ADHD is an illness
I am the mother of a daughter who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For the past 23 years I have protected her and defended myself against the sort of opinionated, didactic comments made on this disorder by people such as your writer Leo McKinstry (‘Not ill — just naughty’, 26 February) and I am sick of being told that this condition is nothing more than an excuse for bad behaviour brought about exclusively by bad parenting. While Mr McKinstry fully acknowledges that this is a medically accepted condition that can be quite clearly seen on an MRI brain scan, he condemns the professionals by decrying the symptoms as nothing more than typically uncontrolled loutish behaviour. Is depression nothing more than a state of unhappiness that he would undoubtedly cure with a jolly musical and orders for a stiff upper lip?
Next, Leo McKinstry attacks Ritalin, which has been tested far more vigorously than aspirin.
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