The Dangers of ADHD

I have a son with adhd, and we had to turn to medication because of all of the things in your article, with the addition of a sinking self esteem because of the people around him constantly nagging, yelling and pointing out what he forgot or wasnt doing. Us included. We got alot of mixed feedback, mostly negative when we made the very hard decision to start him on concerta in second grade. These inconsiderate people who had no idea what he was going throug and what our family was going through made it sound like we took the easy way out. People would actually offer me advice on how to dicipline him correctly. People dont realize what a hard decision this is for a parent--I dont think I slept for the first year on medicine, I got up 3-4 times a night convinced that he would die of a heart attack from the stimulants. Now I am very open about our choice and have helped many other parents get through making this difficult decision. He is nine now and doing great. Thanks for taking the time to help people realize that this is a very dangerous disability, and when you choose not to use medication you run the risk of these kids self medication later in life.

I am 17 and have ADHD. Alot of the things you've said in your article are similar to what i experience. I never really paid attention to what my mother told me about it. I also have ADD, ODD, and tourette. After doing an assignment on researching ADHD i understand alittle more of what could and will happen