{"id":69015,"date":"2019-08-15T22:02:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T03:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/?p=69015"},"modified":"2019-08-15T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T03:02:14","slug":"adhd-overdiagnosis-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/2019\/08\/adhd-overdiagnosis-epidemic.html","title":{"rendered":"The ADHD Overdiagnosis Epidemic: What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>(<a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/the-adhd-overdiagnosis-epidemic-is-a-schooling-problem-not-a-child-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FEE<\/a>)<\/strong> \u2014 Childhood exuberance is now a liability. Behaviors that were once accepted as normal, even if mildly irritating to adults, are increasingly viewed as unacceptable and cause for medical intervention. High energy, lack of impulse control, inability to sit still and listen, lack of organizational skills, fidgeting, talking incessantly\u2014these typical childhood qualities were widely tolerated until relatively recently. Today, children with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/adhd\/diagnosis.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">these characteristics<\/a>\u00a0are being diagnosed with, and often medicated for, Attention-Deficit\/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at an astonishing rate.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"link-0\"><strong>The ADHD Medical Dragnet<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>While ADHD may be a real and debilitating ailment for some, the startling upsurge in school-age children being labeled with and medicated for this disorder suggests that something else could be to blame. More research points to schooling, particularly\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/harvard-study-shows-the-dangers-of-early-school-enrollment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-toggle=\"popover\" data-original-title=\"\" data-original- target=\"_blank\">early schooling<\/a>, as a primary culprit in the ADHD diagnosis epidemic.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last several decades, young people are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ns.umich.edu\/Releases\/2004\/Nov04\/teen_time_report.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spending more time in school<\/a> and school-like activities than ever before. They are playing less and expected to do more at very young ages. When many of us were kids, kindergarten was mellow, playful, and short with few academic expectations. Now, 80 percent of teachers\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aera.net\/Newsroom\/News-Releases-and-Statements\/Study-Snapshot-Is-Kindergarten-the-New-First-Grade\/Is-Kindergarten-the-New-First-Grade\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expect<\/a>children to learn to read in kindergarten. It\u2019s not the teachers\u2019 fault. They are responding to national curriculum frameworks and standardized testing requirements that over the past two decades have made schooling more oppressive\u2014particularly for young children.<\/p>\n<p>The youngest children are the ones most often caught in the ADHD medical dragnet. Last fall, Harvard researchers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2018\/11\/when-starting-school-younger-children-are-more-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-adhd-study-says\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">found<\/a>\u00a0that early school enrollment was linked to significantly higher rates of ADHD diagnosis. In states with a September 1 school enrollment age cutoff, children who entered school after just turning five in August were 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children born in September who were about to turn six. Immaturity, not pathology, was the real factor.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"link-1\"><strong>The ADHD Fallacy<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Marilyn Wedge, author of\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Disease-Called-Childhood-American-Epidemic\/dp\/1583335633\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became An American Epidemic<\/a><\/em>, sounds the alarm on ADHD overdiagnosis. In a\u00a0<em>Time Magazine<\/em>\u00a0article called \u201cThe ADHD Fallacy,\u201d she\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3822755\/adhd-disease-called-childhood\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a>:<\/p><div class=\"themi-content_11\" id=\"themi-2069326430\"><div id=\"ld-8755-6417\"><\/div><script>(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:9217690065945446,size:[0, 0],id:\"ld-8755-6417\"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.decide.dev\/_js\/ajs.js\";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,\"script\",\"ld-ajs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<blockquote><p>By nature, young children have a lot of energy. They are impulsive, physically active, have trouble sitting still, and don\u2019t pay attention for very long. Their natural curiosity leads them to blurt out questions, oblivious in their excitement to interrupting others. Yet we expect five- and six-year-old children to sit still and pay attention in classrooms and contain their curiosity. If they don\u2019t, we are quick to diagnose them with ADHD.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/ncbddd\/adhd\/data.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">According<\/a>\u00a0to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percent of very young children (ages two to five) who were diagnosed with ADHD increased by over 50 percent between 2007\/2008 and 2011\/2012. As of 2016,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/15374416.2017.1417860\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">data show<\/a>\u00a0that 9.4 percent of all American children, or over six million kids, had been diagnosed with ADHD, and almost two-thirds of current ADHD-diagnosed children were taking medication for it. A March 2019 report on ADHD by Blue Cross and Blue Shield\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sponsor-story\/blue-cross-blue-shield-association\/2019\/03\/29\/new-report-shows-diagnosis-rates-adhd-have-risen-30-8-years\/3309871002\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">found<\/a>\u00a0that among commercially insured children of all ages, ADHD diagnosis rates increased 30 percent in just eight years.