), it's hard for me, as an adult, to focus if I've been sitting around all day. In addition, teachers, who typically first report attention problems, are not given the tools to cope with any sort of "problem" behavior in children. They have too much too do and little time and resources to do it. Parents, who don't have the expertise or time (we are all overworked as a rule, little time or money--to cope with their children's behavior) believe what the teachers and doctors say, don't often explore alternatives to prescription drugs. The issue is much more complex than what I've listed, so I don't know what the first steps in changing it would be. Now, to be fair, a lot of this is anecdotal, but there is also research to back it up (and research to contradict, I'm sure.

Now, there have been exceptions, there are some little ones who could really use medication, at least temporarily, to help them after other interventions have failed. But rarely are these medical routes temporary.

 

Oh, and I first clicked on this thread because I am a shy person. I wouldn't say that it enters the realm of social anxiety, but I have noticed that our culture is not meant for shy people. The USA, at least, is a land built for and by extroverts. We reward outgoing behavior. I was chatting with a friend who lived in Asia for a few years, and she remarked that the culture in Asia rewards the introvert. The first one to show access emotion or raise their voice, is the "loser." You couldn't get ahead by being outgoing.

 

Teehee PR has ADHD! Time to get you some druuuuugs.

But yeah that is the most obvious example I can give about myself, but I really do think it exists. I just don't think it's a very severe problem. It doesn't deserve the attention it gets and there definitely aren't actually that many kids with it. And the kids who do have it, don't need to be so medicated.

 

@kat...if you start stuttering..I will stutter back at you...is this a problem?(joke)

**Even now, if you were talking to me in real life you would hear that I often start to stutter at the end of sentences, not because I have a real stutter but because I start thinking beyond what I'm saying too fast and then get lost and don't realize my mouth hasn't caught up. Sometimes it will get to a point at the end of a sentence where I just start choking out a bunch of half words, then realise what I'm doing, give up on the sentence and just sort of shout a super concise version of the idea out. It's actually why I prefer talking online like this**

how about autism,aspergers syndrome?i believe we all label each other too much into how it all should be in a perfect world...
nobody is perfect...perfection does not exist...

 

On an activity scan, the ADD brain shows hot spots and low activity areas, while a normal brain shows almost uniform activity everywhere. After appropriate medication, ADD brain activity looks much more uniform, almost normal.

That kind of a scan is a great tool for medical research, but not needed to diagnose an individual. A cheap, easy, and reliable test now available involves computer testing of reflexes. A normal brain doesn't react faster or slower, just more consistently. That's what they're measuring. The test can also determine if stimulant dosage is adequate.

A lot of ADD and ADHD people learn by trial and error to self-medicate, mainly with caffeine. The problem with caffeine is it's less effective and has more side effects than prescription amphetamines. In other words, it's a low quality drug. Not a good choice for long term use.

There are five different behavior characteristics related to ADD/ADHD that are measured in a detailed profile. The one that was really off the charts for me was impulsiveness. I was doing a lot of risky stuff. My grades were still good. You know, you can self-medicate with adrenaline. It's a natural stimulant.

 

I was mostly referring to psychotropic drug commercials like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twhvtzd6gXA

This is the kind of commercial that reaches out to ANYONE experiencing situational sadness or depression. After seeing a commercial like this, gullible sad people will come running to their doctors and pharmacists for a hook-up on these pills.

I was put on Zoloft at a young age of 10 or 11 to help counteract the side affects of coming down from Dexedrine (ritalin/adderall/vyvanse/stratterra) at the end of the day. I continued to take it throughout my teenage life. It gave me intensely painful headaches whenever I got angry or frustrated. Doctors could not figure out what was causing these terrible headaches, but I figured it all out when I decided to stop taking Zoloft.

 

Most ADHD diagnosed people I met never HAD a brain scan. The psychiatrist makes the patient and the patient's family members fill out a checklist of symptoms based on how often the patient experiences these symptoms. OFTEN. Now that's a subjective term isn't it? What one person considers "often" may be different from what another person perceives as "often." You may think of "often" being as frequently as 10 times a day only, where I may consider "often" as being as frequent as 10 times a week or less. In fact, here is a link to such a check list they give to determine AD(H)D based on DSM-5 criteria: http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/addquiz.htm Take the quiz and see how you do. It's all bullshit.

The activity in those brain scans vary when a person is doing certain tasks and activities. No shit! Dexedrine is going to increase brain activity in those readings because that's what drugs do. Did you know prolonged exposure to amphetamines like dexedrine can cause irreparable damage to your circulatory system?

