ADHD is an abbreviation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Literally translated, this means attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is a disease that can be recognized by its symptoms: in this case, what people do. People with ADHD do not have spots, a nasty cough, a strange color or a strange facial expression. People with ADHD are also the same as other people in almost every way. But a small difference in the way their brains work causes them to behave in special ways that can make their lives and the lives of their family and friends very difficult.
Not all people with ADHD have the same symptoms, but they all have one or more of the following problems:
- they have trouble paying attention
- they cannot concentrate on one thing at a time
- they can hardly sit still
- they do things without thinking about the consequences
- they lose things, forget things and can’t remember what they should be doing.
ADHD is a condition that mainly affects children. Adults are also affected, but the damage done to children’s lives is often much greater as the condition has a knock-on effect on family members, friends, classmates and teachers. ADHD can prevent children from making friends , often get into trouble and cannot complete their homework, and their family is disrupted and their classroom falls into chaos.
Now that doctors can better recognize the symptoms of the condition, more people – both adults and children – are being diagnosed with ADHD and receiving treatment. Experts believe that at least three in every hundred children between the ages of four and fourteen, and possibly many more, have ADHD. Not all these children end up seeing a doctor. In countries where there are so few doctors that even life-threatening diseases are often not treated, no one keeps track of who has ADHD. But research conducted in many countries suggests that the percentage of children with ADHD is the same everywhere, whether they live in Hong Kong, Honolulu, Australia or Africa.
Mental illness
It is not difficult to tell that someone is sick when there are obvious physical symptoms of illness. When someone is in pain, or has an infection that causes a fever, or eats something that makes them feel nauseous and vomit, people sympathize and want to help. But if something goes wrong in a person’s brain, the body’s control center, he or she is not so obviously ill.
Children with ADHD sometimes can’t even concentrate long enough to play a simple board game.
Yet a small glitch in the way the brain works can cause a mental illness that makes a person unhappy, strange, or difficult to get along with. Instead of sympathizing, people sometimes make comments such as: Control yourself!, You have no self-discipline, His parents can’t handle it or She is going through a difficult phase. They don’t realize that these children may not be able to control their behavior.
Who is sick? Who is normal?
Today, scientists and doctors are beginning to understand the causes of ADHD and other diseases that affect people’s behavior.
We have made progress since the days when all mentally ill people were locked up, but there are still many prejudices about diseases that affect the brain. It’s hard not to dismiss the troublesome behavior of a child with ADHD as simply disobedience or laziness.
Children with ADHD do what many normal children sometimes do, but because they are sick they cannot stop. For example, all young children run around a lot. But a child with ADHD races around like a race car in top gear.
A broken arm arouses compassion, but children with ADHD infuriate others.
Children with ADHD are hyperactive compared to other children of the same age. All children find it difficult to pay attention all the time in class or listen carefully to the instructions for playing a new computer game, but for a child with ADHD this is virtually impossible. Children often do things without thinking – they can sometimes be impulsive. But a child with ADHD runs across a busy street even though his or her mother has explained a thousand times that it is dangerous.
This behavior is no more the child’s fault than a painful tooth or a broken arm, but it does not arouse sympathy. It makes others angry.
