The column written March 15 by Andrew Banyai (“Kids shouldn’t be drugged for acting their age”) upset and angered me.
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is not about a kid who can’t sit still because he wants to play. It is about an impairment of normal daily function. Drugs are prescribed to help people live a normal life and avoid the turmoil that goes with ADHD, not to control them. Only therapy can correct bad behavior.
I have been living with ADHD for 22 years, and it is a very real disease. I lived through a nightmare childhood and a difficult adulthood: It takes me 10 hours to finish an hour of studying, and I spend a lot of time with my foot in my mouth.
Everyone has had the experience of reading a page while distracted, immediately forgetting what they just read. My entire day is like that: I feel a step behind in everything I do. It is frustrating and depressing. It is hard enough to live with this disorder without having uninformed people at every turn accusing me of being a druggie.
Too many people base their opinion on the hype of the evening news and not on facts. Misinformation contributes to confusion and misdiagnosis. Banyai says “there’s no evidence