And to everyone saying that ADD is a scam and a joke and that there 'might' be people out there with it:

FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU ALL.

It wasn't a fucking scam that made me struggle through half my school career. It wasn't a fucking scam that my parents struggled with me to get me to focus on my schoolwork. It wasn't a joke characterization that a quack dreamed up after that 'quack' used the professionally accepted diagnostic critera to test the degree of my aptitude for paying attention, long- and short-term memory under conditions of distraction or no distraction, and found that I had a systematic bias toward consistently, significantly poorer performance on the tests requiring attention and focus than average people of the same age. I didn't imagine the improvement that I felt after taking Ritalin. My grades didn't go up by themselves. The crash-and-burn I experienced in college after deciding that I didn't need Ritalin anymore didn't happen by itself. The improvements in my relationship with Yelena and in my job when I take Ritalin aren't the results of a drug company fleecing me into paying out for their products.

Yes, there is a tendency to overdiagnose it, and parents should take the diagnosis of teachers and guidance counselors with a hefty grain of salt. There is also a tendency of our culture to cause a tendency towards attention-lacking behavior among individuals with no inherent ADD, and changing the setting for such an individual will frequently result in a great improvement.

Profits from Antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, anti-HIV drugs, and pretty much any other drug out there are hefty too. Can't paint psychologists with a brush like that without tarring a lot of other medical problems too.

Ritalin is a stimulant, chemically related to methamphetamines. Overmedicating non-ADD children with it will not produce a zombie-like state. In ADD individuals, the portion of our brains dedicating to supressing impulses, coordinating trains of thought, maintaining focus of attention, etc. functions at a slower rate than normal. Ritalin, like caffine and other stimulants, 'wakes up' this portion of the brain and allows us to control our impulses, thoughts, and focus better. This is the same reason why children are frequently hyper when tired -- the portion of their brain that controls impulsivity is fatigued and not functioning well. The same reason is why drunks act on impulse -- alcohol, a depressant, impairs that suppresant function of the brain.

I really wish everyone questioning the existence of ADD would LEARN A DAMN THING ABOUT IT FIRST!