It doesn’t take long for parents to start worrying about their children’s social well-being. When they start school, their world becomes much larger than the one they lived in before, which was mostly within the walls of our home and maybe their daycare, along with other little kids.
Although elementary school is an exciting time, full of new ideas, new friends, and new experiences, all The thoughts, friends, and experiences are all enjoyable. We begin to worry that they will be stigmatized due to factors beyond their control. So it makes sense that some parents would shy away from labeling their children with a diagnosis like ADHD or anxiety disorder.
But TikTok founder Olivia Lutfallah (@olivialutfallah) wants parents to rethink how to address this issue with their children. The message is short and simple, but powerful.
“For parents who refuse to have their children diagnosed because they don’t want to label them,” she began, “Before I was diagnosed, I was labeled ‘difficult,’ ‘disruptive,’ ‘lazy,’ ‘. When I was diagnosed, all of those labels were replaced by “ADHD.” This is very gratifying.
As a parent of two children with ADHD, this absolutely resonates with me, as well as with many commenters, including parents, teachers, people with ADHD, and others diagnosed with some form of neurodivergence people.
“I work in education!!! This is our number one frustration!” one commenter emphasized.
“My mother-in-law said ‘I just don’t think he needs to label my son,'” another shared. “I replied ‘You mean diagnosis? Because without a method he can’t get treatment or therapy. Would you tell a cancer patient they don’t need a ‘label’ and think they’ll still get treatment? Because that’s medicine The way the field works. She said she had never thought of it that way, but never mentioned it again.
“Oh my gosh, yes,” agreed a third. “And it was strange to parents who were reluctant to take medication after diagnosis. The first day I took medication for ADHD I cried. My brain was so quiet. Those were happy tears, thirty I felt like myself for the first time in years When my daughter started taking her medication, it felt like we were meeting her for the first time.
“They tried to kick me out of school multiple times,” read one particularly pointed comment. “After I was diagnosed, they went out of their way to help me finish school.”
If you’re still feeling a little unsure about it all, the therapists in the comments offer another perspective.
“I try to reframe it for parents. A diagnosis is not a label, but a set of keys to doors we couldn’t open before,” they observe. “Diagnosis makes intervention easy!”
It’s a point worth remembering: ADHD is a common disorder in children, with more than 1 million people diagnosed in 2022 alone. This problem isn’t going away anytime soon, and for some wary parents, it can be a comfort to know their family isn’t alone.
