If you think that ADHD boys are running around half the time like some sort of sugar rushing lunatic then you do not know what ADHD actually is.
It is not generally a problem of too much energy and lack of focus. Rather it is a problem of inappropriate focus, frequently very intense. For instance my nephew would get so interested in whatever he was doing that he would fail to realize that he needed to pee, and then after he peed his pants he would get very upset that people were making him change his pants when he wanted to do something else.
It becomes a problem in school when children are unable to follow repeated directions because they are unaware that directions have been given, because their interest has been caught by something - anything - else.
Disclaimer: I am the parent of a 7 year old who has been identified as likely having ADHD, though I have not yet done the official screening.
He was identified as having a front lisp, so went in for speech therapy evaluation. During that evaluation he was found to have the speech impediment, and was flagged as requiring further screening for occupational therapy and ADHD. We have not yet done that screening.
My understanding is that an important part of that screening is a patient history and impressions from caregivers. Every caregiver has identified the same thing. He's plenty smart and has a great attention span for what interests him, but simply doesn't follow direction. Not in a, "kids don't listen" sort of way. But in the kind of way which causes the teacher in parent-teacher conferences to get all serious and spend the session talking about how she has more problems with him than with the rest of a class of 24 kids.
Having talked with my sister, whose son had very severe ADHD, I've been forced to admit that the symptoms fit. (My son is clearly not as severe though.) But it isn't official until he gets the official screening for it.
As for what to do about it, my sister spoke highly of cognitive therapy. She understands our resistance to drugs, had the same herself, but points out that drugs are optional and only needed as a temporary stopgap to give therapy a chance. If you don't need them to make therapy work, you don't do them. If you do need them, once therapy has progressed far enough, you can drop the drugs.
Thanks for a full response. Really appreciated. Just one more quick question if you will:
Do you recognise yourself in the symptoms your son has, does it look like an inherited trait to you (I know that's not at all scientific). Do you have any suspicions for why this affliction might appear to be so prevalent amongst children now (other than observer bias or similar discrepancies).
There is definitely a hereditary component to it. And yes, the shoe might have fit for me as well.
My suspicion is that over time we're adjusting to having fewer kids and more attention/kid, and so are noticing and diagnosing problems that in previous generations went unnoticed.
It is not generally a problem of too much energy and lack of focus. Rather it is a problem of inappropriate focus, frequently very intense. For instance my nephew would get so interested in whatever he was doing that he would fail to realize that he needed to pee, and then after he peed his pants he would get very upset that people were making him change his pants when he wanted to do something else.
It becomes a problem in school when children are unable to follow repeated directions because they are unaware that directions have been given, because their interest has been caught by something - anything - else.
Disclaimer: I am the parent of a 7 year old who has been identified as likely having ADHD, though I have not yet done the official screening.