Is ADHD a scam? As diagnosis levels (and Adderall sales) have skyrocketed, the New York Times recently reported that experts are now questioning whether they’ve been thinking about ADHD all wrong. Glenn and Stu debate whether the real cause of ADHD symptoms is not a chemical imbalance, but instead how we treat our boys. As pointed out in commentary from the Daily Wire, our education system has been feminized, our kids have been distracted by smart phones, and our doctors have pushed medication on them. Maybe the real solution is much simpler: let boys be boys!
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So even though Stu doesn't want you to hear this news.
STU: I don't.
GLENN: Doesn't want you to hear this news. Because he hates children.
STU: I do? I have two of them.
GLENN: Yeah. Well, Mengele liked them in pairs too. So...
STU: Wow. That went really dark, really fast.
GLENN: I do have --
STU: We're like ten seconds into the hour.
GLENN: I'm like launching nuclear weapons. Yeah. We should probably build up to that one.
Anyway, there's a new article out now that talks about ADHD. And it's come from the left.
And the experts. That they're now starting to say, I don't know.
Maybe -- maybe -- maybe not everything we thought was true, about ADHD. And I think this story was written by Matt Walsh, who was great.
Whoever wrote this for the daily wire was great.
More than 21 percent of 14-year-old boys in this country, now supposedly suffer from ADHD. The number goes up to 23 percent for 17-year-old boys. As a result, prescriptions for drugs like Ritalin and Adderall has skyrocketed. Just want you to know, that's speed.
From 2012 to 2022, the total number of prescriptions for stimulants, to treat ADHD increased dramatically by nearly 60 percent. From 2012, in a ten-year period, we've gone up with 60 percent prescription.
Between the ages of 10 to 14, the demographic saw the highest increase in these prescriptions. So he writes, and I think this is such a great observation. For decades, you have been instructed to believe that there's no significance to this correlation whatsoever. And here it is: As women increasingly enter the workforce and replace men in teaching jobs, we're not supposed to dray any conclusions about how the behavior of male children is now being addressed.
The truth is, we've been told, not that effeminized education system has increasingly punished normal male behavior it doesn't understand. It's not that schools have lost their capacity to educate male students, it's that -- it's not that smartphone use and electronics in general have become distractions. Teachers have been unable to control.
Instead, we're led to believe that boys have suddenly become afflicted with a severe psychological disorder.
Okay. I -- you know, this is the first time, I had ever heard this about, you know, how we effeminized things. And we have. We have diminished boys, but I grew up in a school. I don't think I had a male teacher until I was in high school. I had all-female teachers. There weren't a lot of nuns that were, oh, my gosh. I remember that really -- I remember that really male-like -- maybe she was a man, but identified as a nun.
I'm not sure.
STU: You, of course -- to put it gently, are not exactly a recent student -- you know.
GLENN: It's better than where I thought he was going, Sara. I thought he was going, you're not really a man.
STU: No. But you're right. There are --
GLENN: Right.
STU: There are surely more female teachers just because of the workforce changes. That was a pretty -- all my teachers that I could remember were female too.
GLENN: Right. One thing that has changed though, is we just dismiss boys entirely.
I mean, it's all focused on girls, right now. All of it. It's science. Everything is just push the girls. Push the girls.
You can be anything. Shut up, sit down. Have some Ritalin. To the boys.
And that's a problem. I have to tell you, as a parent, you probably have recognized this. Does Lisa understand your daughter better than you do, and I understand your son?
STU: I get the point you're going at. I don't necessarily that it -- some ways she understands my daughter. We talk about this often.
GLENN: Because I walk in. I am just clueless. I have no idea. I walk in as a dad, and I'm like, hey, put some pants on, will you? And my daughter is like (crying). And I'm like, what the hell did I just say?
And my wife just looks at me like, you don't say that to her. I'm like, okay. But she'll say that to my son, and my son doesn't go (crying).
STU: Right. They're different.
GLENN: I know. They are. They are.
And I can relate -- for instance, my wife she will say something. And I know how she means it. Because I'm an adult.
But I can hear what Rafe hears.
STU: Right. Yes.
GLENN: Because I heard it from my mom, and I realized, no, that's not what my mom meant.
