My family has been consumed by adhd since my oldest son was born.  Since he was a baby he would sleep very little and as he grew older he was in one accident after another, causing mayhem wherever he went.  My brothers and sister used to call him the tazmanian devil because he was like a tornado.  They would collect their kids and leave whenever we arrived.  He was diagnosed in fourth grade after years of put downs and constant punishment in school.  Getting diagnosed back in 1986 was no help.  The school personnel were so ignorant about the matter that all they did was label him as learning disabled and placed in a class for slow learners.  This of course bored him to death and caused him to act out even more.  By the time he reached highschool he was a mess emotionally, and we opted to homeschool him to salvage whatever selfesteem was left.  MY son is 28 years old now and a diesel tech.  He is married with two children and still struggling with his adhd.  His 3 year old daughter has adhd as bad as his.  She has not been diagnosed yet but has an appointment next month with a psychologist.  My daughter is not adhd, but her son was diagnosed at age 5 and he is on concerta now.  He is doing really well in school.  We opted for medication to save him the pain and sufferring his uncle sufferred.  My younget son is 20 and has been misdiagnosed since childhood, first they said he was spoiled, then that he was lazy and then when he attempted suicide they said he had major depression, now they say he has dysthemia a chronic very disabling form of depression.  All along I have insisted to all his myriad of Psychiatrists that he is ADD.  I Hope his new doctor will see it and treat it because he hasn't had any quality in his life since he was 13.  He hasn't finished school, is very afraid of failing so he won't try anything.  Oh, and my husband wakes up at six every morning works in concrete construction , gardens, carpenters, mechanics and does everything and anything until 8 at night and crashes for the night.  He has been doing this while supporting me and our  five children as sole provider.since we were both 19.  I think we are the poster family for adhd and adult adhd.  Many have said that one outgrows adhd, not true!  My husband and two sons can attest to that.  We still have many hurdles ahead of us we lost our son in November 2004 in an auto accident, he was only 22 years old.  His death has caused severe emotional problems for everyone, but especially on both my adhd sons.  I know now that medication is not the evil people made it out to be when my oldest son was young, if we had given him meds he would have been happier and more successful.  He wants to try meds now to save his marriage and his career.  My younger son is willing to try anything to start living and my grandchildren will benefit from our experience  to help them lead better lives with thier disabilities.  I have always been very informed on the subject of ADHD and yet I have been ignored and dismissed when advocating for my sons.  My advice is, fight for your kids as long as their is breath in you.  What else do we have and if we lose them suddenly we'll know that we loved them completely.