Let me ask you a question. If you found out that your child had diabetes, would you deny him insulin? If he was short-sighted, would you deny him glasses and tell him to just sit nearer the front of the classroom?

Well, then why, if your child was diagnosed with ADHD, would you decide to withhold medication?

Since I wrote about my own ADHD diagnosis, I have been overwhelmed with private messages from distraught parents whose children have been diagnosed with ADHD. Their distress is exactly the same – they are afraid to medicate and are certainly not going to share the diagnosis with anyone, for fear of the negative stigma. Their relief upon reading my post was almost palpable. For most, it was the first time someone had spoken about medicating ADHD in a positive light.

This really made me sad. Incredibly sad. All I could think was “Those poor kids.”

Before you judge me as a drug-peddler, let me begin by saying that I absolutely understand the fear of the scary monster ADHD drugs that are out there.

Hell, if you Google it, you’re led to believe you’re a selfish parent who wants to zombiefy her child for her own convenience. You’ll believe ADHD drugs are only used by lazy, inept parents and teachers to tranquilise naughty children who really only need a good old-fashioned spanking. In fact, if you take all the online literature at face value, there’s no way you’d agree to administer any ADHD drug. Giving your child medication would be tantamount to child abuse. Right? In my humble (but educated) opinion you’d be wrong.

ABOUT MICHELLE: Michelle is an award winning copywriter with 18 years’ experience in the advertising industry. She is  also the founder of theycallmemummy.com – a website for women (parents and non-parents, alike) covering a wide range of topics from parenting to work-life balance to mental health to fitness – the whole gamut. She was recently voted one of the 25 Voice of the Year Honourees in the “Inspiration” category at the BlogHer ’13 Conference in Chicago.

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CONTINUE READING IN THE FAMILY ROOM