ADHD Summary

THIS is my opinion of ‘ADHD’.

‘ADHD’ is a delusion

1. ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ is an arbitrary phrase and nothing more than a subjective description of observed general behaviours translated into medical jargon. If you made up a phrase like ‘Rather Run Around Than Sit Still-itis’, or ‘Resistance to Discipline Syndrome’, or simply ‘Possession By Demons’, it would be just as meaningful (or meaningLESS). But those phrases wouldn’t, of course, have the ‘ring’ of medical authority required to establish plausibility.

2. The phrase ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ is commonly used to provide a simplistic and single explanation for a wide range of ‘problem’ behaviours that, in reality, are much more likely to have an equally wide range of complex and differing causes.

3. The phrase ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ is used contemporaneously as a label of convenience, in order to ‘legitimise’ otherwise debatable responses to those ‘problem’ behaviours.

4. The ‘problem’ behaviours themselves are most often perceived as a ‘problem’ only by persons other than the person exhibiting the behaviour, suggesting that the primary motivation leading to medical diagnosis is control rather than remedy.

5. The phrase ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ created a CONCEPT of the ‘disease’ it purports to represent. There is NO actual 'disease'. It’s the existence and subsequent currency of the phrase ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ IN ITSELF that has allowed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people - from scientists and medical professionals to members of the general public – to think about, speak of and act upon whatever they IMAGINE that phrase to represent, and, thereby, to ultimately generate a PERCEPTION of an actual 'disease' where there is only a mirage.

Copyright © 2003, Bob Collier

Canberra, Australia

4 May 2003
Revised 19 May 2003

Next, Appendix: ADHD and the Meaning of Evidence by Barry Turner BA MPhil

ADHD-Report.com: The concerned parents' guide to childrens' attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD)

Contact
Resources