Unsupported Blather | ADD . . . and-so-much-more

Don’t Drink the Kool-ade

Monday, September 26, 2016 30 Comments

Choice vs. Fear-mongered Reaction

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Another Reflections post

©Phillip Martin, artist/educator

“Ritalin, like all medications,
can be useful when used properly
and dangerous when used improperly.

Why is it so difficult for so many people
to hold to that middle ground?”
~ Dr. Edward Hallowell

As I wrote in a prior article, in response to one of the far too many opinion pieces made popular by the soundbite press:

You don’t have to believe in medication.

You don’t have to take it.

You don’t have to give it to your kids.

You don’t EVEN have to do unbiased research before you ring in with an opinion on medication or anything else having to do with ADD/ADHD/EFD.

HOWEVER, when you’re writing a piece to be published in a widely-read paper of some stature, or a book that presents itself as containing credible expertise, it is simply unprofessional — of the writer, the editors, and the publications themselves — to publish personal OPINION in a manner that will lead many to conclude that the pieces quote the sum total of scientific fact.

It is also incredibly harmful.

Read more of this post

Filed under A2b Medication, A2c. Non-medical alternatives, ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, E2. Making a Difference, E2a. Rants; Ruminations Tagged with ADD perspective, ADD/EFD treatment, ADDspectrum, Decision-making, Edward Hallowell, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Mental Health, non-pharmaceutical alternatives, Pharmaceuticals, Phillip Martin - artist, POV, Reflections, RITALIN, Unsupported Blather

New title sells books – sells OUT lives

Thursday, April 24, 2014 9 Comments

AD(H)D does NOT exist?
Give me a BREAK!

©Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, ADD Coach Training Field Founder;
ADD Coaching co-founder; ADD Poster Girl

Here we go again!

This might turn out to be another of the “shortest articles I’ve ever written.”

Shoot — it might be one of the ONLY short articles I’ve ever written (the list of “related articles” of outrage may well be longer!)

In this instance, it will be a cinch to be brief, since there’s not much to say about this utter nonsense — books on this fallacious point of view seem to crawl out of the woodwork about every seventeen years – like locusts!

And just as big a nuisance.

While more than disheartening, it is no real surprise to see that ANOTHER New York Times best-selling-author-wannabe has decided to make a fortune pandering to soundbite-mongers with a new book brandishing an incredulous title – a book with a cover that looks suspiciously like the one above (albeit with different words).

It’s yet another of the opinion-presented-as-fact books written by unthinking MDs who make the incendiary, controversial and condescending claim that ADHD does not exist.

The sound-bite press will make sure it will make headlines, no doubt, despite the reality that hundreds of expert MDs, scientists, geneticists and respected health organizations can site HUNDREDS of studies to back up their extremely credible and well-respected claims that it most certainly DOES TOO!

Will this NEVER stop?

So how many HUNDREDS MORE children are now going to be left to flounder until they are failing as ADDults because their parents will take this rubbish seriously?

How many HUNDREDS more ADDults will not be able to receive the help they need because their non-expert doctors will believe the popular press around this blather?

How many government officials will read this prattle and ring in to make it even MORE difficult for those of us who rely on medication to remain medicated?

Heartbreaking New York Times ADD Article

Thursday, February 9, 2012 44 Comments

Don’t Drink the Kool-ade

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Another wonderful graphic courtesy of aritist/educator Phillip Martin

“Ritalin, like all medications, can be useful when used properly and dangerous when used improperly.

Why is it so difficult for so many people to hold to that middle ground?”
~ Dr. Edward Hallowell

Regarding the opinion piece “Ritalin Gone Wrong” by Alan Sroufe, Ph.D.
(NY Times, Jan. 29, 2012):

• You don’t have to believe in medication.
• You don’t have to take it.
• You don’t have to give it to your kids.

You don’t EVEN have to do unbiased research before you ring in with an opinion on medication or anything else having to do with ADD/ADHD.

HOWEVER, when you’re writing a piece to be published in a newspaper with the stature of The New York Times, it is simply unprofessional — of the writer, the editors, and the paper itself — to publish personal OPINION in a manner that will lead many to conclude that the piece quotes scientific fact.

