Lately, there have been a lot of publications about ADHD. And as always, there are numerous commercials about tablets that can create miracles. Those commercials show joyful parents and kids who can transform from angry devils to smiling angels. On the other hand, others insist that this condition is mostly imaginary and in many cases the diagnosis is hypothetical, simply based on the wishes of parents and teachers to have peaceful environment at home and in classroom. 
Two studies, that were brought out by universities of Michigan and South Carolina and published in “Journal of Health Economics, in 2010” (isn’t it a strange place for scientific study in a field of psychiatry?), state that 1 million children in the United States were wrongly diagnosed with ADHD, just based on that the children were too small and were unable to meet the requirements of strict guardians.
Based on official statistics, 4.5-5 millions of American children were diagnosed with ADHD and as believed, those children had some kind of, unknown, genetic foundation for that disorder. It’s certainly easier to link the diagnosis to “pure science”, just for assurance, however there is no such a thing as epidemic of genetic problems (Nature is not stupid), but ADHD is an epidemic today.
Comparing to tuberculosis or cholera, ADHD wasn’t torturing humankind for decades and it wasn’t waiting for the discovery of its cause. In 1950-1960, a fundamental revolution took place in American psychiatry. Numerous amounts of pharmaceutical medications replaced the treatment by word (psychoanalysis) and helped to dramatically increase the amount of patients. In result, homosexuals, who not only can’t be cured by tablets (ili whom tablets cannot effect), but even more hostile therapies, like electroshock, were moved into the category of healthy people, but kids and teenagers, that have temperament, were moved into category of sick ones. A huge market emerged, that is expanding with every year and it bringing unbelievable riches.
 In 1970s the entire sale of all pharmaceutical drugs, consisted of 40% of medication “Ritalin” that appeared on pharmaceutical market in 1961. Moreover, in 1987 it increased to 93%. In 1991, 1768kg of Ritalin were produced in United States, and in 1994 it rose to 8189kg, (Thomas Armstrong, “The Myth of the ADD Child”, 1995.) More than 90% of Ritalin that’s produced worldwide is “consumed” in United States. Now, medication under the label “smart drug” actively propagandizes among healthy people, in order to improve their “intelligence”.
Psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD, expert on Ritalin, who gave presentation in the United States Senate regarding this drug safety and its effect on health, author of the books “Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Plan for a Nation in Crisis”, “Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors aren’t telling you about stimulants for your children”, blames: “In 1970s, 100000 kids were prescribed Ritalin and society was complaining against it. There were “uncovered” books and special hearings in Congress. Now, no one even remembers those debates, and millions of children are taking stimulating medicine, without any protests.
Nowadays, psychiatry has reached great achievements and doctors can easily determine the diagnosis of not just ADHD, but major depression syndrome and bipolar disorder, starting from age of 15 months and up. Even though, “Medical Bible” of doctors PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference) points out that many psychotropic drugs are not recommended for children, more and more children are taking them, sometimes since early childhood. For Ritalin age limit is not set, but it doesn’t mean that it’s good for you, and that ADHD is a result of its deficiency in organism.
 According to the same PDR, Ritalin causes nervousness, stomach pain, headache, nausea, insomnia, and dizziness. Yet, there are other, far more serious symptoms that do exist, and most of the time patients are not warned about the, although those symptoms are often mentioned in medical articles. Those symptoms include: arrhythmia and heart attacks, seizures, hallucinations, ticks, feeling of never-ending loneliness, aggressiveness, loss of interest, hair loss, attempts of suicide, and etc.
Don’t you think, that the “cost” is too dangerous, for a pill that might bring “harmony” to your home, especially considering the fact that it was not checked for long lasting harmlessness. In 2004 scientists of National Cancer Research Center is the USA, “Houston’s MD Anderson” in Texas were pondering about the cause of such a dramatic increase of cancer in children. Doctor Marvin Legator, a leading specialist in that center, learned, that there was no special research about the safety of methylphenidate (chemical name for Ritalin). In experiments on rats he showed, that this medicine can cause ovarian cancer. Because of his death in 2005, the research was abandoned, and the doctors who prescribe that medicine, continue to insist that it’s safe. Royal College of Pediatricians in England, states: “Ritalin is used for more than 40 years. If it had any negative effects, it would have already been known by now”.
At the same time, the parents of the kids who passed away or kids who suffered from side effects of Ritalin, created couple of internet sites (www.ritalindeath.com, www. tidm.org/news6/Ritalin, www. weizlux.com/adhdrugs,  www.paksplace.com/essayritalin, and etc.), on which they discuss problems of serious risks and dangers of that medication.   Apparently, these parents read other studies, than “Royal” pediatricians, having endured the tragic effects of Ritalin, on themselves, or more specifically on their kids. Unfortunately, those parents don’t have financial opportunities or abilities, like pharmaceutical companies have, in order to provide this affecting information through media to other people.
