Warning: Rant Ahead...

First, read this article.

No, really. Go read it. I'll wait.

Second, I am not, nor do I claim to be, a medical doctor or an expert of any kind. I am completely speaking from personal experience and my own (very unscientific) understanding of this topic. So take what I say with a grain or two of salt and a healthy dash of skepticism.

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Even though I completely and utterly agree with everything the article says, I am also completely and utterly irritated by it. Yes, ADD/ADHD is over-diagnosed and over-medicated. Yes, children need healthier diets, better sleep habits and more exercise. Yes, families have become too splintered by work/sports/etc schedules, and children have been given too much freedom and forced to take on too much responsibility. (Not the good, character-building, take out the trash and clean your room kind... that's always good. I'm talking about the get yourself off to school in the morning, let yourself in with the key after school, microwave yourself some EZ Mac for dinner, and make sure you put yourself to bed at a reasonable time cuz I have important adult things to do and I'll be home sometime after 11 kind.) YES, relying on medication to "fix" your kid because you are too busy/lazy/disinterested to be a parent is (in my humble, I have no kids so it's easy for me to talk opinion) is a crime.

HOWEVER.

I have known a great number of kids who needed just the tiniest medicinal boost to help them get control over themselves. These are kids who had loving, caring, involved parents who were doing all the right things. They got plenty of sleep, ate healthy food, spent time together as a family, and so on. These kids wanted to do the right thing. They were desperate to please their parents, their teachers, their friends. They wanted to get good grades and finish things they started and stay focused. They just couldn't.

Although there are many things that can cause a child to present with ADD/ADHD-like symptoms - many environmental, some behavioral - I firmly believe that some children have a chemical imbalance in their brains that prevents them from being able to be completely in control, no matter how hard they try. This chemical imbalance is present from birth and when adults tell them to "control themselves" they have NO IDEA what we are talking about. They have never experienced the feeling of being fully in charge (as much as that is possible for anyone) of their own actions/thoughts/emotions.

Medication can help balance the brain chemicals and allow these children to see what being in control feels like. Once they have the ablility to focus, they can be taught various methods of self-control. More importantly, they can be taught how to observe and interpret their own brains. Metacognition - thinking about thinking - is not something you are born with. By helping these children recognize the non-medical things that effect their brains, we can give them the tools to maintain self-control on their own. Medication can sometimes be a way to enable them to reach the point where they no longer need to be medicated. It should NOT be considered the solution to the problem.

My irritation with this article stems from the fact that they are treating the question of medication as if it has one simple answer. As if what is right for one child is right for ALL children. Not only is this bad for children (just take a peek at the NCLB fiasco to know that the "one size fits all" approach doesn't work), but it is bad for parents. Being a parent is hard enough without having people throw headlines like

"Ritalin Linked With 500% Increase
in Sudden Death of Children!!"

at you. Ritalin is not the only (or as far as I can tell the most commonly recommended) ADD/ADHD medication out there any more. Telling parents that the health, well-being, happiness, and future of their child hangs on this one little question might be truthful (after all, don't all choices effect those things one way or another?) but it is terrifying and unnecessary. No one does their best thinking under that kind of stress.
So, let's try a little less hyperbole and a little more reasonable discussion all around* when dealing with the question of helping students with ADD/ADHD (or any learning disability, for that matter). Helping children who have trouble focusing is difficult. There are risks and benefits to any potential solution, whether it is medical or otherwise. Cooperation, understanding, and level-headed behavior is the name of the game. At least, that's what I think.

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*Yes, that goes for the teachers who immediately call for medication when 7 year old has a little trouble sitting still and doing what he's told for 6 hours. Can we say "developmentally appropriate behavior" anyone?