What Is the Difference Between a “normal” Over-Active Child and a Child With ADHD?

Question by Isaac D: What is the difference between a “normal” over-active child and a child with ADHD?
Part of being a child is pushing boundaries, being full of energy, not doing what your told, and having tantrums because they haven’t learned to emotionally hide/control/repress their feelings. What is the difference between this and a child being diagnosed with ADHD? Like the spurious Aspergers Syndrome, M.E. and “personality disorders” is ADHD just another ficticious label to apply to children who don’t do what they’re told to help parents excuse their responsibility and behaviour?

Best answer:

Answer by Kit
Normal kids can control their behavior, kids with ADHD can’t and no matter how hard they try, they struggle. Normal kids are able to calm down and focus in class and get their work done while a kid with ADHD fails to get their work done so they come home with tons of homework. They also often misplace their work or items and they struggle trying to be organized. But with pills, they find it easier to focus and be more organized. There have been a few people who managed to get better at it without the medicine but that was maybe because they were borderline ADHD or mild.

ADHD is not another made up thing (nor are the other conditions you mentioned) but if you look at it another way, it is made up and so are all the other conditions. Everything needs a name so people know what to do to fix their problems or know what treatment to get, etc. Just imagine what life be like if conditions didn’t have a name. People wouldn’t know what to do about their problems and doctors wouldn’t know what pills to prescribe. People wouldn’t even know what to look up to see what they can do to help their child or themselves.
Labels don’t define anyone. You are you and people are people, not the label. The problems do exist but some are over the top like shy eating or pregnorexia. They’re real but I think the names are ridiculous. Pregnorexia is just anorexia except the woman is pregnant. Shy eating just sounds like social anxiety but they picked braches from the tree and made it a condition of its own. But Stockholm syndrome and Lima syndrome? Ridiculous even though the behavior exists but to make it a condition? Come on. I even think adjustment disorder is ridiculous even though the problems do exist and I had that condition too.

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