Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered to be a mental disorder, according to the DSM-V. ADHD has been a controversial topic for many years, now. Many people are skeptical as whether to consider ADHD as a mental illness, or as normal behavior. There are many speculations that consider the abnormal behavior of ADHD in children to be just misbehaviors. Thomas Szasz once said that sometimes labeling a person with a mental disorder could pressure the person to follow the requirements of the disorder. There are several factors that occurred in history that put into perspective of what ADHD is today. Throughout the years, ADHD had the same definition meaning, but during the 20th century, the causes …show more content…
In this case, Tredgold did agree with George Still that children with ADHD are normally children who can’t sit still and who have trouble in school academics; however, Tredgold believed that predicting ADHD should be focused on the physiology aspect (Mayes, 2007). Tredgold added that mental damage might be the cause of ADHD. In terms of the physiology, he believed that people who lacked the appropriate levels of morality, which takes place in the regions of the brain, were more prone to mental damage (Mayes, 2007). He didn’t agree with social Darwinism, he readily believed that people from any kind of social status are capable in possessing ADHD (Mayes, …show more content…
By going over some of the important research discoveries throughout the evolution of ADHD, we can see the inconsistency in the findings by summarizing all of them. We started with George Still who believed that children with ADHD lacked discipline; in1918, an influenza occurred that made researchers believe that there’s a link between mental damage and ADHD; in 1922, Tredgold believed that physiology should be considered in determining ADHD rather than focusing on environmental factors; during the 1950s, psychiatrists started supplying medical treatments to control behavioral dysfunction, but they weren’t specifically for ADHD; in 1968, ADHD was added to the DSM-II, changing the criteria twice before publishing DSM-V(our current DSM); and finally, the addition of ADHD as a possible qualifier for SSI increased the number of people with ADHD, making the diagnosis for ADHD more