It’s AD/HD Awareness Day

Senate Declares Sep­tem­ber 7th AD/HD Aware­ness Day

AD/HD is a neu­ro­bi­o­log­i­cal dis­or­der that affects an esti­mat­ed 3 to 7 per­cent of school-age chil­dren and an esti­mat­ed 4 per­cent of adults across racial, eth­nic, and socioe­co­nom­ic groups. While the exact cause of the dis­or­der is unknown, stud­ies indi­cate that AD/HD runs in fam­i­lies and sug­gest that genet­ic inher­i­tance is an impor­tant risk fac­tor. AD/HD is char­ac­ter­ized by impul­siv­i­ty, inat­ten­tion, and in some cas­es, hyperactivity.

“The vol­ume of real sci­en­tif­ic research about AD/HD is immense. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, junk sci­ence and mis­in­for­ma­tion have increas­ing­ly dom­i­nat­ed pub­lic dis­cus­sions about AD/HD, caus­ing con­fu­sion in the minds of many,” said E. Clarke Ross, D.P.A., CEO of Chil­dren and Adults with Atten­tion-Deficit/Hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der (CHADD), and father of a child with spe­cial chal­lenges. “Efforts such as AD/HD Aware­ness Day allow us to revert the focus to legit­i­mate sci­ence, clear up con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the dis­or­der and get peo­ple the help they need.”

A few short years ago, I seri­ous­ly did not believe that AD/HD exist­ed. I thought it was an excuse for bad par­ent­ing. It took a few years, a lot of evi­dence, and much con­sid­er­a­tion to change my mind.

In hon­or of my fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends who have AD/HD, I’d like to point you to an excel­lent article:
ODD COUPLES! Find­ing peace and respect in the mar­riage where one of you has ADD and the oth­er doesn’t