[George Smiley]

My son just got diagnosed with ADD.

And it was after a three year struggle where the diagnosis was first depresssion, and then bipolar, and finally bipolar with ADD.

And to top it off, while reading Driven to Distraction to learn about this disorder, stuff started jumping off the page-- not just about my son, but about me as well. (We're both on once-a-day meds now.)

The difference between his performance in school pre and post-med is, on average, two letter grades in each subject.

Perhaps the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is overused and Ritalin is overused, but there are instances when the results cannot be discounted.

[a history buff]

In the 8th grade, at an American school overseas, I, at age 12, tested post-high school across the board. School however, didn't interest me; I'd come home, do my homework in 20 minutes and then go read; stuff like crptology, programming, etc. My gpa fluctuated between 2.3 and 2.7; more than once I turned up for a bigger test not even knowing there was one. Finally, the school had enough, and talked to my dad. For one quarter, the last one at that school, he sat down with me every day, and made me do all my homework, and thoroughly. My GPA for that quarter: 3.3

Children are far more receptive to their fathers than to neurotoxic dopamine agonists at their dopamine receptors.

No other branch of medicine would even dare take 3 years to come up with the "proper" dx.

[dead]

It's not a cure-all, but it's making things more tolerable while we continue to pursue therapy, etc.

Good luck to you and your son.

As I said, I know that there are people who can benefit from the use of Ritalin and similar drugs. I’ve worked with developmentally disabled children (as a volunteer – not a professional) for 20+ years. I’ve seen a number of kids who had very serious behavioral problems that were helped greatly by ritalin.

Unfortunately, for every kid who is on these drugs for legitimate reasons, there are probably 20 kids on it simply because their parents and/or teachers want to have an easier day.

And no preschooler should be on these drugs for any reason.