<\/p><div class=\"themi-content_15\" id=\"themi-3405270891\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/themindunleashed\/subscribe\" aria-label=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px.png\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px.png 1920w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1068x601.png 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>While the symptoms of ADHD may be troublesome, looking first at the environment, rather than the child, may be an important step toward curbing the ADHD diagnosis epidemic. In his book,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/ADHD-Does-Not-Exist-Hyperactivity\/dp\/0062266748\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ADHD Does Not Exist<\/a><\/em>, Dr. Richard Saul, a Chicago behavioral neurologist, explains that individuals diagnosed with ADHD either have external factors that exacerbate normal symptoms or have some other underlying condition that should be identified and treated. In the latter instance, he finds that once the underlying condition is discovered and treated, the ADHD symptoms usually disappear. In the former instance, changing the environment is a key step toward improvement. This is true for both children and adults with an ADHD diagnosis. Dr. Saul\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/25370\/doctor-adhd-does-not-exist\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Like many children who act out because they are not challenged enough in the classroom, adults whose jobs or class work are not personally fulfilling or who don\u2019t engage in a meaningful hobby will understandably become bored, depressed and distracted. In addition, today\u2019s rising standards are pressuring children and adults to perform better and longer at school and at work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4 id=\"link-2\"><strong>An Environmental Mismatch<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Addressing an environmental mismatch for ADHD-diagnosed adults could mean switching one\u2019s job or field of study or pursuing a true passion. Maybe you\u2019re an accountant who wants to be a carpenter or a nurse who wants to be an entrepreneur. For ADHD children, changing the environment could mean removing children from restrictive schooling altogether. As Boston College psychology professor Peter Gray\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/freedom-learn\/201007\/adhd-school-assessing-normalcy-in-abnormal-environment?fbclid=IwAR01x6yEZ7VJbugUKOomkWsXQnLiG_N_2HlK57Kbmhgw8hnVoXSLuVtI5QU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What does it mean to have ADHD? Basically, it means failure to adapt to the conditions of standard schooling. Most diagnoses of ADHD originate with teachers&#8217; observations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jennifer Walenski saw firsthand how transformative removing her ADHD-diagnosed child from standard schooling could be. She shares her family\u2019s journey at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/walenskifamilyadventures\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Bus Story<\/a>\u00a0and told me:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Our kids were actually in public school originally. Our son also was diagnosed with both ADHD and autism while he was in the school system. And they wanted to medicate him. But we said no. Then we took him and his sister out of school and began homeschooling them. Fast forward several years, he has absolutely no need at all for medication. He is just a normal boy who did not belong in that kind of environment.\u00a0And most of us don&#8217;t.\u00a0Think about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Walenski\u2019s experience echoes that of other parents who removed their ADHD-diagnosed children from standard schooling. In an informal survey analysis, Gray\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/freedom-learn\/201009\/experiences-adhd-labeled-kids-who-leave-typical-schooling?fbclid=IwAR03G4Ath-7jYALtapD-F8EcO8qAj9h3UEmywgliB8JNlVicHnlQaStu0ac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discovered<\/a>\u00a0that when ADHD-labeled children left school for homeschooling, most of them no longer needed medication for ADHD symptoms. Their ADHD characteristics often remained but were no longer problematic outside of the conventional classroom.<a href=\"https:\/\/mybravebotanicals.com\/freeounceofkratom\/ref\/28\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-69022 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/kratom-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/kratom-1.jpg 450w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/kratom-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybravebotanicals.com\/freeounceofkratom\/ref\/28\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-69023 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/photo_2019-05-28_18-18-00-1024x227-1024x227.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/photo_2019-05-28_18-18-00-1024x227.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/photo_2019-05-28_18-18-00-1024x227-300x67.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/photo_2019-05-28_18-18-00-1024x227-768x170.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"link-3\"><strong>Self-Directed Learning<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Gray\u2019s analysis also revealed that the ADHD-labeled young people who fared best outside of standard schooling were those who were able to learn in a more self-directed way. He found that the<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>few kids in this sample who were still on ADHD medications during homeschooling seemed to be primarily those whose homeschooling was structured by the parent and modeled after the education one would receive in a conventional school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Replicating school-at-home can also replicate the problematic behaviors found at school, whereas moving toward unschooling, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.self-directed.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">self-directed education<\/a>, can give young people the freedom to flourish.<\/p>\n<p>Ending the ADHD overdiagnosis epidemic depends on a societal reality check where we no longer pathologize normal childhood behaviors. Much ADHD-labeling originates from forced schooling environments with learning and behavioral expectations that are developmentally inappropriate for many children. Freeing young people from restrictive schooling and allowing them to learn and grow through their own self-directed curiosity can lead to happier and healthier families and children.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/people\/kerry-mcdonald\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kerry McDonald<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FEE.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The views in this article may not reflect editorial policy of The Mind Unleashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"themi-after-content_2\" id=\"themi-2194449791\"><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1747048\"> \r\n <\/div> \r\n <script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\"); \r\n <\/script> \r\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ending the ADHD overdiagnosis epidemic depends on a societal reality check on normal childhood behaviors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41550,"featured_media":69026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,36,35,31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-69015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-truth","8":"category-big-pharma","9":"category-health","10":"category-science-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69015"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69017,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015\/revisions\/69017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}