Why Do Americans Suffer More From ADHD?

Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder is growing. Sources say that over 9 percent of children have the condition and to combat the epidemic, parents and health professionals have treated ADHD sufferers with strong medications like Ritalin and Adderall, which have other side effects.

What’s shocking is that the causes of ADHD may be diverse and manifold, but a major indicator of whether you will have the disease is living in the United States.

Psychology Today writes:

In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%.

So, why the disparity?

In a previous article, we revealed that the scientific father of ADHD, Otfried Höffe, has called the condition, “a fictitious disease.” ADHD is pretty much the baseline for a child raised in such a stimulating environment as in the United States. And instead of changing the environment, Americans prefer to take a pill that doctors claim will help them. This mentality can lead potentially to more active drugs and more dangerous conditions a dangerous feedback loop described in the enlightening book, “Anatomy of an Epidemic.”

France has a different approach:

Instead of treating children’s focusing and behavioral problems with drugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child’s brain but in the child’s social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling

The result is a striking disparity of a generation of Americans hooked on psychoactive drugs versus a generation of French hooked on nothing more than crepes.