my therapist tells me ADHD is a real thing. But, it's hard for me not see through the lines that a psychiatrist is only prescribing medicine because they can bill the insurance a ton of money and make bank.
As for the psychiatrist, they don't make any extra money from prescribing. They could make more money if they kept you coming in each month or week for behavioural therapy (which doesn't have great results for adhd anyway, but it's something).
Basically, you are right, psychiatrists could make more money doing therapy, but therapy is more for psychologists and not psychiatrists. Most psychiatrists make money off of volume of patients. So it is in their best interest to prescribe more and consult less. The more patients that come through their office and they prescribe meds to the more money they make. He used the example of the psychiatry department at the public hospital next door to his office. On average, one doctor in that office can see upwards of 30 patients a day. With my friend, he can see at most 6 patients a day. For my friend though, as a psychologist doing one-on-one therapy he can charge more and see less patients.
In regards to medicating versus therapy, like many other things, people react differently to different things. Some individuals may do better with therapy over meds and vice-versa. The downside of meds is that typically becomes a lifetime treatment. Therapy on the other hand, when it works, is easier to reduce over time (although most people will continue, even at a significantly reduced interval).
It's not "real" in the sense that there's a single mechanism underlying ADHD. It's not real in the sense that "people with ADHD are affected differently by amphetamines, so it's okay for them to take them."
The way I think about it is that attention is a bell curve, and that at some point on the left of that curve, symptoms interfere with happy, economically productive lives. Psychiatrists try to help those people with stimulant drugs, whose efficacy have been proven in the short term, but are basically unproven in the long term. There are companies making bank on this arrangement.
In summary, I guess it's complicated. You're right, but maybe your therapist is, too. Por que no los dos?
ADHD is, ultimately, as real as climate change. The experts say it's real; have been saying it's real for many years. The people who disagree don't trust those experts.
Who the fuck would medicate a 5 or 10 year old child for being "too active"? This is like the 50s shock therapy for unruly teenagers, but done with chemistry instead. Less blood and morbidity, more mental castration. Many people who take up Ritalin and Adderal, especially from a young age, have issues with mental development and end up addicts for life. If/when they finally take off their meds, they find themselves 10x worse because of the long-term withdrawal.
This thread is filled with reddit-tier pseudoscience about ADHD being some kind of evolutionary trait relating to hunter gatherer communities. What a load of bullshit, I don't know if I should be laughing or not. It's worrisome that even serious people and many psychologists believe that shit.
This is an archaic idea, you sound like an older individual. Am I right on that?
> reddit-tier pseudoscience... downvoted to hell
We can test for ADHD just like we do breast cancer.
> medication is often a crime... ADHD [is an] evolutionary trait... What a load of bullshit
Impulsivity is a sin, right? I'm not some puppet for your chuch, pal.