Ameila, I mistakenly posted, then deleted, a comment earlier because it was intended to be a PM.
You would be wrong to assume that people posting here have had no experience with this sort of thing. I suspect that many have. In my case, I didn't think it appropriate to post someone else's confidential medical information on a public message board.
But I will say this much, and only identify the person as a family member whose case I am intimately familiar with.
The process began when a second-grade teacher noticed that the child didn't seem to be paying attention, was fidgeting all the time, and was distracted. The teacher referred her to the school guidance counselor (whose qualifications consisted of a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and a Master's in Theatre Arts), who "diagnosed" ADHD.
The counselor signed a mimeographed form and sent the child to a drug pusher psychiatrist contracted by the school district, who had an office on the second floor of a dilapidated warehouse across town, which he shared with several other practitioners. The "psychiatric evaluation" consisted of one question: "Do you have trouble concentrating in school?" The child nodded, and that was that. Signed, sealed, and delivered.
At the time, the child had been living with her mother and three sisters in a makeshift basement apartment because their mother had recently left her abusive ex-husband, and a certain family member was in the process of helping them find them a real place. The child's distraction could be explained by the stressful situation, and her fidgeting she attributed to a rash; the makeshift apartment had no shower or bath, so the kids took "sponge baths" every few days.
This situation lasted about a week and a half. That was all the time it took to diagnose the child and medicate her. Getting her off the meds took 18 months. Her mother was threatened with the child being taken away from her if she didn't give her the meds. But the child stayed for the summer with a certain family member who was under no such threat, and who flushed the pills down the crapper on the first day of summer. That family member never told the child's mother until much later, so she could not be held responsible.
That family member also retained a licensed teacher to privately tutor the child during the summer, to prove to all concerned (including the child) that she didn't need Ritalin in order to learn and to behave herself. The child advanced more than a year in grade level during that summer, with thrice-weekly tutoring, an accomplishment that was verified when the school, not believing the tutor, re-tested her academic skills.
The psychiatrist had since been replaced with a new one who expressed extreme displeasure at the family member's methods, but who ultimately agreed that the child should be taken off the medication as it appeared she might not need it. Total time on the meds was about 18 months, during which the child advanced about three months in academic skills. In the two months off the meds, with the tutoring, she advanced more than a year.
One would think that would be the end of it. But one would be wrong. The school persisted in pressuring the mother to get the child back on meds, despite the psychiatrist's having taken her off. They still threatened her and harassed her, calling her several times a week at work. The aforementioned family member recently threatened to retain a lawyer to take legal action against the school staff if they don't cease and desist from practicing medicine without a license. We'll see if that works.
So what's my point? ADHD / ADD are real conditions, and for those who have it, stimulant drugs are a blessing that enable them to live normal lives. But I'd wager that for every legitimate diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, there probably are ten or more bogus ones. Some are made by well-meaning but unqualified school staff members, while others are made for financial reasons, as noted earlier in the thread. Schools get big bucks for each kid diagnosed with ADHD, plus they're exempt from standardized tests.
No one here, least of all myself, is opposed to children who legitimately have these conditions being treated. What I reject is the outright coercion of parents to blindly accept dubious diagnoses, and acquiesce to the administration of powerful medications to treat the alleged conditions, without (1) being absolutely certain that the diagnoses are correct, and (2) attempting to try other types of treatment before medicating these kids.
-Rich
