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You know, I do respect doctors and their expertise.

But I also respect the experiences of parents that have lived with this in their home.

I also have a deep skepticism that doctors are worried too much about short-term alleviation of pain and inconvenience. The long-view of my son's social, educational, and, yes, spiritual growth matters to me. That doesn't compute with enough doctors.

-- Joe

I know, first hand, that a parent knows when something is wrong with their kid. Nobody (including me) could put a finger on it, but there's no denying that my boy was "weird". He bounced off the walls, talked nonstop and had issues with listening. School work was a nightmare. (I homeschool him.) His short term memory sucked. I let him play the stupid Gameboy way too much because it was the only way I could get anything done. At first I thought he had JAB,(Just A Boy) but after awhile, I admitted that there was more to it than that. I just couldn't accept that ADD was the issue. Yes, he had ADD, but it was a symptom of another problem. In his case, a couple of problems. (Food and eyesight) I had a friend who's kid appeared to have classic ADHD and it turned out that he was tired. Snoring of all the things. Nose drops, humidifier and BreathRight strips and no more ADD.

IMHO, ADD is a collection of behaviors that children exhibit when they aren't comfortable in their own skin. They have no way of pinpointing their problem or of sufficiently articulating the issue. As far as the video game situation goes: well, I know that I can find a task that takes my mind off a headache and I know that it's almost impossible to concentrate on anything else when I'm really uncomfortable. Keep punching at the wall. Eventually, you'll get through.