We noticed a correlation between worse treatment and worse behavior, and course-corrected. The trouble was that even going wildly the opposite direction made th

We noticed a correlation between worse treatment and worse behavior, and course-corrected. The trouble was that even going wildly the opposite direction made things better... but just a somewhat-nicer circle of hell, and achieved only at immense time-cost (consistent long stretches of positive 1-on-1 attention, regardless of behavior, amounting to hours a day per kid, were necessary to have any notable effect) that wasn't going to be tenable long-term while keeping all the other plates of life (and we've got a pretty damn easy one, otherwise) spinning—plus, you can't really do that when they're in school, and neither can the teachers. And that still wasn't enough to get us out of hell, it was still really bad. Meds (& therapy—but if this miss that for a couple weeks, nothing bad immediately happens, while if they miss the meds even one day...) did the trick. Amazing. We can just tell them stuff, and they mostly listen. We can talk to them about something they just, moments ago, did that was wrong, and they know what we're talking about rather than being genuinely confused, and will not just commit to do better, but will actually try and maybe not immediately repeat the behavior, even entire minutes (LOL) later, and almost never start to just absentmindedly do it again while we're still talking to them about it. Punishments or harsh reprimands are (and were, after we caught on to those being not just ineffective, but counter-productive, even in very mild forms) reserved for immediate safety problems that can't wait for a touchy-feely approach, or many-times-repeated bad behavior, and don't usually result in hours of backlash-behavior later, as they used to, and do usually have an overall-positive effect. They notice straightforward natural-consequence-type correction and respond to it, rather than its having zero effect whatsoever. But, yes, we can add 2 to N for worsening treatment being the opposite of helpful for (at least our) unmedicated very-ADHD kids, for sure. That was definitely something we saw.