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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( Adhd )

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Throughout our lifetimes we come across many different opportunities to make decisions that can lead us to success or to complete destruction of our lives. Making mistakes is a common part of life but when poor decisions seem to overtake a person’s lifestyle and a pattern surfaces it is possible they have a psychological disorder that needs to be treated. Mr. Needham presented with a history of periods of impulsivity and depression. His pattern of symptoms fulfill several of the defining criteria for bipolar I disorder.
As a child Mr. Needham displayed some symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These symptoms included being disruptive in class, difficulty sitting still, difficulty following directions, failing to …show more content…

516). The intake does not clarify if he was removed off of Ritalin or if he remained on it throughout the rest of his high school years when he was successfully able to graduate high school and get accepted to college and later complete law school. Mr. Needham has a history of not taking his prescribed medications and he was still able to successfully complete law school therefore he most likely was not suffering from ADHD as originally diagnosed during his childhood. The intake does not indicate Mr. Needham struggled with the impulse of being aggressive towards others, being destructive to property or having a chronic need to violate rules. Therefore the diagnoses of conduct disorder 312.8 was ruled out (DSM-IV, 2013, p.469). The intake also doesn’t report Mr. Needham as having the desire to continuously annoy people or refuse to comply with others. His ability to get good grades and complete graduate schools shows he did not have a disturbance in his behavior causing clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning therefore ruling our oppositional defiant disorder 313.81 (DSM-IV, 2013, p.462). His ability to stay focused and complete an undergraduate degree and then a graduate degree also disqualifies Mr. Needham from conditions such as an intellectual disorder, and major or minor neurocognitive disorders.
During college Mr. Needham experimented with illicit drugs. After an evening of

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