However, medical journals, state their doubt about the benefits of Ritalin. R. Weiss and his colleagues, compared the behavior and school progress in teens with ADHD, who took Ritalin and the ones who didn’t, for a period of 5 years, and they discovered no difference (Effect if Long-term Treatment of Children with Methylphenidate, “ Can Med Ass J (1975).
Cornforth C. and et. al, having analyzed published scientific studies about treatment of ADHD, points out, that there is not enough crucial information to make the solution about safety, for patients of different gender and age (Curr Pharm Des. 2010; 16(22).
It is known, that the mechanism of the effect of methylphenidate on the brain receptors is equivalent to cocaine, even is stronger form. It’s not surprising that many teenagers like taking it, they even gave it a lovely name, “Vitamin R”. Ritalin can cause longtime or even permanent addiction, that makes the patient its “slave”, and not every patient can break off its relationship with Ritalin, because the withdrawal symptoms can be difficult to tolerate.
ADHD today-is the most common disorder among children, which cannot be easily detected with accurate tests, like other disorders (blood tests, urine tests, MRI, etc.). Existing test for  balance of neurotransmitter is not very popular since its results are followed by prescription of vitamins, not pharmaceuticals. Besides, like many other tests, it doesn’t show any warning indicators in patients, which could easily become typical for ADHD. That is a clear proof, that ADHD is a condition that is based of abstract concepts or is a hypothetical condition.
In 1998, National Institute of health in USA (NIH) reached an opinion, that “today we don’t have reliable and precise methods to diagnose ADHD and there is no information that ADHD is some kind of dysfunction of the brain.”
Thomas Armstrong, PhD, believes that “ADHD” reflects the downfall of western society, in which adults, just is the USA, injure, rape, abuse 1 million children every year. Almost 19% of all American children, go though serious emotional discomfort, that is worsened by fights and divorces of parents, their financial problems, violence and cruelty on television, loneliness.
  Diagnosis of ADHD depends on 3 categories, (lack of concentration, being impulsive and hyperactive), described by criteria’s of DSM-IV. If you interrupt someone during the conversation,  don’t want to go into details, you are too talkative, unable to sit still alone in the room, you are not interested in listening to someone talk, you start talking without permission, the ADHD diagnosis is guaranteed for you, and it follows a treatment with psychotropic drugs, sometimes by force (without your consent). If you are not interested in listening a lecture of a boring teacher, she/he will express their concern that you don’t pay attention and that you distract the class, than you wouldn’t even need those 6 criteria’s from DSM-IV, in order for Ritalin to be your prescribed “vitamin”, sometimes even without permission of the parents. Some parents, themselves, don’t mind “hooking” their precious kid on soothing “vitamin”, if the child irritated them with his or her questions and desire to play.
No one questions themselves about, what is “attention”. It’s similar to everyone having their own definition and explanation for the word “kindness” or ”happiness”.  Many teachers and parents use the term “attention” to characterize the behavior of the child who is told what to do, how and when to do, and how long it has to be done.  Doctors, and more often the teachers, just state the absence of attention, without knowing the cause. Nevertheless, attention is not some specific function of the body, it’s a combination of numerous physiological reactions and every single one of them can be damaged separately or in combination.
Therefore, never accept ADHD diagnosis as final, because in most cases it’s based on someone’s subjective observation. Diagnoses of ADHD is “the process of elimination”, when all the other reasons of inadequate behavior and attention are checked and eliminated.
If your child has a hearing problem, (based in the official statistics, 1 in 5 children in the United States has it), or a vision problem, Ritalin won’t correct it, in addition it will start to manipulate a healthy brain.
We accept that we might not have a musical talent. But there are children that have a hard time learning how to write (discography), hear (dyslexia), or understand the abstract arithmetic problems, caused by specific physiological features in brain structure. The hard work and the patience of the teachers are usually granted with attention of their students. Everyone has their own abilities, some people can easily learn Chinese, while others can beautifully play on the violin. Help your children to not fall behind in school and to cultivate their talents and skills.
You have to make sure that your child doesn’t have any unidentified problems with his health: anemia, allergy, sensitivity to food, toxins (mercury, lead), endocrine and etc.
If your child is emotional and impulsive by nature, it doesn’t mean that he is sick. He just needs to use his energy: jump, run, but not be treated by medicine. Make sure that he is getting enough sleep and vitamins. Limit the amount of the carbs and sweet stuff he eats and etc. If your child has an opinion that is different from yours, just simply have a friendly discussion with him, instead of “shutting” his month with a tablet.
If the diagnosis of ADHD is final, then don’t automatically rush into treating it with psychotropic drugs, because of their numerous side effects, much worse than ADHD itself.  Find out about alternative options. Understand your responsibility as a parent, before deciding to give your child pharmaceutical drugs. Learn about their side effects, without relying just on your doctor. Think about helping your children to change their lifestyle and diet. I deal with this problem for many years, and I can assure you that it is possible and in most cases very effective.
Ritalin is not an immediate help for your family, it’s a long process with unpredictable outcome.