ADHD Experience and Diagnosis: A Societal Perspective

Method

The participant group consisted of eleven people—nine adult women and two men. Within this group were mental health professionals, doctors, adults with ADHD,and parents of kids with ADHD. In addition, and worth noting, were the responses I received in my call for participants that did not actually materialize into interviews: three women who had been diagnosed in the last 10-15 years: a 64 year old woman diagnosed at 49, another diagnosed at 35 and yet another 60 year old who did not have an official diagnosis but learnt about ADD through her son and concluded that she had it too. I sent out a call for participants on the school district's special services listserv, catering to families with children receiving special education services in the district and received a single response—a mother whose son had been diagnosed at age 9. In addition, I attended two talks organized by CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a non profit organization with focus on support and advocacy for families and individuals with AD(H)D. The talks were given by a pediatrician and a neuropsychologist, on the diagnosis of AD(H)D. Biographies of participants who had AD(H)D are narrated below, and are interspersed with discussions, along with medical health professionals’ insights, educators’ opinions, observations and recommendations throughout the text. Names of all participants have been changed. A special mention to those participants who are AD(H)D: my intention was not to ‘fix’ those with ADHD in a ”gaze,” and examine them as “deviations from the norm” but “to explore those social relations that regulate and organize their experiences” in society (Goodley,xiii, Jung, 271). Nor do I question the veracity of diagnosis. To reiterate, I am interested in examining why certain groups of people do not get the diagnosis; what knowledge making, social, societal constructs and power dynamics render certain demographics invisible, and how do people with AD(H)D navigate these fields. In addition, conversations with the special services division formed an important force shaping the direction of this research.

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