But you hear, pick up your room! You're always a mess. You're always this. And that's not what she said, you know what I mean? It's true.
It's not --
STU: As they get sound bite teenage years, in particular. It's really difficult.
GLENN: That's what I mean. Is the teenage years.
I have no idea.
Like I had no idea how mean girls are. Oh, my gosh.
They are vicious. I would much rather be put into a room of rabid boys.
Than normal girls. They are dangerous!
STU: Guys can be jerks, but they are --
GLENN: They're stupid jerks.
STU: Yeah, it's just kind of nonsensical stuff.
Girls dig. They dig for the wounds.
Yeah.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. They'll cut you open, and then they'll eat your heart while you're still watching.
I mean, it's horrible.
Anyway, so the article goes on to say, about how some of these -- some of these studies.
And they point one out.
The University of Central Florida conducted a grand experiment where they put a child in front of a computer. And it shows the video in this.
The research -- by the way, you can get this article at GlennBeck.com. You just sign up for my free email newsletter. Get all the stories we talk about every day.
Research shows the child two separate videos. One was a video about mathematics, and it involves a teacher talking about basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
The other video was the pod racing scene from Star Wars.
Now, you'll never guess what they discovered.
STU: Oh, what did they discover?
GLENN: They discovered that when the math lecture was going on, the kids started spinning in his chair. And he was fidgeting, and not paying attention. But when the child was watching the pod --
STU: Oh, my gosh. ADD.
GLENN: Yes. Something deeply psychologically wrong that kid, right?
STU: You're telling me, when they showed the one good scene from the first prequel, they were interested. Wow, it's shocking.
GLENN: The rest of the movie is like math.
STU: Yeah, give me the one that is the pod racing scene versus the trade dispute scene from the Star Wars. Why go to anything else? Just do the Star Wars scene.
GLENN: Right. It doesn't prove anything.
STU: It proves, that there wasn't a lot of good scenes in the first Star Wars.
GLENN: Wait a minute. I just did a study with my kids. They like sugary cereal over Bran Flakes.
STU: Oh, my gosh. They can't stand focused on the Bran Flakes.
GLENN: No, I have to get them on LSD or something.
STU: We are looking for these diagnoses. To diagnosis kids in this way, I think often. It doesn't mean that there aren't some that have these types of issues. You know, when you refer to that article. You said Matt Walsh wrote this?
GLENN: I don't know. It's from Daily Wire.
STU: Daily Wire is great. We love The Daily Wire guys. Obviously, the one I had read was some scientific -- I thought you were referring to a different story, where they didn't say it was a scam.
Obviously, it's an opinion to say it was a scam.
GLENN: No, yeah, it's a pretty strong opinion.
STU: It might be the right one. I don't know. But I was referring to a different article, which is why I was confused, as to the framing of it.
GLENN: Right. Right. Right.
STU: I think there are kids that are affected with -- real trouble in school. Focusing on things.
GLENN: Of course.
STU: That was maybe a little bit more than they could handle.
GLENN: But that's not a psychological disorder.
STU: Right.
GLENN: It's not.
All kids are wired differently. Boys and girls are wired differently in the first place.
That's one of the things that AI can produce. That will be good.
With you as a parent, overseeing it every step of the way.
Is it will -- it will adapt to the way you learn. Because everybody learns differently. You know. There are kids that just -- they're into math. And I don't get it.
And they can talk about math all day long. And they've lost me.
But a kid that likes to learn through stories, I'm there all day for them.
I'm there all day.
And I was the same way. I'm a visual learner.
I'm a story -- you know, I learn from stories. And if I have a really boring teacher, some of the kids are really going to love that teacher, because he's just all about facts, and just gets it all out and can explain it in facts. That doesn't help me. It doesn't help me.
It doesn't mean I have a psychological.
Well, let me make it clear.
That by itself, does not indicate that I have a deep psychological problem.
Okay?
Other things, might.
But not that. That's just everybody is different!
Especially the difference between boys and girls.
And here's what they said, the conclusion was that ADHD is triggered by cognitively demanding tasks.
No. No, it's not.
