Tuesday, August 26, 2008

ADHD and Michael Phelps

Michael-Phelps

Just like the many millions of others I spent the last few weeks intensely following the Olympic games and seeing the results. The other day when Michael Phelps won his eighths Gold medal for these Olympics he mentioned that his teacher had once told him he would not be able to do anything in his life.

I thought that was a pretty extreme statement from a teacher (shouldn't teachers be encouraging students to become something?) well I checked up on it and found that he had been labeled with ADHD and even put on ritalin for it!

Yet here he goes and becomes not only an Olympic champion but THE Olympic champion of all time! Not just winning by chance but actually setting himself the exact goal and then doing it. In other words a true winner. Deciding to do something and then doing it, is the definition of a win.

It again goes to say how wrong the ADHD label is. Because a student has trouble concentrating (something that is very simply explained in the Study Technology) is no reason to put him on drugs!

They labeled Tom Cruise the same way and look at him now, probably one of the most successful actors of all time.

How do they get away with this?

There are real solutions to such lazy labels like ADHD, I am linking to a couple here but I am sure there are more.

http://www.appliedscholastics.org/
http://www.whatcausedmysymptoms.com/

Check them out.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love phelps

Monty said...

This is a great point and I totally agree. He is a great product as he was able to channel all that access energy he had into something productive and has no doubt become the best swimmer in his class of all time!

Additionally in terms of the stimulant drugs that kids are now put on to "mask" their ADHD, whether its
Adderall, Adderall XR, CONCERTA, Detxroamphetamine, Ritalin, Ritalin LA, Ritalin SR, Strattera, Vyvanse and the list goes on - These drugs when broken down in the body are basically the same as cocaine or speed and so its hard for me to understand why a truck driver goes to jail for having these stimulants in his system but a 7 year old child, "Oh thats okay"... America needs to utilize the solutions that effectively handle these symptoms rather than give a drug that masks the problem, It can be as simple as a change of diet. For example I recently spoke to a 9 year old on these drugs and asked him his diet - His answer "a doughnut and coke in the morning before school" HELLO!!! I would be bouncing off the walls too if I had that diet. So it just goes to say that there are other solutions out there in terms of handling these problems such as ADD and ADHD.

Herman said...

I have ADD. Adderall helps me focus, as I sit behind a computer all day...Still, life is better without it. Too bad my performance grows worse without it.

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Is ADHD different from anxiety disorder ?