![]() She is concerned also about the population of “looked-after” children. “There is something really huge that we need to be thinking about in relation to our kids,” she said. “A systematic review found that up to 18% of girls in prison might have ADHD,” she said. “They might be very capable of passing exams or getting through lessons.”Īs a result, there are large numbers of girls and women in the criminal justice system with ADHD, says Dr Louise Theodosiou of the of the child and adolescent faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. That is why girls are missed,” says Jo Platt, MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ADHD. “ADHD is perceived to be disruptive behaviour but there are a lot of people who are withdrawn or anxious. It is also probably far more prevalent in girls than most people assume. ADHD is not a label for rowdy, naughty boys but a classified neuro-developmental disorder. The drugs to treat it are stigmatised, say the experts, tarred as “smart drugs” that parents in the US allegedly seek out for their children in hope of raising their grades.īut Keen’s story is not unusual. “It was as if someone had flicked a switch.” He started his A-levels again at a new school and is hoping to study at university to become a paramedic.ĪDHD attracts scepticism because the symptoms are behaviours that used to be classified as plain naughty – impulsivity, including shouting out in class, hyperactivity and inattention. But when the low initial dose was increased, he said, he was shocked at the difference it made. “It didn’t mean a lot to me at first,” he said. Keen was diagnosed in February 2017 and prescribed medication. Waiting times for an NHS referral were long so his desperate parents paid £750 for a private consultation. I’d just been asked to leave school because my attendance was so low because of the depression.”Ī doctor had once suggested ADHD. I ended up being sectioned by the police just before I turned 18. “My lifelong dream had been to do something medical but I could see that falling apart. He was diagnosed with depression and received cognitive behavioural therapy and antidepressants, “but things continued to decline to the point where I wanted to end my life,” he said. Making friends and keeping friends was extremely difficult.” In his reports nearly all his teachers remarked that he was “quite intelligent but can’t focus” or “loves to focus on what he enjoys doing but not on what he hates”. “I could be extremely anxious, prone to massive bouts of low mood. He was also unable to regulate his emotions. Biology was fine – but not when it came to plants. He got through his GCSEs, but could not focus on some aspects even of the subjects he needed at A-level. “If you imagine most people have a dial where they can turn up their attention and turn it down,” he said. He gave everything to his obsession with medicine but could not interest himself in anything else. ![]() My hyperactivity did manifest but not in the stereotypical way.” “People tend not to spot the much less obvious signs. “I wasn’t the bouncing off the wall type of kid and did alright academically,” he said. ![]()
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