You are misinformed about Ritalin. There is evidence of brain shrinkage and other worrying neurological problems. Moreover, how it affects the developing brains of children is largely unknown. I suspect from your eloquent post that you are allowing one or more of your children to be drugged or were drugged yourself.
For the likely one in a thousand who actually do have ADD ADHD then they likely would need it in the same respect an epileptic needs some very strong medications as well capable of possibly doing harm. Then again massive doses of Caffeine might work as well.
The use of a medication must weigh benefits vs risk in everything including an Aspirin. Then again some meds get bad names no matter how they are used. That happens because a minority abuses them and many doctors simply do not know how to correctly dispense some meds.
Most doctors would freak out at what I have taken every day 3-4 times a day for 17 years {Xanax} and tell me I can't do that. My wife is a 26 year user. But it's the only way I can function at all. Yea it can be dangerous especially higher dosages at 1-2 times a day. On the other hand a lower dosage 3-4 times a day keeps the seizures and brain fog away. {most the time anyway} LOL.