As one who has a legitimately diagnosed learning disability in which extra time is also a common accommodation for college, this type of article greatly saddens me as now, all the common myths will start coming out.

I can tell you from personal experience that people with legitimately diagnosed LD and or ADHD who do need extra time are not getting an advantage with this accommodation. This is only leveling the playing field.

Alot of people who have these conditions do not process information nearly as fast as people who don't have them. That is why this only levels the playing field and doesn't provide an advantage.

I realize that once you get out in the work world, you don't get extra time in alot of situations. But by the time people with LD/ADHD graduate from college, hopefully, they will have learned how to compensate and also pick work situations that are best for them.

While I am outraged at this story and feel that other should be also, please don't fall prey to the myth that getting extra time is an advantage. When you have a legitimate diagnosis of LD and or ADHD, I can tell you from personal experience that it isn't.

AA

This is disgusting. And what I find even more disgusting is that it doesn't surprise me one bit. You are so right, Philip. Psych meds and DSM diagnoses have crept into far too many corners of this culture. No good can come of having so many people on these drugs. Even less good can come of having our every authentic emotional experience pathologized.

...the backlash!

According to some news I'm totally pessimist:.......
Genes Help Explain Post-Trauma Puzzle
March 18, 2008 - 10:01am

......."The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ressler noted that there are likely many other gene variants that contribute to risks for PTSD, and others may be more strongly linked to the disorder than the ones the researchers focused on.

Still, he and outside experts said the study is important and that similar advances could lead to tests that will help identify who's most at risk. Treatments including psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs could be targeted to those people, Ressler said,

Several study authors, including Ressler, reported having financial ties to makers of psychiatric drugs.".......
"About a quarter of a million Americans will develop PTSD at some point in their lives after being victimized or witnessing violence or other traumatic events. Rates are much higher in war veterans and people living in high-crime areas."

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=220&sid=1367535

Here I am dying to get off my meds and kids are trying to get on them? I certainly hope the parents are smart enough to negate this idea very quickly. Being bipolar and schizophrenic I have to take a lot of meds and no one knows what harm they may be causing me physically. Your comments are well taken. http://www.bipolarmale.com

I think it was the Last Psychiatrist who wrote something about being asked all of the time for ADHD meds from med students needing "a boost" to get through residency, and acing tests, etc. It's not just a trend it's becoming/became a way of life and won't go away.

This is absurd. If one group of students has access to medication so to compete with students outside that group, then _all_ students should have access to the same medication. _That_ is leveling the playing field. Not giving one privileged group an advantage over others less so.

I have to say I am not at all sure I support giving cognitive enhancing medications to any student even if they do have an LD diagnosis. Does one get this special treatment in the "real" world? Don't people have to learn to cope with what they're given, the cards that they are dealt? I mean maybe this sounds harsh but how do you draw the line on giving out stuff that clearly has a cognitive enhancing power no matter who it's given to? One thing that maybe should be different is that test results shouldn't be the only criteria for success in the academic environment.

I work in the school system and teach "special education" kids of all ages. Some are given accomodations right through college per ADA, and what I really want to alert people here to is that the pressure to conform and get into places such as Harvard is so great that the high school kids end up in the doctor's offices for "break downs" due to the pressure. One young woman I know was placed on Prozac, another got into Harvard and had a break down and was placed on anti depressants once there. It's a society at large issue, and it starts in the classroom with standardized testing, Senior Exit projects and other things that create desperate teens. It's a shame, because for example the Harvard Grad I know does not have a job or ability to keep one due to the burn out and stress getting there did to her. ADHD meds won't help that at all. But it's here, and it's not going away folks!

Sara,

I started to respond to Ronald but your post is easier for me to address.

There are several issues from the article that Philip wrote. The woman was seeking an ADHD diagnosis so she could have extra time. Usually, this diagnosis results in medication.

Even though I have LD and possibly ADHD, I am totally opposed to medication. You're not being harsh in that area.

However, my frustrations with this article is that the issue of medication is linked to the extra time issue. They are separate issues which I tried to point out in my first comment. If the diagnosis is legitimate which I admit is big fat "If", the person with LD and or ADHD who is getting extra time is not getting an advantage due to their problems with processing information.

I started to write this in a response to Ronald but I will do it here. Sara, what is your worst subject?

Imagine having to deal with that subject a good portion of your day. That is what life is like as a person with LD. We are constantly having to deal with our weaknesses. Some can be compensated for or avoided but generally, it is impossible. I don't make this comment because I want you to feel sorry for me. I just want people to understand why getting extra time on college exams is not giving us an advantage

As I mentioned in my first comment, while I totally support extra time as an accommodation in college, I realize the work world is a different situation. I don't have great answers but I ust wanted to ask people to keep the med and extra time issues separate which is hard to do, I know.

Every society I know of produces stimulants, consumes them, and prizes them for their ability to boost performance in this or that activity. So it's not shocking that kids are seeking out ADHD drugs to improve their grades. It's a disturbing trend, but I still believe that the race belongs to the hard-working tortoise in the long run, not to the hare who is jacked up on Adderall.

I worked with a boy with Asperger's and he made great progress in elementary school. By mistake, I took his extra time off his IEP without checking with his teacher. She came flying in to have it put back because he simply had to have it to take standardized and other tests. With the time, A's. Without it, F's. But his El Salvadorean mother had never run into the pill mill nor did she have aspirations to send this boy to Harvard.

I think upper middle class families are desperate for their children, as our economy sinks and China's and India's grow. They will do anything to give their children an edge, and ADHD drugs/sp.ed diagnosis is a very common area in which to push for that edge.

Okay, well, some of this discussion is a bit above my head, but I must admit that I do not think anybody who seeks an LD diagnosis really understands what an LD is. I have a fairly severe LD on the autism spectrum and I cannot tell you how many times classmates told me that I was 'so lucky' to get extra time on a test or a medical single dorm room in college. If only they could see that I'd switch places with them in an instant! If only they could understand how just damn hard everything is, and how much I envy them for the things they do so easily, that I must struggle with. I wonder if there was more education and LD awareness, would kids still ask for these false accomodations?

There's no shortcut to success and happiness. I know, I've tried.

I feel deeply sorry for these kids.

Sounds like ADHD meds and I wonder which other are becoming the new steroids at least for our aspiring kids. I had some trouble with all the time that Congress devoted to baseball and steroids - now I can finally see why so much time was devoted to it.
Cheating is cheating and the pattern has to be stopped.

Medications are fine if one is unfortunate enough to be affected by something like ADHD to use it to strengthen their abilities when they don't have the symptoms - NOT GOOD!.