Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
In my outpatient clinic, it is sometimes concerning!! Unfortunately, I am one of the few child psychiatrists in our country who tries to solve the behavioral problems that occur in adolescence in our hyperactive children, whose treatment has been delayed due to a teacher (who ignores hyperactivity and says we are managing it) and sometimes a know-it-all relative, neighbor or pharmacist.
When we add to our know-it-all close circle that some people (columnists, life coaches, life coaches, simple coaches, etc.) who are seen as professionals and whose articles are shared, present their personal opinions, which have no scientific basis, as if they were scientific truths, the already existing confusion of families is increasing.
This situation causes delay in the treatment of our children with ADHD and the formation of behavioral problems that are very difficult to repair.
WHERE IS THE PROBLEM IN ADHD?
Children with attention deficit have difficulty completing the tasks given to them as responsibilities, completing them on time and staying on top of them. One of the most important reasons for this is that the release of neurotransmitters called "Dopamine and Norepinephrine", which are necessary to perform tasks and responsibilities, from the prefrontal cortex, the front region of the brain, is impaired for reasons we do not yet know. Dopamine is also known as the pleasure molecule. It is released from the nucleus accumbes, known as the center of the reward system in the brain, especially during enjoyable activities. It is possible for children with ADHD to remain distracted for hours in pleasurable, non-responsible activities such as TV or the computer, thanks to the dopamine released from the nucleus accumbes. The problem is not that dopamine is not released during enjoyable activities such as TV or computer, but that the attention system cannot produce enough dopamine when required to fulfill responsibilities and tasks. Therefore, the fact that our children with Attention Deficit do not get bored easily of the things they enjoy and know them in detail does not mean that they do not have ADHD.
Impaired release of the dopamine molecule from the relevant brain regions during different tasks causes the inability to stay in charge of activities that are boring but also pleasurable. Inability to leave activities unattended It results in . The fact that the most common accompanying disorder in children who develop internet addiction today is ADHD is one of the most concrete evidence of this situation.
THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO WHEN ADHD IS NOT TREATED:
Hyperactivity continues from childhood to adolescence. It tends to decrease in transition, but this decrease brings with it an increase in unrest. For example, his parents are with him, he does not have any financial or moral problems, but our child gets up in the morning, restless, goes to bed at night, is restless, we start to feel the need to constantly ask 'son/daughter, what's wrong, did something happen at school, and our child cannot be happy at all? is a table. Due to the nature of adolescence, our children begin to distance themselves physically and emotionally from their parents in line with the increasing sense of independence and need for autonomy, and they begin to spend more time in friendly environments with the feeling of belonging to a group and being able to express themselves within groups formed by friends with similar interests. In this natural process, although our hyperactive child can successfully distance himself from his parents, problems in his relationships with friends begin to become evident due to increasing negative behavioral characteristics such as being easily bored, suddenly angry, and irritable, similar to the mobility and impulsivity that he cannot control when he is a child. The adolescent with ADHD, who became estranged from his parents due to the nature of the period, even though he regretted it later, struggled with the inability to keep his relationships with friends, loneliness, introversion, decreased self-confidence, increased time spent in front of the computer, impaired sleep, and ultimately depressive symptoms, as a result of his inability to prevent his behavior out of anger. He is faced with a negative situation in the form of coping. Unfortunately, this results in our children acquiring this bad habit due to reasons such as the inability to say no due to its structure and the use of these substances being good for restlessness for a while. They begin to be known as rebellious, naughty children who cannot comply with school rules. At school When a problem occurs, the contract always falls to our child with ADHD. This situation causes them to be stigmatized by their teachers and friends at school and by their parents at home. Parents, who were exposed to negative feelings from relatives, neighbors, spouses and friends, such as "You couldn't discipline or educate this child", over time, started to talk to each other (mother and father, father to mother) by saying "You spoiled the child, you did everything you said, you did not set rules, this happened because of you" and They tend to blame themselves and begin to feel a sense of inadequacy.
Dear parents;
When the doctor says that we will start medication for our child, whom we care about at the age of 7-8, we feel uneasy,
There is nothing more natural than feeling worried about whether we should not use medicine or whether it will have harmful effects in the future.
However, this should be known very well; Medicine is not given to a child in order not to upset his mother, tire his teacher, or to increase his grades in mathematics and Turkish from 3 to 5. The goal of treatment is definitely not to slow down or dull the child during breaks, games, or social environments. The main purpose of ADHD treatment is to prevent behavioral problems that will put our child and our family in a difficult situation during adolescence. Our children with ADHD, who were misinterpreted before adolescence as "just a little naughty, can't release their energy, the teacher is exaggerating" and whose treatment was postponed, In adolescence, they are risky candidates for the development of many psychopathologies, especially depression, anxiety disorder, smoking, alcohol and substance use.
Do not forget that ADHD is a medical disease and the diagnosis and treatment process must be carried out by child psychiatrists with medical training. p>
The decision to be made as to whether our child has ADHD or not and the treatment given accordingly will deeply affect our child's entire life.
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