Originally Posted by selena

Fail.

Drugs are not always the answer, that much we agree on.

In your world, we'd ignore the legitimate conditions of ADD and ADHD, and leave a child who is "a little hyper" (and, btw, lots of children don't have the hyperactivity component), leave them to flounder in school, destroy their confidence as a student and in themselves, stunt their social growth, then wonder why in the world they turn out to be underachieving fuck ups, with a goodly percentage of them having a criminal record.

In my world, we'd first make sure that the diagnosis was correct by working with the school, the doctors involved, any therapist involved, and we'd use the time tested tools available to us to make sure that the child did have ADD and ADHD.


We'd then treat their legitimate condition with prescription drugs, if necessary, the same way we'd treat a child who had diabetes with insulin if they needed it.

We'd recognize that no ADHD/ADD medicine is a perfect cure, and we'd work on tailored cognitive behavioral therapies in conjunction with the medication treatment. We'd help children realize that some of the brightest people in the world have/have had ADHD/ADD, and that their success can be enhanced by recognizing their own strengths and learning how to compensate for their weakness.

And we'd continue to work with the teachers and school systems in a partnership, making sure that school is a place where they can flourish as opposed to being an environment that shuts them out because they don't fit into a perfectly prescribed round hole.