Thanks for bringing this back to my attention
sasquatch I meant to come back to it to clarify the garble . .
ADHD is an awfully inaccurate descriptor and carries incredible stigma.
I do quite a bit of campaigning for awareness/services for ADHD and run a support group,
so I come across a lot of views and opinions. .
I'm glad to see AADD-UK's website recently announced an overhaul and what seems like
a renewal of campaigning energy (Surviving or Thriving? On homepage)
In the campaigning world there seems to be 2 types of ADHD. .
The one that affects children's behaviour and school performance . .
and the adult one, which causes criminality and addiction. .(or are whingeing attention-seekers)
All of the main charities and campaigning groups are primarily concerned with children. .
or rather, their parents, who are so wrapped up in their struggles to get dx or help in school
(which is, of course, important) that they can't see the bigger picture. .their children are
likely to grow up up to be adults with ADHD. .they will face different challenges to the ones
they face in school. They'll leave home and will have to run their own lives without the
constant support and supervision that school and family provide.
By making ADHD an issue that only affects children in school, society will never understand
it's complexities and how it affects people throughout their lives, in their personal lives,
employment, mental health. .It's great that we're seeing more adult visibility ie
Rory Bremner, Heston Blumenthal, Nicola Adams, Louis Smith etc . .but they're all successful
people who don't talk much about the way ADHD affects them in everyday life . .and why should they?
but it re-enforces the view that children grow out of ADHD, or learn how to manage it, so it's
not really a problem . . .
This is why I always campaign for ADHD awareness as a lifelong condition.
It's bad enough getting trolled by people who don't believe it exists, but to be regularly shouted down
by worried parents when I ask them to consider including adults in their awareness campaigns when
we should all be on the same side . .
So . .what am I trying to say? It's not just about children. . I'm all for awareness campaigns, but
without inclusion and acknowledgement that it's lifelong, we'll always be misunderstood.