7. Then & Now
How come so many kids are being diagnosed now? Because we didn’t have this when we were growing up. Actually, we did. ADHD first appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disordersin 1980—a similar disorder was actually identified in 1968. One could argue that we just weren’t informed and simply called these kids class clowns, goofy, clumsy, stupid, or some other derogatory term. We looked at ADHD as a character trait, not as a medical diagnosis. By the way, many of these kids are the same ones who probably self-medicated as teenagers by using recreational drugs or alcohol.
