One night he arrived home from work to find his family waiting for him. After an evening meal filled with periods of awkward silence they retired to the living room. Eventually, Rodney’s married daughter stepped forward to speak on behalf of the family.
“Dad, we have made an appointment for you to see a psychiatrist,” she said.
Life was not easy for the family. Rodney cannot remember exactly what it was he did to upset the people he loved. There were descriptions of erratic behaviour, a roller coaster ride of emotions and questionable decisions that left the family financially and emotionally damaged.
Rodney spent an hour with the psychiatrist, who already had the answers to a four-page questionnaire from the family. He remembers saying, “My mind is like a room filled with six television sets demanding my attention.” My friend is an intelligent man, with a personal library in excess of a thousand volumes. However, he struggles every day to express the emotions and the facts that occupy his mind.
“It’s like someone locked a door in my brain,” he eventually realised.
Rodney and I caught up at an in-service-training retreat.
“You know,” he concluded. “I always wondered what was wrong with me.” His voice cracked and his hands trembled slightly. “In a way it’s like a huge burden of responsibility has been lifted off my shoulders.”
In Australia 10 per cent of children and six per cent of adults will be diagnosed with ADHD. It is considered an hereditary condition. Basically, there is a part of the brain called the basal ganglia that controls movement, motivation and reward. If it cannot communicate with every other part of the brain then problems arise.
People with ADHD have difficulty making decisions. They cannot pay attention for very long. They say and do things without thinking. This leads to frustration and anger. Life can be difficult for people with this condition.
However, we must also consider the other side of this conversation. During the COVID-19 lockdown, one and a half million prescriptions were issued for ADHD medication. That was a 4450 per cent increase. To put that in perspective, if 100 prescriptions a year were written before COVID then that number increased to 4550.
Questions are being asked. For example, a high school chaplain shared his concerns with me about a Year 7 student who was recently diagnosed.
“In the morning his mother gave him $5,” the chaplain said.
“For breakfast he bought a can of coke and a Mars Bar. By 9.30am he was so hyped up with sugar the teachers put him in time out.
“By the time he turned 13 his mother had lived with three different partners. No wonder he was struggling.”
I sincerely hope that one day we don’t call ADHD the “lazy diagnosis”. Remember, your mental health is your responsibility. Do your research.
