New York Parents Club Founder, Pam Wolf
Greetings New York Parents Club!
Does your preschooler throw the occasional temper tantrum?
If so, your little one could be suffering from “temper dysregulation with dysphoria” or TDD–a diagnosable psychiatric disorder.
This is one of many new labels our children may receive when an updated version of the leading psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM-V, is released in 2013.
We’ll add this to the growing list of conditions that have apparently come to plague the youth of America over the past few decades; a list including everything from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Attachment Disorder and Conduct Disorder to phobias and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Consider Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), for example. There was a time when a high-energy child with a vivid imagination and short attention span would have been considered bright and creative. He or she may even have been placed in an accelerated learning program. Today, the same child may receive the ADHD diagnosis and an accompanying Ritalin prescription.
Now, I have always been leery of labeling and medicating our children for behaviors that have been considered a part of normal childhood development for centuries.
On the other hand, I have seen first-hand in my work at the New York Kid’s Club, how severely a hyperactive child who behaves poorly can disrupt the learning environment for the students—and the teaching environment for the instructor.
Are these named conditions and subsequent medications the answer to creating calmer and more manageable classrooms?
Or are they simply ways of scientifically explaining why our children are behaving like children?
Your turn! What do you think?
In your opinion, are we over-diagnosing and/or over-medicating our children?
LET IT OUT!
Pam Wolf
Tags: ADHD, Over-diagnosing children, ritalin, temper dysregulation with dysphoria
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While I agree that we may be over-diagnosing children, an occasional temper tantrum would certainly not qualify someone for TDD. The frequency requirement for TDD is ‘temper outbursts occur, on average, three or more times per week’. Furthermore, this must have persisted for at least 12 months, with no more than a 3-month period without tantrums present.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that the conceptualisation of a ‘psychiatric disorder’ is becoming overly inclusive and that TDD is probably an example of that. Nonetheless, to say that occasional temper outbursts would constitute TDD is inaccurate.
While I believe there are over-diagnosing going on for some – I believe we’ve gotten better at detecting more. I also believe there is a SURGE of child coming down with disorders and autoimmune diseases as of late. The real question will be when we see a push toward investigations more so then 1 doctor claiming vaccines and taking 10 years to truly be discredited. I feel like we need to push for answers – I do believe there is something environmental going on (otherwise why the surge?)
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