For many years there has been a strong debate over the medicalization of a wide range of behaviors in children. For example, ADD or ADHD has become a very popular diagnosis over the past couple of decades. Diagnosis usually leads to medical treatment because the kid is perceived to have a sickness, a disease and must be treated with drugs and receive special help. This is a mixed blessing for the kids and the parents to say nothing of the schools.
Along comes Michael Phelps, the Olympic Superstar who has been diagnosed and treated for ADHD and the perception changes but the discussion only increases along with the disagreements. Some suggest that ADHD is a gift not a curse. Maybe it helped Michael Phelps achieve his amazing feat in China.
We shall not solve this dilemma here but I will say that ADHD can be both a blessing and a curse. I am sure that had I been born in 1998 instead of 1938 I would have been on drugs to control my behavior. Would that have served me or harmed me? I do not know but I know that the hyper energy has been a positive experience for me and I have normally achieved much more than many others because of it.
Many successful innovators and entrepreneurs are hyper energetic and might fit the ADHD diagnosis. Would drugs have slowed us all down so we would fit into the nice, neat button down society and never innovated or created anything new? I fear that the desire for order will lead to the over diagnosis of kids and thus their over medication. Be careful; be very careful. Make sure the diagnosis is done by a person who really knows his or her business.
Take a look at this article in The New York Times for more on the controversy.
Gary Sweeten
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