I think you're considering ADD and ADHD the same thing. Which is kind of like saying the common cold and pnemonia are really the same thing.

 

that may very well be, but every study or article i've read lumps them together as one and the same.

 

Another thing I only very briefly touched on is that just because someone is taking ritalin or a similar medication doesn't mean they actually have ADD or ADHD. They've gone to a shrink with particular issues and the ritalin is prescribed to help with that. Some people get through the day by drinking five mocha frappa caramel latte chinos or some other hypercaffeinated beverage, some people take ritalin. These are normal adults who aren't in school and don't have parents in charge of them to disobey.

It's true that traditionally people associate ritalin and aderal with being a pacifier for the annoying kid who won't shut up, do his school work and listen to mom and dad. But there are a bunch of other people who may not necessarily be ADD/ADHD and get some benefit from it.

Hell, I know I've spent more than one late night doing homework wired out on a bunch of Red Bull and it helps me to focus on the task at hand (plus stay awake). I know I'm not ADHD but the general class of stimulants helps me concentrate in particular situations.

 

I have a 9-year old brother who is very active and needs mild attention from me or our parents but that seems normal to. When he was about 6 or 7 he was going to this day-care and after a while the teachers started telling us that he was acting up towards them and interruping class but he played well with others and had many friends in the school so they recomended us to take him to a doctor for ADD. The doctor told us he was just fine and a normal child but maybe a little more hyper than the rest of the kids but he was fine. He was great for us but acted up in school. We found out that the school seemed to have problems with many other children there and we asked other parents how their children were at home and they all said that they had no problems at all. It was because of the teachers there, they were inexpereinced and didn't have enough patients with kids so immediatly got angry and short tempered with the children so contacted parents ASAP. So we took my brother to a different school at a church and he did wonderful, never had a complaint from them at all. Then he started real school and again was fine. Sometimes we would get a call from a teacher about him hitting someone or not being able to sit still in class or not doing his work but as soon as my mother or his father or me said something to him about it he was fine and did great in school. To this day he is active in sports, does wonderful in school. He makes great grades, can read and write very well and can comprehend everything to teach him. He is just a very active child.

Now prescription drugs are a messed up way to solve problems with your body. For example. My stepfather was electricuted by high voltage power lines while on the job about 5 years ago and survived. From that he had full body muscle seizers many times a day lasting up to 30mins to an hour and chronic headaches all day long everyday. It was horrible what he was going through, and doctors just didnt know what to do or what to give him. He ended up having many different doctors for different symptoms. They started prescribing him drugs for this and for that and sometimes he would have an allergic reaction so they would give him something else and the many doctors that he had were not consulting eachother about how what would effect something else he was on and all these drugs made him phsycotic. We found out that when he took his ATV out for a ride behind this mall near our house he was beating up homeless people and leaving them, not knowing if they were alive or not. Then one night he was upset about his day and got drunk and took his medication along with it (I do know that you're not supposed to take alcohol with these drugs but there were times when he didn't drink that he acted crazy and weird) and went balistic on a neighbor of ours who had been complaing about the looks of our house and that he had a ladder rack on his truck. He went crazy and ran to her front door with a baseball bat threatening to kill her. After all of that happened my mom talked to all of his doctors and made them realize what was going on so they took him off of everything he was one and re-prescribed him different medications with smaller amounts. He has been a totally different person since then and seems normal again.

I think medication can be a good thing for something someone might have, for instance Khemo-Therapy can "cure" cancer and prescription oxygen and HELP people breathe better but it cannot "cure" their breathing problems. Therefore I think there should be more caution when prescribing medications and selling drugs "over-the-counter" every body reacts differently to every drug. Another example Vicanin (however you spell it) is supposedly a stimulant that keeps you up and going and make whatever pain you have go away well I took it one day and it completely put me down for the count for hours! Now what would I have doen if a doctor had told me that I needed to take it every so many hours? You just dont know anymore. I thinks a little funny how many drugs give you crazy side effects and then someone might buy something else to take for one of those side effect and then end up mixing drugs that shouldnt be mixed and something go wrong. But I do not however think that all those drugs should be gotten rid of, there are some people who NEED them. Again I think there should be more caution in the drug industry and more caution amoung people who are taking these drugs.