Exactly. I agree that it is overdiagnosed, but when you see your good-hearted child struggling for years and he comes home the first day he takes medication so excited because for the first time in his life, he was able to take notes. Somehow the information wasn't lost between his ears, his brain, and his hands. Our child, in particular, isn't a bad kid. He is a loving, mostly happy youth who has spent much of his young life grounded with no privileges because of perceived lack-of-effort on his part. The medication is not the sole answer, he still has to apply himself (which is challenging also!), but the immediate response to the medication drove it home to me that there IS a chemical imbalance that CAN cause SOME kids to have problems with concentration and retention. We don't WANT to medicate our child, but neither do we want him to be pushed aside as a kid who is just "destined to fail", like so many kids are. The medication DOES help him concentrate and retain information. Try not to judge until you've walked in our shoes.
Perpetual drugging DOES NOT CURE ANYTHING! Society today is just clueless. 99% of drugs treat the SYMPTOM but do not do anything to CURE the root problem. (And hello... the drug companies would really not want it any other way.)
Good. Godspeed. Safe travel.
Now let me share something I've learned about ADHD medications: You don't have to take them for life. They can help you "learn" focus...so that, later, you can snap it on. Miraculous.