i am surprised to see that so many Blacks and minorities are finally comming out of the closet about having ADD. the reason i say this is because i have known many who either know they have a problem and deny it for what ever reasons or they don't view it as a problem period.

There are probably many reasons for this.

One thing good about sickness, disease and brain disorders ....

they don't discrimminate.

Well actually some diseases do discriminate.

i think i read somewhere that african-americans with bipolar disorder are sometimes confused as being schizophrenic.. or something to that extent.

in any case, i was raised in an asian family, so my family in general was pretty opposed to considering their daughter (me) as being "crazy" in some way (my previous dx was bipolar disorder w/ psychosis). i think adhd is considered a made-up disease by many of my family friends. i dunno.. i'm glad my mom's more open to the idea.. i'm only doing what i can.. to help myself really.

My sister-in-law was a special ed teacher for the worst of the worst kids. The kids that were kicked out of every school in the district and ended up at the one she taught at.

When my son was diagnosed and medicated in preschool (he's now 12), she said she wished that more parents were like me and had their kids properly diagnosed and medicated.

She taught younger kids and also pre-teens. The pre-teens were the hardest to handle, especially the ones that weren't medicated. I know my son is a major challenge and he "is" medicated so I can't imagine trying to handle him unmedicated.

Most of the kids that were in her class were minorities. She said that the parents were in denial not only because they didn't want their kids medicated, but they didn't understand the complexity of mental issues. The kids were in her class for mostly behavior issues and learning disabilities.

Alot of the parents were in the same situation as their kids. The unknowing is what keeps alot of people from getting properly diagnosed and medicated.

Plus, as we all know, medication and doctor appointments can get very expensive. Plus taking off work to get to the appointments. It is a hassle for me so I know it would be a hassle for someone less fortunate. That perhaps didn't have insurance, or transportation or a babysitter, etc...

I hope that awareness is bringing all kinds of people out of the closet (and hopely the rest of my immediate family.)

I am hispanic, and was diagnosed after my 10 yr old was diagnosed a few years ago. I've been told by friends (black and hispanics) that ADD is a "white" people's disorder. A few of them have ALL the symptoms of ADD, and said even if they did have it, they wouldn't kill themselves over it by taking medication. My parent's were ****ed, and brother called me a crack head. With that said, it's no wonder why minorities don't want to come out of the closet. Even when I try to tell them it's no coincidence that we have the highest drop out rate in the US, they still won't budge.

Michael Irvin MUST have ADD!:D

My 12 year old son doesn't keep friends very long due to his adhd, ocd and mood disorder.

During the summer, he met a boy at the park that he started hanging around with who is black. When I first met him, I couldn't believe that he would have anything in common with my son because his friend was very well behaved, polite and didn't have an explosive personality like my son. But...they really hit it off.

Everything my son had as far as material items, his friend said he had too. I mean everything. I thought that perhaps he was just telling stories until he rode the same Jesse James chopper bike over that my son has. And then his gas powered scooter like my son's. And then we saw his trampoline and pool like ours when we brought him home one day. They were like a white and black version of each other when it came to material items. When he saw our two shiztu dogs, he said he had one too. I thought, no way....until he walked it over and it was the same color as our female but it was a male. He got it when he turned 5 and my daughter got hers when she turned 5. Very odd.

I started noticing alot of similarities between he and my son. When they played video games, they both had the same attitude. They took turns but were very argumentative when giving instructions on how to do something. When he spent the night one night, my son was teasing him too much and he started to cry. He is very emotional just like my son even though they are tough guys. He loves animals just like my son and is very caring to them. He is an expert on many different topics that he is interested in. He likes muscle cars and bikes.

We recently took them both to the Globetrotters game and while there, I told my son that he had to take his medicine. His friend knows my son has adhd but never made any comments about it either way. As my son took his medication, his friend took out his ADD medicine. (They say that Birds of a Feather Flock Together.)

I am an expert on spotting an adhd'er but you add'ers are a little more difficult to spot. :)

Anyway, as far as minorities, he is the only one that I know of that takes ADD medicine.

We have gone to my sons doctor for over 7 years and have never seen anyone but whites there. Nor have we seen anyone but whites at mine and my husbands doctor. When we went to a few CHADD meetings, all whites attended. When we went for testing at Special School District, all whites.

This is a very interesting topic and I am courious to see if there are any statistics on this topic. In my instance, it is not due to our geographic area as we are in a very diverse area. Blacks, Whites, Hispanic, Asians, etc...

adhdxyz,
That's interesting. I grew up with nothing but blacks and hispanics. When I told one of my close friends that I was going to therapy, she said, "White people go to therapy, black people go to church!" A lot of my friends and family dismiss ADD as a "white people" thing. I think it's sad, because I am very proud of being hispanic and I see a lot of minorities failing because they need help. I am a substitute teacher and my husband is a chemistry teacher. He didn't believe in ADD until my oldest broke down and started crying about math and how he just couldn't get it. We felt that if we didn't give him medication we were making him suffer needlessly.