{"id":1513434,"date":"2022-06-13T10:35:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1513434"},"modified":"2022-06-13T10:35:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:35:14","slug":"walsh-boyhood-is-not-a-mental-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/walsh-boyhood-is-not-a-mental-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"WALSH: Boyhood Is Not A Mental Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwalsh-boyhood-is-not-a-mental-disorder%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1513434&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Every time I discuss the dangers of ADHD medication, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/walsh-horrific-story-should-make-us-think-twice-matt-walsh\">as I have before<\/a>, I am informed that I can\u2019t possibly know what I\u2019m talking about because my children don\u2019t have this \u201cdisorder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the assumption that people who have been personally affected by a certain thing must therefore be more knowledgeable about it and more credible when discussing it is simply ridiculous. Just because you have car trouble doesn\u2019t make you a mechanic. If it did, we wouldn\u2019t need mechanics. But, as it happens, I do have experience. My son fits the ADHD label by any measure. To simply call the boy \u201cenergetic\u201d would be a fantastic understatement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s like a squirrel that just ate a pound of coffee beans. He runs through at breakneck speed, fighting off imaginary pirates and dragons. He pole vaults over banisters, jumps over couches, literally bounces off the wall. He climbs everything. He can turn any household item into playground equipment. He can\u2019t sit still or stop talking. And you can\u2019t stop him from talking by leaving the room. He\u2019ll continue the conversation even with no one there to respond. He reminds me a lot of Macaulay Culkin in \u201cHome Alone,\u201d wandering around the house narrating himself.<\/p>\n<p>He does have trouble learning academically, in a formal setting. His twin sister is significantly more advanced when it comes to the ABCs and 123s. She\u2019s also capable of sitting still for several minutes at a time, coloring or drawing pictures or brushing her doll\u2019s hair. She even likes to clean, for some reason, and she\u2019s better at it than I am. She pays attention pretty well and remembers things. Her brother, on the other hand, probably couldn\u2019t find his own feet if I asked him to. He doesn\u2019t like anything that involves drawing or writing or counting. He \u201ccleans\u201d by picking up all the items on the floor, throwing them onto the nearest piece of furniture, and then jumping on the pile.<\/p>\n<p>He could easily earn an \u201cADHD\u201d diagnosis if we sought one. But we will not seek one because the boy is not sick. He is not disordered. The boy is a boy. More of a handful than some boys, less of a handful than others. He has his own personality, and I cannot imagine treating it like the manifestation of a mental disease.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, like almost every kid with an actual ADHD diagnosis, he can learn. He can focus. He just doesn\u2019t always learn the things we want him to learn in the way we want him to learn them. He can\u2019t remember how to spell simple words, but he remembers songs. He sings constantly. Sometimes songs he makes up on the spot, sometimes songs he heard at church or on the radio. He knows his superheroes backwards and forwards. That might not be useful information, but it is information at least. He knows a lot about pilgrims and Indians because that historical story fascinates him. He knows about ants and other bugs. He knows Bible stories. He will randomly tell me facts about George Washington and recalling details from our family trip to Mount Vernon. We once took the kids to see some old war ships at a harbor, and he hasn\u2019t forgotten any details about them. He asks questions. A lot of questions. A lot of questions. He\u2019s curious about the world and the way things work.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if we had him enrolled in public school, they\u2019d tell us he has a learning disability. But he learns all the time. He loves to learn. Just in his own way and about topics that interest him. What\u2019s wrong with that? Is the kid disabled because he doesn\u2019t like sitting at a desk and regurgitating information? Who ever decreed that every human being in the world must be able to learn that way? Is it wrong that he prefers to go look at the ship than have someone tell him a bunch of abstract facts about it?<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not some sort of enlightened parent with a perfectly accepting attitude about these things. I\u2019ll be the first to admit that my son\u2019s rambunctiousness can be challenging. It wears on you after a while. Indeed, a couple of nights ago I was feeling particularly not in the mood for his antics. I was annoyed, put off. I wanted some peace and quiet. I told him sternly to \u201ccalm down\u201d and \u201cbe quiet.\u201d Not the first time I\u2019ve snapped at him, that\u2019s for sure. But I was being selfish. There wasn\u2019t anything wrong with how he was acting. I just didn\u2019t feel like dealing with it. So often that is why boys are drugged and punished and scolded in our society. We just don\u2019t feel like dealing with them. They present challenges that we lack the patience to meet,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every time I discuss the dangers of ADHD medication, as I have before, I am informed that I can\u2019t possibly know what I\u2019m talking about because my children don\u2019t have this \u201cdisorder.\u201d Of course, the assumption that people who have been personally affected by a certain thing must therefore be more knowledgeable about it and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":1513505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1513505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}