Thanks to The Princess Mom for pointing out the flaws in this article on MSN.com. No thanks to 1gunit and some of the folks commenting at digg.com for being so completely one-dimensional about ADHD, medications and giftedness.
If I accomplish one thing in my lifetime, it would be for people to understand that ADHD is REAL, it is treated in a number of different ways (medication is only one), and medication alone is not the answer. It is not THE solution; it is part of it.
I have two gifted kids — one who does not have ADHD and one who does. The differences are stark. My daughter fights boredom (a problem for a different post) but manages to stay tuned in enough to get the work done. Sticks, on the other hand, would not even be able to keep still long enough to get it done or focus on it.
Here’s a little example. Last week, Dancergirl came down with the flu from hell and was out of school for three days. During her time off from school, she finished all of her makeup homework and prepared a Powerpoint presentation and report about her hypothesis that global warming is causing more powerful hurricanes. She won’t get credit for it because it wasn’t an “assignment”, but she learned a ton and can wax eloquent on environmental issues and why we need to really work on saving it. I was blown away! This project was not suggested by me — I was playing “sympathy mom” trying to get her to eat chicken soup, jello and drink lots of water.
Sticks, on his time out sick from school when he was in the same grade memorized all of the steps in Michael Flatley’s “Feet of Flames” and when sufficiently recovered, performed it for anyone who would watch. Didn’t do a bad job, either. Of course, none of his makeup homework was done when he returned to school, and some of it remained in his backpack until the end of the year. (I don’t medicate him for his ADHD when he’s sick, and at that time in his life, meds or no, he couldn’t keep all the paperwork straight…he’s better now.)
One last thought: Stimulant medications (e.g., Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine, etc), when used as prescribed, are not addicting, are not evil. For some of us, they are godsends that make the difference between actually being able to see our ideas come to fruition or beating ourselves up on a daily basis for NOT acting on the ideas we have.
Ever hear the phrase “not working to potential” in school? That was engraved and imprinted on every report card I ever had in school. Every single one. Wouldn’t it have been great to hear something positive on those report cards? I was tested as gifted and placed in gifted programs in 1st grade. But I never did work up to my potential. That didn’t happen until about 10 or so years ago, when a gifted doctor finally saw that potential and decided to allow it to be unleashed.
