Good for you for speaking up. You're helping more than the people who respond on this thread.
One of the biggest risks of ADHD is self medication with other (illicit) drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. I think this is one of the proofs that the disorder exists.
One of the biggest risks of ADHD is self medication with other (illicit) drugs.While I never had an addiction to Alcohol or Drugs, many people with ADHD at some point in their lifetimes do. I know that I have struggled with bad habits in my life, and was able to overcome them with the help (not because of) of pharmacalogical therapy.
Denial that ADHD is a real disorder does a diservice to those people who fit the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV, are carefully diagnosed, and could otherwise be treated and overcome their addictions by balancing out their brain chemistry, and fixing whatever is wrong with their brain.
ADHD is still new to people, and I can hardly blame them for being sceptical. How do you know what abnormal feels like if you've only ever been normal? I certainly didn't know. I just lived my life the best I knew how, tried to do the right thing, but I felt I was dammed to keep screwing everything up, and never finishing the things I started.
Some people may feel it's unfair that we can overcome with God's gift of modern medicine. I see it as a blessing, an answer to a lifetime of prayer. I've lived life this long with what I can only describe as limited agency, and now I can appreciate the gift that I have been given that others without this experience may not recognise. Life is not perfect, but with His help, now it is possible.