No, it's not. I was painting yesterday. And I can't tell you how many times, I just kind of like was holding the brush. And I walked around the house, and I was like, oh, wait a minute. I was painting. I mean, I just get -- you know, lose train of thought. I start thinking about something else. And, oh, wait. I've got to go back into the art room and paint.
You know, I don't know if anybody else is like that. But, you know, it's honestly, it's kind of like going to the fridge all the time.
You know, there's no reason to go to the fridge and just stare at the fridge that you just opened up and stared at, you know.
That's not a deep psychological problem.
It's just the way you're wired.
STU: Is that fat?
GLENN: Yes, the fat is directly wired right to my brain. Right to the brain.
STU: Right to the brain.
GLENN: Right to the brain. So I personally think a lot of things are solved -- and not for everybody.
Not universally. But are solved by understanding that we're all different.
And then, you know, just not being such a namby-pamby, wishy-washy society.
That's trying to understand everything.
Did you ever see the south park episode on ADHD? Listen to this.
VOICE: Hello, I'm Dr. Richard Shea, here to tell you about my exciting new drug-free treatment for children with Attention Deficit Disorder.
VOICE: This treatment is fast and effective. And do not use -- apply treatment to the first child.
VOICE: Sit down and study!
Sit down and study!
Stop crying and do your school work!
If you would like more information on this treatment, please wait for this free brochure, entitled --
GLENN: So part of it is, part of it is --
STU: You should hit kids more is what you're saying.
GLENN: No, what I'm saying is -- and this is a very broad brush. One of the things we have a problem with now, is just saying, knock it off. Study. Knock it off.
Focus. And I know not everybody can.
But if you couple that with actually knowing that kids are different and trying to find the best way for your kids to learn.
Because it's not. That's the problem.
Honestly, with big class sizes. And a lot of public schools. Public schools are made for everybody to be the same.
Okay? Everybody has to be the same. Well, they're not the same. Some kids, some kids learn really well in that atmosphere. Some kids don't.
It's not one-size-fits-all.
And they're not teaching you, you know, it's a lot more exciting when you are learning things. I mean, honestly, how many times have you heard your kids say, your kids aren't teenagers yet. So you'll start to hear this.
STU: One is, yeah.
GLENN: Really? How old?
STU: Zach is 13. About to turn 14, yeah.
GLENN: Wow. He's about to be married and have kids, or at least just have kids.
STU: Please no.
GLENN: So, you know, you'll hear from your kids, why am I -- why do I have to know this?
Why am I memorizing this?
I'll never use this. I'll never use this.
And as a parent, you want to say, you're right.
There's no reason you need to know. Memorize that name and that year.
STU: I tell my kids all the time, AI is coming. You're not going to have to know anything. All you have to do is type it in, and it will do all the work for you. Don't worry about it. Never learn another thing, son.
GLENN: Might not be a good idea. see, I don't tell them it's coming. I tell them, it's already here. Why are you working on that? Why are you questioning?
Have -- just take a picture of it, give it to Grok, and it will finish it!
But there's -- we have to start -- we have to start going back to a lot of the common sense, you know, that we used to have.
And there's a lot of things that were really bad.
I mean, you know, I was afraid of our principal. It was Sister Una. Okay. That just says enough right there. Sister Una. And she had a paddle that she hung up in her office, that she made herself.
And it was a wood paddle, and she had drilled holes in it to pick up speed, so there wasn't real resistance.
STU: Oh, yeah.
GLENN: Oh, my. And, you know, she was proud of it. She was proud of it.
But you know what I was more afraid of? I mean, I would have taken the paddling, give it to me twice as hard, sister, just let's keep this between us. Just don't call my parents. Okay?
We don't have that anymore. We don't have that anymore.
And there's some things that come from discipline.
Some things that come from kids being different.
And some, you know, because they do have an issue.
You know, you can't -- you can't talk a kid out of, you know, dyslexia.
You can't understand your way out of dyslexia.
You can't, you know -- you can't do anything, except understand that that makes your child different. And there are ways for them to learn.
But the worst thing for them to do is to medicate your child, so they don't adapt.
They have to -- you either are wildly successful, or you're going to live under a bridge, if you have ADD.
You decide. You either adapt to it, and use it as a strength, or you just, you don't adapt to it, and you just are crushed by the rest of your life.
