Junior Theme Reflection

Most of the content found in my Junior theme tried to answer the question “why are there so many more cases of ADHD and ADD today?” I chose this topic because about a year ago, I had been diagnosed with ADD through a short questionnaire given to me by my doctor. I talked about it with my friends and I learned that many of them also had ADD or ADHD. Through my research, I found that almost 10% of kids 4-17 years old have one of these disorders, compared to 4% in 1997. After researching some possible reasons for why this has occurred, Over diagnosis, a rise in technology use, and a better understanding of what ADHD is today were a few possible answers, but no single one of these lead to a definite answer

What surprised me the most about my overall research process was how little information there was on the diagnosis process of ADHD and ADD. As I said before, my diagnosis was based off of a 20 minute questionnaire my doctor had given me. I always had wondered how I could be diagnosed with ADD through a short questionnaire. It turns out that this is one of the very few ways doctors can diagnose the disorder. Coming into my research, I thought it would be relatively easy to answer my question. It turned out that ADD and ADHD are much more complicated than I had thought. I feel like my topic is very important in todays society because so many people are now being diagnosed with one of these disorders and there is no clear reason. Some people may have the disorder but don’t even realize it. I found it fascinating And slightly scary that even though ADHD and ADD are so common among todays society, but such little is known about it. I find that it is a very pressing issue because these disorders could possibly ruin someones life and the patient may not even know they have a disorder.