Honestly, I know an awful lot of people who were misbehaved growing up and were put on ritalin–has nothing to do with actual mental diagnoses, it’s just “if the kid misbehaves and doesn’t concentrate in school, he must have AD(H)D.”

Drives me nuts.

And Cruise is also right about Ritalin being a street drug. I know a bunch of people who take it recreationally as well.

Reversing that trend will be difficult, and there is no bright line. For some children, not having them on psychiatric medicine is probably criminal and parents who refuse should lose their kids. These are by far the minority though, and we do need better balance.

The last numbers I saw, stated that only five percent of the population of school aged children actually have ADHD. The rest are misdiagnosed.

I agree that we are too quick to rely on medications for these disorders, however, when a parent has a choice of putting their child on medication, or losing their child for failing to put the child on medication, what options are there? How can parents possibly say no?