hiyas all :)
my son has been dx since he was 6 and is now 9 and im still workin on whats typical n whats not .
im caught in a row just now and im hopeing someone can put a end to it .
i have been told adhd is classed as a mental illness and i got someone else telling me its not ....


so the question is ...... is adhd a mental illness or not ?????
is my son mentally ill..... im not sure what to make of it now :confused:

its a disorder not an illness

but this is all words that someone else says

lets get everybodys opinion on this

With all that I have read ADHD is classified as a disorder. IMO illness would imply that the mental workings were "in order" and then not. With ADHD this is a way a person is born. Again, just my opinion!

Hi miss nutty:)

My oldest was diagnosed about 14 years ago. They did not give me much information and we did not have the internet yet. The little I read was confusing. I have heard that some scientists claim that anything disordered in the brain is considered a mental illness....and in that case things like ADD ,epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease
would be considered such, as well.

But a neurologist and a psychologist will tell you differently. Like they did me when I was diagnosed a couple of months ago. ADD is neurological.
It can be controlled with medications used in treating mental illness, and maybe this is where the confusion lies.

I hope everything goes well with your little boy :)

~gourmet~

My take on this would be that an "illness" you recover from, it goes away, is healed at some point, making ADD not fall into that category. A disorder, on the other hand, means that the way it functions is not like that of the general population. It can be treated to minimize the "damage" done, but it rarely completely goes away.

I think in great part it's all just a play on words, though. Mental illness tends to be seen in an extremely negative way by most people. Sad, because I would guess that the majority of the population suffers or has suffered with "mental illness" at some point in their lives. My hope would be that people will learn to be more tolerant and accepting so that it no longer is something that creates "shame" for those suffering. They have enough on their plate without that!

Just my 2 cents.

Kim

Thanks all that replied
not bein the most self confident person i just needed to double check i kinda knew aldready .
i spoke to the person who said it was a mental illness since and i think they are one of these people who doesnt accept adhd is a real problem i think, they said i baby hayden with all the attention he has . old school thinkin as my mum says .

well their loss they will miss out on all the fun stuff focusing on the bad all the time .
yes my hayden can b a handfull and yeah hes made me cry with frustration but hes also very loving and careing and thoughtfull and so very funny and thats the main thing .

my mum was right i think .... living with adhd is like bein at a theme park all the rides are up n down but theres always fun somewhere :)
take care all and thanks again
cyas :D

Ok I give up what is the difference between a disorder and an illness

Well, as I've learned, ADHD was considered a mental illness way back when no one knew much about it. It was a new, foreign concept that no one really understood and it had to be classified somehow. There have been many different (and some disturbing) names for this "disorder" in the past (one of my favorites, Minimal Brain Disfunction :( ) . Only recently has it become more commonly known and excepted (I think maybe the last 10 yrs or so).

A Mental illness presents the same set of symptoms in the same fashion in the majority of patients who have it. Like schizophrenia looks the same way better than 80% of the time.

A disorder does not. You could put every member of this forum in the same room and would be lucky to have 2 people with the same exact symptoms. (Ok, maybe 3 people. :D)

ADD is referred to as a disorder because it gives them a category to put everyone in who exhibits 4 (I think it's 4?)or more of the more common symptoms of ADD. There is some formal list..... I read it in "Delivered from Distraction."