The use of Ritalin and other similar drugs has doubled in the past 10 years. According to the chief inspector of schools, Amanda Spielman, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the drugs used to treat it are becoming dangerously common. She added that a diagnosis can be a crutch sought out by middle-class parents to spare their blushes when their child behaves disruptively.
“The fact that it seems to have become the norm for a whole swathe of the social structure to medicate as a response to behavioural problems feels like a very big warning signal,” she told the Times.
Spielman’s comments are commensurate with the growing hysteria around the condition, partially in response to the revelation that some students use drugs such as Ritalin to help them concentrate in exams.
These claims are similar to those I heard when I was young. I was expelled from primary school in the early 90s. I subsequently received a diagnosis of ADHD when I was six and was prescribed Ritalin. I had a four-week trial; for two weeks I took a placebo, the other two weeks were on the drug.
My inattentiveness and hyperactivity dramatically improved during the weeks I was was taking the Ritalin. I then went to a special school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and they argued that I did not need the drug, that all I was lacking was discipline and a moral code. I stopped taking Ritalin, and was expelled soon after.
Drugs like Ritalin are not miracle cures for bad behaviour, but they have been proven to help people suffering with ADHD – a complex behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorder.
Far from being dangerously common, ADHD has been found to be woefully under-diagnosed and is reportedly costing the UK taxpayer billions of pounds every year. If the condition is missed in childhood – and it often is – then it has been proven to lead to long-term unemployment, difficulties in forming relationships and to other mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. ADHD is not an imaginary condition concocted by a cabal of embarrassed middle-class parents. There are now objective tests for the condition. Ritalin can be an effective drug when prescribed properly at the correct dosage – it is not a “chemical cosh”. If this was realised 20 years ago, then children like me would not have been bounced around the education system and would now be full members of society. If we continue to not take this condition seriously, we risk failing yet another generation of children. We cannot let that happen.