How did kids in the early 60's and earlier get treated for ADHD?
Answer:
They were considered undesirable. Teachers would punish them harshly, they would get kicked out of school often. Spankin' spankin' spankin'!
Now a days they are really finding a lot out about it.
There are recent studies that suggest the cause for ADD/Adhd is the deficiency of Omega 3 during pregnancy. Add is actually easy to explain. During pregancy and early childhood we all get a sheath called Mylan (spelling may be off) that sheaths our 'message conductors'. When we say if I do 'this' then 'this' happens a message travels from one part of the brain to another giving us the ability to focus and reason. With a kid with ADHD they have little to none of this sheath. Therefore when they say if 'this' then 'this' it travels part way and when there is no mylan it gets lost off on some other message path and the message never gets where it is needed. Ritalin and drugs like that help temporarily to guide those messages where they should go.
I say temporarily because these drugs don't stay in your system therefore it only works for 'X' amount of time and then leaves the body. Which is why extended release drugs are now popular. During puberty most adolescents will emit a large quantity of a specific hormone that causes the rapid growth of Mylan, therefore a grand majority of sufferers will see a great difference during and after puberty and most will not need to continue medication after that.
For those people ignorant enough to say that most cases are just out of control kids with lazy parents who are misdiagnosed. Seriously be warned. I thought that way for many years and my first son has ADHD. I say ignorant because that is the absolute perfect word for it. That is like saying that Epilepsy is way over diagnosed - it is just the person drinking to much caffeine.
That statement is 100% wrong. You CAN not give a child without ADD meds because meds for this are essentially speed. If you give a child without ADD meds they will bounce off the walls. The parent would be better off giving the child a sixpack of Mountain Dew in the morning for breakfast. No parent no matter how lazy is going to make their problem worse on purpose.
If the child does have ADD they will mellow with even the smallest dose. Parents of ADD kids need to not medicate for behaviour... you medicate just enough that the child can focus socially and academically and that is it. This will give the child the chance to process a cause and effect (for example... if you hit tommy then you will have to go in time out) scenario and therefore be able to behave better.
The reason why it seems like so many kids are being misdiagnosed is because (they are theorizing) our society is not consuming the omega 3 fats that you find in fish as much as we used to. It is all fast food and quick meals that are generally not well rounded. America has the highest amount of ADD diagnosis... not because it is a made up problem but because our society is an obese nation. We don't eat right. Other countries don't see as many ADD cases because they are eating more Omega 3 than we are. I never ate fish - ever - and my first son has ADHD. I ate fish during my second pregnancy because I craved it and my second son is fine.
This, for me, is a very plausable theory.
As for those of you with this negative - ADD doesn't exist attitude --- maybe you should get the facts before stating your opinion. There is a saying "It is better to be silent and thought a fool, .than to speak and remove all doubt" - Silvan Engel
That would be a good place to start when thinking of spouting off your judgmental opinions.
I hope this helped answer your question! :)
Pretty much what you said second except they weren't accommodated either. I think my brother (born 1951 and older than me) was ADHD. Teachers hated him. Other kids thought he was weird. My mother babied him and made excuses for him, my father disciplined him too harshly. He hasn't "turned out" well. He has never held a job, or married. He rejects everyone in our family, especially me (everything always came "easily" to me, according to him), and now that our folks are dead, I never see him anymore. So it is better now that people are more educated about this very real problem, though I do think it is over diagnosed, at times.
We counted dots on the ceiling.
Boy's Town
they just did therapy for those who could afford it, the other kids were just "special"
ADHD was not recogized then and the children with this disease during those times were simply dismissed as disruptive, unruly children. Many of them did not graduate.
I don't think there was such a thing back then, at least no one knew of it.
Kids just got outside and played all the time, had friends, did work that they were expected to do.
If they were hyper their parents told them to go outside and play and they did, with the neighbor kids and got the energy out of their system.
They probably ate a lot healthier food, and mostly just at mealtime.
I have been wondering the same thing for many years. As far as I can tell they just gave up or worked harder. It's also worth mentioning many children are diagnosed as having a problem, then given a bottle of pills when all they really need is discipline and a parent who spends time with them. If we medicate every over active child then how are they supposed to learn to live with and burn off their energy when they are taken off the drugs!
Added 7/4: What the English American said was interesting. And I am sure that are many people who legitimately have this problem. However my when my nephew got in trouble for not paying attention in class the school wanted him medicated ASAP. After looking into the problem, my brother decided NOT to medicate him, instead he gave him a spanking and signed him up for the soccer team and now PRESTO his grades are up. While some children need help, many are having pills shoved down their throats simply because medication is convenient for parents and teachers.
The short answer to your initial question is: They weren't treated. The syndrome wasn't recognized as a medical/psychological problem back then the way it is nowadays. The diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was yet to be formally defined. Typically, a child who was excessively restless, distractable and impulsive was just seen as a discipline problem.
not diagnosed. no medical treatment. not much understanding. they were usually called lazy or stupid.
It is fascinating how much things change once doctors put a name to something, and people quit blaming the victim.
Lets just say my rear side was warmed often. Back then it wasn't a condition or diagnosis, it was a lack of trying. I am no MD but I am pretty sure it still is. Loading a kid up on drugs is something that the drug companies came up with. A good tanning tended to focus ones attention, Being grounded, or any other method of discipline worked well to. To some it up, more parenting...less drugging.
I happen to know that with some kids, who are now adults with ADHD, they treated them as "hyperactive" and gave them valium and such.
My ex husband was one such kid, as was a friend of mine. They remember distinctly taking the pill and being groggy and not being able to focus on anything.
Whereas now, with kids taking medication for adhd or add the medication works like caffeine for them. Oddly enough it does not wind them up, but makes them calmer and able to concentrate.
I used to actually ENCOURAGE my ex to drink coffee, as without it he was jumping off the walls wound.
We weren't treated. We were stuck on a stool in the back corner of the classroom. Sometimes the idiot who was teaching the class would get the idea of a dunce cap for us hapless urchins. GOD knows I HATED those elementary days of abuse. I hated those witless teachers and their poor academics. We were treated with a distasteful show of disrespect. Only once in all the years I've been in the public school system did I ever know a wise, and intelligent teacher.
Her name was "Mrs. Smith" she taught grade five in "Meaford Elementary School". She is dead now, but for ten months of her life she gave me the sweet will to attend art college. She gave me a sense of dignity that none of the others had the wit nor wisdom to impart.
I think that prior to the 60's ADHD wasn't recognized. I think it was just the kids were considered as "bad" kids unless it was really aggressively bad then they were probably considered crazy.
ADHD was not formally diagnosed as a disorder until the late 70's to early 80's. I used to work as a psychiatric evaluator for a hospital's mental illness treatment center back then. "Predate" treatment prior to "finding" that certain peoples had attention and hyperactive disorders, medical as well as professionals in the treatment of mental irregularities used to use sedatives and anti-psychotics. Many of these persons wound up in institutions and were also "destroyed" mentally by psychiatrist's uses of shock treatments on them for they felt the it was a form of mental illness. Some of these patients from that time are still in some of these institutions. For many years psychiatry relied on a drug called Thorazine, which in my "opinion" only helps to make people insane, for I have never seen a patient benefit from it. If you KNEW what was done with many people's in "this" country, IN institutions who received the diagnoses' of QUACKS who called themselves "doctor's" you would be "appalled." Many patients deemed "insane" used to get "chained" up on walls, left there to "die" for no one knew how to treat peoples they saw as insane. In many cases, all these peoples HAD, were simple disorders which in present day are easily treated....
have you seen shake??
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