Comments on: Michael Phelps, ADHD Olympian

By: Primrose

Primrose — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:27:07 +0000

When you google it now the only reference is Firedoglake.

Other references I checked using slightly different search terms were entirely bogus and found on wingnut pages done in the Very Same Manner it Was Done HERE, i.e., an offhand comment!!! Wow!

So the source is Firedoglake as of this minute.

By: cbl2

cbl2 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:28:16 +0000

james, I doubt you’ll see this but mad props to your advocacy on your child’s behalf

bingo! on the food additives - check out what the autism community is doing with diet

By: cbl2

cbl2 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:18:26 +0000

oh my darling firedogs, big ol lump in my throat as I read your comments hours later – so many of you coming out of the woodwork and all of you so brave in your stories

I am not at all surprised there are so many ADHDers here – as I have never met a dull or stoopid one that’s for damn sure

years ago I would introduce myself as President of Ritalin Nation – 3 boys and a spouse, all manifesting the condition differently, all at different phases of their lives – I was either shaking my fist or laughing out loud in my moments alone with God

I’m with (((egregious))) – we are only starting to figure out what we don’t know – there may be no diagnostic blueprint, more like an umbrella like spectrum

I could go on all night (but I wont) about how 13 years ago a book {Driven to Distraction} literally fell out of the sky one day and changed everything for our family – but it led me on an info quest for which I am grateful – it has taught me so much about how both the brain and the mind function – wouldn’t trade it for anything

my thoughts and prayers are with all of you advocating on behalf of loved ones – God/Providence/Fate picked (((you))) for the job

By: Knut

Knut — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:22:48 +0000

I’m ADHD. I didn’t know it until late in life; I just thought I was too excited. I’ve achieved a lot in my profession, but when I think what I could have achieved with more focus and the same imagination, assuming I had the same imagination, I know I underachieved. Phelps didn’t underachieve.

By: james

james — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:38:55 +0000

I usually don’t give my son meds on the weekends or most of the summer but if there’s something he likes to do and he knows he isn’t focusing he asks me for ritalin.

katymine, I think a lot of it has to do with the blue and red dyes in the food and the flavorings, like msg, in things like doritos. I have cut back on how many times I ket Dylan eat fast food and his mom and I both limit his snacks to mostly pretzels. At first he was pissed with me but eventually he took it in stride along with no longer being allowed any soft drinks with caffeine. He tried the argument that his meds are speed so what’s the dif, but I wouldn’t bite. I give him points for trying, though.

By: wasabi

wasabi — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:27:16 +0000

There are some children who definately need medication for them to integrate with their surroundings. For many more, the schools just don’t want to deal with any disruptions to a smooth flow. I put my son in a charter school for a few years when I got tired of his teacher insisting he needed some little pills so that he could walk in a single file line without cutting ahead or talking when he should have been silent.

By: katymine

katymine — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:17:41 +0000

My oldest child has ADHD, his story sounds very much like Phelps. Parents of ADHD have a very high divorce rate. And then you have someone like Michael Savage saying that kids need to be told to knock it off and straighten up.

Tried drugs, counseling, special programs, monitoring and worked evening shift weekends so that I was at the school during school hours. It is NOT fun and some teachers can make the problem worse. I remember the first grade parent conference where I was watching 30 some kids run amuck and the teacher telling me that I need to exhort some control over my son. And eventually the divorce….. I want to know why there are so many kids with learning disabilities now?

By: james

james — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:42:09 +0000

Semper fi bro

By: nahant

nahant — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:40:37 +0000

Obama was not the subject of my Digging the post but the ADHD issue is. Besides the subject of the post I
S ADHD and not if/whether Obama has same issues. By Digging this post you Do show your support of both FireDogLake and the Poster Teddy! Any discussion of this affliction is worth getting more people to discuss it. You never know who it may help.

By: Raven

Raven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:35:19 +0000

Is this THE James? Semper Fi.