[Zipporah]

I would say that the majority of medicated kids are from single parent homes. Also, from families that are at-risk.. either being low income or single parent.

[luckystarmom]

All of the kids that I know that are medicated are from 2 parent homes. I think that a lot are from families where both parents work. I think the parents don't want to deal with the problems.

I have a daughter with brain damage, and my son has a tic disorder. It takes a lot of time and energy to deal with them. However, I'm not working, so I have the time (not always the energy).

I'm actually kind of glad my son has the tic disorder because you don't put kids with a tic disorder on Ritalin. It either makes tics worse or brings out tics in some kids.

[Mfkmmof4]

I have a child who is on medication for attention and hyperactivity and before he was put on a drug we tried all kinds of behavior rituals that were prescibed. It did not work and finally I begged. It worked. Plus he is autistic.

Then my 9 year old cancer survivor suffers from attention deficiet and what a difference in school it makes to have him on medication.

[PoisedWoman]

He cited cases where parents reported that their ADHD-diagnosed children could not pay attention - but then those same children could play video games for hours without being distracted.

When I was editorial director for publishing company that did health-realted books, I turned down a couple of manuscripts on ADHA because I was not convinced that it was a real disorder. The co-owner of our company, a millionaire, wanted to put out the books because his two spoiled brat kids had zero attention span. I asked him whether he bought the boys every computer game that came on the market. He had to admit that he did, and that they paid attentionto the games.

The point is, even wealthy kids suffer from parents who believe that throwing another toy at their kids is "parenting."

[bvw]

It's a babysitter drug. That's why the incidence of drugged sons of single moms -- or of the rarer single dads, and in families with less-than minimally capable parents -- of whom a higher percentage are low income.

I'm not making a claim about ADD, ADHD in saying that -- just claiming that most -- most most most -- kids on it are on it for the wrong reasons. Because adults are avoiding or unable to deal with the discordancies, unpredictablenesses and enerigies of well-in-band childhood. So the kids are drugged. And ritilan, and the other speed-like drugs are only one class of such lousy, abusive drugging -- prozac type sedatives are also big.