Read more of this post

Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, E2. Making a Difference, E2a. Rants; Ruminations Tagged with ADD perspective, Edward Hallowell, Frank Wolkenberg, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, New York Times, Phillip Martin - artist, POV, RITALIN, Ritalin Gone Wrong, Thomas J. Leonard, Unsupported Blather

Top Ten Stupid Comments from ADD-Docs

Saturday, November 19, 2011 37 Comments

The Top Ten Stupid Comments
from [supposed] ADD Professionals
by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Ten Unfortunate [and recent] Examples of Ignorance masquerading as Information — and
uninformed personal opinion presented as medical FACT.

———————————-
The comments on this article add information — take the time to read those too. You’ll be glad you did!
———————————-

First Things First:
Let’s not lump the good ADD doctors and the ones who made these stupid comments together!

They are not the same species AT ALL!

Read more of this post

Filed under A2. ADD Treatment, A2a(1) Your ADD Doctor, E2a. Rants; Ruminations, F1. ADD Top Tens Tagged with ADD Advocacy, ADD Top10, ADD Treatment, ADD-AD/HD differential diagnosis, ADDCoaching, ADD_Top10, explanation, finding help, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, New Diagnosis, Top Ten Stupid Comments, Unsupported Blather

RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms INDEED!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 13 Comments

Clever but seriously flawed

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile,
hoping it will eat him last.”
~ Winston Churchill

So what’s my beef with
Sir Ken Robinson???

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Royal Society of Art’s figurehead, “world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award,” as it says in the description under at least one of his cleverly animated lectures on education, posted on YouTube.

His content is out of integrity
with what he says he stands for.

Black and white, perhaps, but misinformation in my area of expertise makes me question the sincerity of his quest as well as the validity of the rest of the items in his presentation.

Read more of this post

Filed under E2a. Rants; Ruminations, E2c. Community Support, E2d. ADD and Education Tagged with ADD and ADHD, ADD perspective, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Ken Robinson, Mental Health, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures & Commerce, Russell Barkley, Transformational Rant, Unsupported Blather

Aspiring to Optimal Functioning

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 2 Comments

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
Supporting the What Kind of World do YOU Want? series

I Have A Dream . . .

. . . of a time when we have a solution that allows all of us with Attentional Spectrum Deficits to do more than aspire to Optimal Functioning – even though I’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe that I will live long enough to see it.

Over the Rainbow? REALLY?

After TWO DECADES of non-stop advocacy:

We still have far too many people who refuse to believe that ADD is “a real disorder“ . . .

despite incontrovertible scientific evidence that overwhelmingly underscores the validity of the ADD diagnosis, including:

Medication studies – double-blind, placebo controlled

SPECT analysis demonstrating differences in ADD brain
architecture as well as neurotransmitter functioning

Heritability & Twin studies and

The identification of several gene markers.

Read more of this post

Filed under ADD | ADHD | Attention Deficit Disorder, E2a. Rants; Ruminations, E2b. Midnight Musings, H. Brain Based Coaching/Training Tagged with ADD and ADHD, ADD perspective, ADDCoaching, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Executive Functions, Heritability, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, Mental Health, Single photon emission computed tomography, Unsupported Blather

Transformational Rant

Saturday, April 23, 2011 3 Comments

Solar Systems & Paradigms

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC

Men may well be from Mars (and women from Venus), but ADDers and non-ADDers are from two different solar systems!!!

Like the futility of attempting to explain perfect pitch to a person who is tone deaf, conveying our experience of the world to another is hardly something they will ever be able to comprehend at levels much beyond conceptual — if that.

How could a person who is able to distinguish pitches perfectly
ever really understand the hearing of the person who can’t?

And how can the person with average musical ability
ever understand just how annoying that out-of tune piano is
to the person who can hear every overtone?

One More Level

Let’s take this analogy further. Would the person with perfect pitch leave it to the tone deaf person to supervise the tuning of the piano? Of course not! Nor would she expect her tone deaf partner to notice when the piano needed tuning — or to exclaim joyously when the piano had been tuned.

Our musical friend would not waste time and energy explaining repeatedly what to listen for to determine whether the piano needed tuning, or why it was important to her that the piano stay tuned.

Her tone deaf partner would not wonder secretly if perfect pitch were real or just an excuse used to justify the money spent on the piano tuner.

Neither would think there was something seriously wrong with the other or their relationship because they were not musically attuned, pardon the pun.

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