I strongly disagree with you that caffeine has more side affects than Dexedrine. In my experience, Dexedrine made me more on-the go, frantic, more prone to panic, nervousness, introversion, stuttering in my speech, gave me erratic peaks and valleys of focus and inattention, loss of appetite, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction at the young age of 26. Now the come-down side affects were different and terrible in their own ways like: lowered athletic performance, laziness, unmotivated, lethargy, anti-social, etc. When I drink caffine I just feel more awake and kind of jittery. That's all.

 

Your doctor sucks.

 

It sounds like you may have either been misdiagnosed due to lack of extensive enough testing or pescribed too high a dose of dexedrine.

 

Story of my life right here, lol. I was given the ADD diagnosis at the horrifyingly young age of 5 by a psychiatrist who wanted to give my unwillingness to listen to grown-ups on power trips a label. I was put on one drug, then given another drug to counteract those side affects. My parents are medical professionals who agreed to this form of treatment. Because of this, I blindly trusted that they knew what they were doing and the medicine was right for me.

ADD was voted out of existence by the ADA and replaced strictly with ADHD sometime in the 2000s. It's disturbing that there's a medical profession that VOTES diseases in and out of existence. You can't do that in other medical fields. So why does Psychatry get away with it?

Most teacher's methods do have a one size fits all teaching style. Some people are auditory, visual, or hands-on learners. I'm a hands-on learner myself, which is probably why I'm now in the design profession and I like taking things apart. I am not a very good auditory learner at all unless I take good notes.

I spoke to psychiatrists a lot growing up. My psychiatrist since childhood leaked a lot of personal information about me to insurance companies and people who wanted to do a background check on me. Betrayed and enraged, I ditched him and went off anti depressants. It was an excellent decision since my headaches disappeared. Next it was my goal to detox from dexedrine and SNRIs, my parents strongly advised I speak to another psychiatrist about it. This is what the psychiatrist had to say about it:

"An ADHD patient without dexedrine is like a diabetic without insulin! You have ADHD. Sometimes we get dealt bad hands, now deal with it!"

I did my research and found out that comparing ADHD to diabetes is a scare tactic that mental health professionals like to use. He most likely parroted this phrase from one of his medical journals that doctors subscribe to. The problem with the diabetes comparison is that it holds no water. Diabetes is an objectively defined medical condition where blood is drawn, laboratory tests are done, you can observe and diagnose it without controversy. A diabetic without insulin could faint, have seizures, or extreme cases wind up dead. ADHD is subjective; no laboratory test are done, no blood samples are analyzed, and an ADHD patient without medication does not have life-threatening medical emergencies. It's a CHECK LIST like I said earlier.

Psychiatrists receive financial kickbacks and other incentives for prescribing certain medications to their patients as well. It's like they have a drug ready for any personality quirk you can think of.

If Mozart, Einstein, Tesla, or DaVinci were born in the late 20th century, they too would have been pilled excessively for their non conforming behaviors.

 

Some people found the old terminology confusing and unclear, so they worked on it.

Did you not read anything I posted earlier about reflex tests and brain scans, or did you just not believe any of it? What you're saying here is at least 25 years out of date.

 

I don't usually talk about this online, but an impulsive decision I once made landed me in the hospital, which triggered the investigation by doctors that led to my diagnosis. Impulsiveness is often an ADHD symptom, and the resulting poor decisions can sometimes lead to death. It's not uncommon for young people to die from high risk behaviors.

The current cutting edge PET scan technology has led to proving beyond all doubt the existence of quite a few psychological disorders, and will continue to be used in designing and refining treatments.

 

I don't see the exact connection with shyness or adhd? Or the certainty of this 'claim'. In other words it seems a nonsensical statement in regards to the thread topic.

 

A lot has changed in the way disorders are treated over time but many of the disorders have been around for awhile. For instance, Einstein's son had schizophrenia.

 

I was a very impulsive teen. I did more things than I would like to admit that could have led to death. I woke up in the hospital once after an impulsive decision to cut school and drink copious amounts of vodka with my best friend. She actually was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after that particular misadventure, a diagnosis which later proved to be bullshit but only after a stint in the state mental hospital and years of being prescribed medications which robbed her of having any kind of normal teenage experience.

Which just goes to show, teenagers can really get screwed by the mental health system, but I digress

Studies have shown that the area of the brain that regulates rational decision making does not fully develop until your mid twenties. All teens are impulsive. Maybe impulsiveness is more pronounced in someone with ADHD but I agree with 6 eyed's assertion that ADHD is not a life threatening illness - although I can draw one comparison to diabetes, which is that type 2 diabetes can be controlled without drugs with a lifestyle change.