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i have adhd......
but i dont see hoowww?
ive gone 17 years without it
being diagnosed??? so how can
they all thesudden say yep you have adhd??

ADHD is such a broad spectrumed "disorder" that many doctors just use it to give a diagnoses.More often than not, people just have certain symptoms of it and they just jump the gun in diagnosing it.

Similarly, I have symptoms of asthma,I had to use an oxygen tank and breathing mask as a child as well as an inhaler, I wheeze sometimes too, but I don't have asthma.

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then whats the point insaying i do?
wouldnt that make the medicine pointles??

Not if it satisfies their patients/their parents.
Plus, the meds they give you can affect the symptoms you DO have.

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How'd they diagnose it? And what were their qualifications?

Everyone today has ADHD, it's the diagnosis du jour!. But, the actual percentage of people with TRUE ADHD (confirmed with a battery of neuropsychological tests given by a neuropsychologist) is only slightly greater than schizophrenia!

Which is a very nice way of saying the chances of you being ADHD is only slightly greater than you being schizophrenic! (lots' of misdiagnosis by unqualified people).

okay i hat to disagree with everyone but sometimes adhd is actually serious. my brother has it and he honestly does. usually ppl with adhd sont see it in them selves but other ppl do. if the medication helps u stayy calm and helps u focus then its liget. if u were dianosed by a doc they prob know wht there talking about.

Hope, I won't play junior psychologist here, but I am really reasonably confident that your bro's ('J') symptoms are NOT typically associated with ADHD. Violence and attempted homicide are not part of the ADHD! Sure, he might have attentional issues, and the meds might help, but what he's got is a very different presentation than ADHD.

With regards to the OP it remains to be seen who (and how) she was diagnosed. The diagnosis is only 'Accurate' if it's done by a qualified professional and the assessment procedure is widely accepted as valid. "Not being able to focus" or "Being hyper" doesn't mean you have true ADHD. There are many causes for these symptoms, and they need to be ruled out before deciding on ADHD.

Lastly, medications work for a lot of reasons, mostly they work b/c they fit the problem they were designed to treat, but sometimes they work in spite of the misdiagnosis. With many ADHD meds, at low doses, you get a sharpening of attention skills..even though the neurological causes of 'true' ADHD are absent.

hes also got alot of other issues but the one he started iwht was adhd

I have ADHD. To the people who have been saying that it's fake: believe me, it is real. I'm not trying to start any arguments or anything, but you have no idea how it is.
http://add.about.com/od/adhdthebasic...HD-is-Real.htm

so the doc told me it maifests differently in deifferent people. he said that in girls its typcally more of an unrestlessness or
having trouble concentrating. he also said my "anger"
problems are caused by this to.....i been looking into it
and its like virtually every problem you have can be cause by adhd?
wtf?