This is not just about ADD/ADHD medication, or about "boyhood". This is about the unnecessary prescribing of psychoactive drugs with powerful side-effects to p

This is not just about ADD/ADHD medication, or about "boyhood". This is about the unnecessary prescribing of psychoactive drugs with powerful side-effects to people who cannot consent. I am yet another person who, around 7, was prescribed strong stimulants. Yes, it turned me into a robot, and yes, I did better in school. For a while. Until finally I grew so bored of pointless academic striving that I completely gave up doing any school work. At the same time, I discovered the computer. When I first told my mother "I don't want to live anymore", she asked me, "Good lord, why would you want to kill yourself?!" We had just recently moved back to the states, to a place I didn't know or like, to a school I didn't like. My parents fought, partly over us. My brother despised me. Due to my medicated existence, I had no real emotional connection to anything. At fourteen, I didn't see much value in life. "I don't want to die," I said, "I just don't really want to keep on living. There's no meaning to life. It's just pain." Soon there was the anti-depressants, and when those didn't work, the anti-psychotics, and more stimulants. Sometimes I couldn't sleep for weeks. Sometimes I couldn't stay awake for months. I needed blood tests to make sure my kidneys weren't failing on new medications. I was kicked out of schools, and was unable to complete any work. The only thing I noticed about this time was the kids at public schools were somewhat nicer, and the work was somewhat harder. I remember reading Ray Bradbury's short story collection and thinking, wow, maybe there is something to life. Dropping out of high school and not attending college, I was pretty fortunate to have found a medium for my attention that was both intellectually and fiscally rewarding. I doubt the rest of the kids who endure chemical tinkering at the hands of unscrupulous "doctors" are as fortunate as I to make a good living after a normal mental/emotional childhood is taken away from them.