As a mother of a now 16 year old son, I feel the need to wade into the debate on ADHD. Whilst I have never had my son diagnosed, he has always been a free spirited, extremely trying but fun loving individual. Luckily enough his primary school years were spent in a relatively small (400 children) Catholic school and with much support and love, his teachers were able to help him overcome his difficulties with the long boring days of school. His attention span, his fidgiting, his apathy to homework and his carefree nature were endeared & counteracted by his teachers. With smallish class sizes (20 - 25) and good learning support he was able to flourish in this system. Upon entering high school, a much larger (over 1500 children) but again Catholic school, his endearing 'qualities' began to desert him and he was labled disruptive. He became depressed, because although he tried to listen, stay focused and remain on task, he was unable to do so. After much deliberation, we decided to transfer him to a much smaller, but again private (Anglican) school. This made matters much worse, in the end 'tongue in cheek', I asked the school Principle if they would prefer I drugged the child to make him fit into their system! Instead of embracing individual children (and adults) society tends to put them in boxes. Boxes that do not allow for individualism. All nerds do not go on to become valuable members of our society, just like all 'troublemakers' do not end up in jail. We are all made up of different characteristics, but our teachers (schools) seem to desire easily controllable, trouble free children. This is not fair on the many talented children in this world who are not drugged to fit. From what I have leant since my son left school this year to begin an apprenticeship, this, amongst boys in particular, is not an isolated case. Education in Australia needs to be overhauled to encourage such children instead of making them try to live inside the square.

Linda has raised an issue that many in the medical profession have preferred to avoid. We need to be very concerned about providing psychoactive substances to children. The hypocrisy of the medical profession is often seen in relation to the drugs they prescribe for behavioral and psychiatric disorders. For example, Ritalin is known to cause reductions in growth hormone and IGF 1, can increase agitation in some individuals, and there is some suggestion it might be implicated in liver cancer; but of course no-one will be in a hurry to investigate that ... . Perhaps the greatest concern though is that Ritalin and other ADHD drugs are associated with sudden death in a small number of cases. The simple truth is this: many prescribed psychoactive drugs are potentially and often far more dangerous than marijuana or esctasy or LSD.

What I find particularly distressing is the simplistic assumptions used to explain why ADHD occurs and why Ritalin works. No one really has an answer to these quandries, with the possible exception of P Goldman Rakic's "Optimal Dopamine Window" hypothesis.

The Medical model will never be sufficient to understand many behavioral conditions because:

We are more than molecules, our behavior is also mediated by the environment and our psychosocial circumstances. Hence trying to understand behavior solely be reference to biological substrates will often fail.

Despite all the research and the pretty pictures of brain function we still lack any significant understanding of brain function. Hence using a biological model to understand behavior is naive at best and often disingenuous.

Caveat: when ADHD drugs do work they work wonders. The drugs have their place, but that place is not as a cure all but as a starting point.

John.

Wow, I am overwhelmed with all the comments.

As the Mother of 3 ADD children, I feel I would like to make a few comments.

ADD has not sprung out of nowhere, it has been around since at least 1937

My son was diagnosed when he was 18 months old. I spent many hours looking at alternative therapies, elimination diets, sport etc, to no avail. When he started kindergarten and was climbing out windows it was time to look at the medication side. It helped, not 100%, but definitely made a difference to his ability to 'sit and learn' in class.

Education played a big part in where he ended up...their denial, their lack of empathy for the fact that he was 'different' to the others in their room, the curiculum which was set in concrete...they would not look at teaching him phonetics, for example, because that was not the way they taught reading. So his reading suffered.

Over the next 12 years we had a few teachers (I can count on one hand) who went out of their way to try and help him but for the most they put him in the too hard basket.

I am so proud that he got himself through year 12. He decided to not take medication at about the age of 15.

Along the way, even with medication, his behaviour alienated him from having friends. Never invited to parties, movies or over to play. He became isolated, withdrawn and lonely. His only comfort was to eat, which he did constantly, anything he could get his hands on. He became depressed which led to aggression, but never towards me. We have had to replace a number of walls though.

I was a stay at home Mum, lots of nurturing and care and consideration, we had stopped smacking long before this. I drove him wherever he needed to go, worked at the school. But I was just known as so&so's Mum...I didn't have my own name. Other parents had their own opinions and values, it didn't fit in with my son.

to be continued...

He is now working in a really good job. He has some friends, and he is obese. I have many people comment about how good he is at his job and how nice and polite he is.

My daughter was quiet, well liked, invited everywhere, quit school and home at 15 and spent 2 years on drugs, even though she was never on medication. We lived in fear of police showing up to say she had overdosed. She is now a beautiful 21 year old with a wonderful partner. And drug free!

Our surprise son,is the wild child from hell. 15, doesn't go to school, doesn't have a job, is verbally abusive and physically to me once. He drinks alcohol behind our backs, smokes and we suspect dope as well.

He was on meds for a while, then refused to take them again in primary school.

He went to school services for behaviourally challenged children, all boys, and the staff were fantastic but both services stopped because of funding from the government and he had to go back to mainstream high school. It was a disaster. Home on 'exclusion' more than he was at school. He is oppositional, has conduct disorder, is verbally abusive, destructive and, at times, has worse behaviour than a 3 year old, especially if I am on the phone.

I work 2 jobs and don't come home if I can do something else. I don't want to come home. I am tired of being abused and lack of services. I don't like my own son. I will always love him, but...enough is enough.

Unless you have to deal with this at least once in your life...sorry you don't know what it's like.

I live for the day when my husband and I can have our own life back again.

The positive in all this, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and all this encouraged me to go back to school to become a welfare worker, maybe I can help other parents get through what I had to go through...and still am.

Hi Everyone,
I can see we don't have too many responders who have dealt with ADHD.
1. Every child with ADHD is different. Some respond to meds, some respond to therapy, some respond to diet, and sadly some don't seem to respond to anything.
2. Meds is usually the last resort. We all try everything else first, we don't want to drug our kids, but each therapy or drug is designed to treat a different symptom.
3. Our children usually have a higher IQ than average. Under most Aussie Education systems this disqualifies them from any remedial help.
4. Adders are "hunters abd gatherers in a plodding farmers world". Our society is pretty myopic about how "normal" people behave and adders just can't fit into that square hole - they are like snowflakes - multifaceted.
5. Other support therapies. Ha! You try and find any!

I found her article very interesting and informative. I found this forum while doing research on ADD/ADHD. I am currently reading a book titled "Stop Medicating, Start Parenting," by Dr. David B. Stein. He has also written Ritalin is Not the answer, and several other books. For those who want to use a non medication approach with their children, Dr. Stein has a website at http://www.drdavestein.com He has a free newsletter to sign up for that is very informative.