by Steve Hansell

Created on: October 28, 2009   Last Updated: November 03, 2009

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, three to five percent of all children suffer from ADHD. The American Society of Pediatrics says that 12 percent of all children potentially suffer from ADHD. That means for every classroom of 30 kids, there is a potential that three are ADHD. For every child who is diagnosed, the odds that one of the parents is also ADHD is statistically significant.

ADHD is a real issue for many people. It is not a trivial thing. Adults who suffer from ADHD have a much better chance of addiction, suffer more debt issues, and tend to not be able to hold on to friends. Both children and adults have impulse issues and will blurt out things that can inadvertently hurt or embarrass their friends.

Is ADHD over diagnosed? Not according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The people who know something about this problem say possibly 3 percent of all children who are afflicted are untreated. No one knows the number of teens and adults that are under the radar.

Richard K. Nakamura, Ph. D, acting Director of NIMH, in testimony before the Committee on Government Reform, said "...failure to receive and properly process cognitive and emotional stimuli during critical periods when the brain is undergoing rapid growth and maturation may result in damage with lifelong consequences." *

Left untreated, ADHD can lead to lifelong failures, substance abuse, financial problems, and relationship issues.

OK, so why do so many people not believe in ADHD as a disease? Why do they think that you can spank a kid out of this problem? What is it that drives the myth that teachers and parents just want to take the easy way out, and don't want to do the hard work?

Actually I know why; I was one of those people. Then we started hearing from the teacher that our son couldn't sit still, and he kept bothering everyone around him. No one wanted to sit next to him and he always confused his addition and subtraction problems. And he just couldn't finish his work. I knew what the problem was, he needed discipline and the teacher just needed to do her job.

That is how we as a family began our journey toward the epiphany that the only things that could help our son in school, were medication and understanding. We took the pen and paper test along with his teacher and the doctor told us that he fit into the ADHD mold pretty well. She suggested that we may want to investigate methylphenidate to help him control his own symptoms and to be able to resist

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