The question is, Do I have ADD? The answer according to many experts, is an emphatic “No.” This nonexistent mental disorder was dreamed up by the psychiatric industry in order to promote and sell mind-altering drugs.
Outspoken psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin has this to say, “Parents are not informed that they are trading behavioral control for toxic drug effects. The label ADHD is attached to children who are in reality deprived of appropriate adult attention.” And of course ADD is similarly diagnosed and treated.
Even the DSM, the psychiatrist’s Bible, contains research that admits ADHD disappears when children are given something interesting to do, or have one-on-one adult supervision. These same ADHD diagnosis advocates have remarked that it “tends to go away during summer vacation.”
One would be hard-put to discover another “disease” that magically disappears during summer vacation.
Reinforcing this observation is the relative rarity of ADD labeling in France, where children are disciplined with a firm but loving hand from an early age.
In the US, almost 10% of all kids are diagnosed with ADHD. The treatment is universally pharmaceutical medications. But less than .5 of children in France are treated for ADHD.
While American psychiatrists continue to promote ADHD and ADD as valid mental disorders treatable only with drugs, French psychiatrists view the same childhood behavior as due to situational causes.
If these diseases are real, why do members of the same profession disagree so strongly about the root cause? The answer is simple. They are not real diseases, but only symptoms of childhood boredom, lack of discipline, and lack of adult attention.
The philosophies of rearing a child differ strongly between the two countries. And it has been noted that French children have better behavior.
The French are believers in rearing a child with a firm “structure.” As an example, kids don’t constantly snack all day, but eat four times a day, at specific times. Children are given firm limits, and their parents feel these limits make their children happier.
And another thing, quite at variance with American child rearing practices: French children are sometimes told “no.”  The French parental philosophy is that “hearing ‘no’ rescues children from the tyranny of their own desires.”
French psychiatrists are also on top of the fact that certain preservatives, artificial coloring and allergens exacerbate symptoms of ADD and ADHD. Although dietary influence on behavior is known in the US, it is largely ignored in favor of treatment with drugs.
So the answer to “Do I have ADD?” is obvious. Reading between the lines of psychiatric double-speak is not that difficult. And finding activities that engage one’s child, and a diet that helps him focus should be a parental obligation, rather than the “easy”, and ultimately cruel path of behavior altering drugs.
As an example, here are some of the “common” side effects listed for Ritalin:

• Agitation
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Nervousness
• Appetite Loss
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Palpitations
• Psychosis

Parents generally love their children, and would not willingly expose them to the hazards of such drugs. There are other ways to treat a bored, disinterested or rambunctious child. Drugs should never even enter the picture. And a child wondering “Do I have ADD?” should be reassured that he most definitely does not.
 
http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd
http://www.rxlist.com/ritalin-side-effects-drug-center.htm