5 year old with ADHD?

I was searching for jobs on a website and I came across this job posting saying "5 yr old with ADHD needs babysitter" and it just really stumped me. How could a 5 year old be diagnosed ADHD? In my opinion that is just way way too young to be given such a diagnosis. It really highlights the overuse of mental diagnosis going on in our society today especially for young children and the over medication of those children. I mean 5 years old? ADHD? Come on! That's just ridiculous to me.
That kid is going to be labeled and medicated for the rest of their life.

It reminds me of my friend who was diagnosed with a mental illness at 4 years old! 4 years old, mentally ill! Just because she hated germs at school!

It's sad. They don't even give these kids a chance anymore. If I had a child and a doctor ever told me it had OCD or ADHD at such a young age, I would walk right out of that office and never return.

Unless a kid is being extremely violent and showing sadistic signs, then I have a very hard time believing a child under the age of 7 would have a mental illness of any sort while they're developing their personality and growing. I mean, show me a 5 year old with ADHD and a 5 year old who isn't diagnosed with anything, they probably behave the same way, bouncing off walls and having a two second attention span. It's unbelievable.

5 year old can have ADHD and be diagnoised its not unusal. Its probably something you are born with. A diagnoisis is not a bad thing as it can help a parent cope, learn the best ways to deal with things.

A child with ADHD acts very differently from a child without it.

There's a TV show on one of the reality TV channels about two young children diagnosed with schizophrenia and other things. That really shocked me - how can they make such diagnoses on such young kids? That's not ethical.

Is difficult. With young children how do you tell whether a child has mental health issues, or is acctually being screwed up by uncaring parents?

It is certainly possible for children to have mental health problems. The brain is just like any other organ, problems can occur. A early diagnoisis of aspergers for instance makes it easier to treat, helping the parents and child.
To imagine that every other organ in the body can have problems except the brain is illogical.

That's what I mean, though, at such a young age, how can you diagnose something like schizophrenia when the symptoms are so close to normal childhood behavior. Plus, yes, I think parents of these kids are definitely screwing them up.

this certainly isn't the first time i've seen overuse of the term " mental illness"

pretty disgusting really

shattered sanity.
Do you believe the brain cannot have problems then.
Is that logical, every organ can have problems except the brain?

Well its not like breaking a leg. Psychology is very fluid, its based on opinions and theories, not x-rays and blood tests. At five years old you are bound to have some quirky traits, because you're learning and observing and growing. I was an odd child at that age, but thankfully I grew up in the 90s and wasn't diagnosed with anything. If I grew up in this age, I would probably be diagnosed at 5 years old with ADHD because I had energy, OCD because I liked to line up my Barbie dolls, Dependent disorder because I loved my parents, and Separation anxiety because I cried when I had to go to school. All normal behaviors, but apparently not to doctors or overly concerned parents.

Angelique67
For me it was definately parents that screwed me up. The symptoms of being driven crazy by parents (narcissists in my case, lies, gaslighting etc) is similar if not the same as (possible) genetic mental health problems.
It would take a very astute doc to know the difference.

But nonetheless I do think some problems have a genetic base. Bipolar is thought to be genetic as is schizophrenia, and I think they can show up early.

To treat or not treat, to guess. Is it the parents? (taking into account some of the worse parents can put on a darn 'good show' to an audiance)
Is it genetic?

No easy answers.

I dont think normal behaviours would flag up much concern with anyone. Its odd, extreme behaviour that sticks out.
Maybe its different in the US.

Very few people have a therapist here.

In Psychology it has always been opinions and theories, but, that is changing.

Brain scans can show differences in brains. Abuse & neglect for instance changes the brain.
Scans show that physcopaths are different from a 'normal' person they have little or no activity in the Amygdala;
Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions,
wiki.

Take love. Its a chemical reaction, Oxytocin the 'bonding chemical' no oxytocin no love.

all i'm saying is that 5 years old is a bit too early to start diagnosing someone

that's all.

nothing more, nothing less

you need at least a few years to see how they turn out

Problem is that the earlier problems are tackled the better the outcome. If you wait 'a few years' the damage might already be done.

Absolutely the diagnosis is appropriate if the symptoms are pronounced enough.

That doesn't necessarily mean the child is being medicated yet.

Here is one of the kids I mentioned http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/tlc-pres...zophrenic-tlc/

And then her younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and etc. too and this just seems fake to me. It seems like a plan embarked on by the parents.

You think its fake?
It is possible her brother inheirited the same problem.

But who knows?

I don't know. But the parents seem awfully eager to present their kids as abnormal and I can't help wondering if the kids act out to accommodate the parents' wishes.

I tend to agree that parents often exacerbate the problem. The parent is the one who brings the rambunctious child to the doctors office saying, "Gee, something is wrong with my 5 year old, he can't sit still and he keeps changing the subject when I try to talk to him, I suspect ADHD" and the doctor, seeing a sale, says "Oh yes, those are the signs of ADHD." Without ever acknowledging the normalcy of a five year old with a short attention span and loads of energy. This is a major fault within the entire psychology field.

I worked in a kindergarten class and I actually saw a child being labeled by the teacher with one of those childhood mental illnesses, and I think this can be caused by the teachers abusing their power too. Some little incidence can be blown out of proportion as abnormal behavior when really, kids barely know what normal is.

At any age, diagnosis is based first and foremost on problems disrupting a person's life. This is judged by behaviour that is *demonstrably* different from that of the person's peers. Obviously that's trickier with small kids, but not impossible. Recently I asked my mother about my childhood "energy level" without mentioning that I suspect I have ADHD, and she was suddenly rattling off distinct and vivid examples of how different I was from other kids.

I wish I had been diagnosed at a young age and not gone through a lifetime of failure to thrive, suffering with the knowledge that I'm not accomplishing anything at all let alone living up to my potential, and blaming myself and others. Sure I've had traumatic childhood experiences; a narcissistic parent and an avoidant one, but I'm more resilient than for poor (but largely well-intended) parenting to have affected me in such a pervasive way.

A lot of anguish and blame could have been avoided if we didn't stigmatize or try to erase REAL mental illnesses or pretend they can never happen to kids. By all means withhold the meds till they get older (and have schools accommodate this), but I think it's wrong to pretend kids can't be mentally ill or that because diagnosis is more difficult, it's somehow wrong to try at all.

I'm not so much against the diagnosing as I am the drugging. In the example on TLC, those kids are medicated if I recall correctly.

Fair enough. Unfortunately many societies don't seem to see mental illness in general as being worth taking seriously. Even if the suffering this causes doesn't matter to those not directly affected, the monetary cost to taxpayers should. I saw a talk by a leading ADHD researcher in which he specified a dollar amount that people with poorly managed ADHD can cost the system each year. I don't remember the exact number, but it was astronomical.