The Diseasing of America's Children: Exposing the ADHD Fiasco & Empowering Parents to Regain Control - Essential Guide for Parents Dealing with ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment" (Note: This maintains the original powerful language while making it more SEO-friendly by including key terms like "ADHD diagnosis and treatment" and clarifying the book's purpose for parents. The added use case helps potential readers understand its relevance.)

This review also contains snippets from my reply to a previous reviewer.This book came out early in the current "bubble" of ADHD popularity so it addresses issues from the years before the advertising campaign fully incorporated the current generation of buzzwords. The authors did a very good job to debunk some of the last decade's myths surrounding both the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. (ADHD, like the zebra, does exist. However, it is likely that most of the noisy, overly active children and teens the reader sees have something else but not true ADHD. The analogy is that most of the hoofed animals one sees on a road trip through the American countryside are horses, cows, pigs, buffalo, deer and goats, not zebras.) They provide some background into why other things are categorized as ADHD. The book was up to date when written but the reader should know that there is more current research, particularly as relates to malingering of ADHD, fake-ability of subjective rating scales and how functional brain imaging does not say what some researchers have asserted. There are a number of good chapters which can provide a springboard for further discussion among family members, teachers and caregivers.By way of disclaimer, I am a prescriber who shares call with, checks the work of and shares office space with the top stimulant prescribers in my county. I write stimulant prescriptions as part of a much bigger treatment program and I largely agree with the authors. The ADHD myth is driven by research which is irrevocably tainted by drug company money and supported in large part by people who feel guilty and helpless, and who don't have the teaching skills to train their children how to overcome the symptoms of the multitude of other non-ADHD things which lead to not paying attention in school.Nowhere did I read the authors assert that there is no cluster of behaviors that some people call ADHD. They merely assert that "the disease - ADHD" is a myth which stigmatizes real people, precipitates futile treatment that may damage their health and sabotages real progress in overcoming their educational and life problems.One reviewer made the statement "People who make parents feel guilty for using medication to treat a real condition..." I would propose that the goal of the writers was not to make parents feel guilty but was rather to demonstrate that there are other ways of approaching the problems - ways which the same reviewer mentioned as "conservative use of stimulant medications, combined with educating parents and schools and providing behavioral support strategies." The book gave a very good beginning discussion of behavioral treatment strategies, which could be another springboard for discussion.Once a person has read and absorbed the information in this book there are endless opportunities for change, so I'd invite the reader to keep an open, skeptical eye about anything written on this subject (including this review) but, most importantly, continue to learn! Parents might want to look at simple things first such as good food, good sleep, good exercise, having the child come home every night of their childhood to the same caregivers, turning off (or better yet selling) the TV and video game box. Teachers looking for simple things to do might just want to focus on counting noses in the class and wondering what bad things happen when there are more than 22 noses in the room, including their own and that of an assistant.If the reader has come this far, I'd like to add that one of the theoretical constructs which would directly support the theses presented by the authors is that of 'neurodiversity', the idea that the members of our species have more than one natural, adaptive and pro-survival way of wiring their developing brains. (This construct is often used to explain the special needs of autistic children, but it also applies to those who are labeled 'ADHD'.) The analogy here is the physics of height, body build and heat conservation: There are people who are short, pale and stout and who do best in colder environments but others who are tall, thin and dark who do best in the sunny deserts. For an interesting take on how neurodiversity affects education look at: Neurodiversity in the Classroom: Strength-Based Strategies to Help Students with Special Needs Succeed in School and Life Another book of interest (which I've not read yet) might be: The Adolescent and Adult Neuro-diversity Handbook: Asperger Syndrome, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Related ConditionsAnother easier to research theory is the immaturity theory. America has had a rise of the rate of "ADHD" diagnosis which has occurred during the decades of our national fetish for "early childhood education". As we expand our kindergarten reading programs, our preschools and our pre- preschools we find our ADHD rates skyrocketing. The reader merely has to compare our ADHD rates, literacy scores and math competency scores with those of the nation of Finland, which starts reading education at age seven. I'm sure there will be someone who is incensed at this assertion, since Finland is not similar to the US, so they can do the same thing by comparing Finland with Norway. The Norwegians practice more US style early education and of course their children develop more of a US style behavioral pathology.