Aimee....Mitzi was diagnosed with adhd at the first of the school year. I of course already knew she was. Her father is add & adhd. There are MANY mixed feelings on this diagnosis. I raised a child (Jimmy) in the 70’s with this when it was called hyper kinetic syndrome......I cut out all the sugars ,red dyes and kept Jimmy on a very strict diet. It still was not enough ........ medication did not enter the picture until he was 11 or 12. He struggled through school and was heldback several times. The little fellow use to come home in tears and cry on report card days. His self esteem took it emotional toll and behavior problems and puberty ran hand in hand. Eventually he became an adult with add and after losing job after job and relationship after relationship  &  several suicide attempts  he has chosen to get on medication and just recently he told me he can’t imagine going to work wiTh out his meds. ADD is a very real disorder& it can be called many things. It is hereditary and you can tell once you take meds. I do not by any means want to seem like I am pushing for the drug companies...... but I know that add and adhd have a connection with depression. The chemical receptors in ones brain does not fire all the time causing your transmitters not  to reach the full realm and there for lack of attention follows and I honestly believe the hyperactivity is the desire to act out to distract anyone from labeling you stupid or dumb. One would rather be a troublemaker than labeled with a shortcoming as some think add adhd is. Most people with add and adhd are extremely intelligent and very smart. Supposedly Einstein had this  (although I wonder who tested him) All I can speak of is how add has affected our lives and treatment has helped  us. If you have lived it you can recognize it and are so relieved after being diagnosed as they actually have a name and an illness for this short attention span one has lived with for years and thought they were stupid or different than the normal joe blow. I am one happy mother who is happy my son took his meds as he would have committed suicide or been in prison by now.  If he is not on his meds everyone runs form him as he scares people because he lives so close to the edge and challenges life by being the daredevil. I was the same way..... as was his father. So to make a long story short. Our whole family is on meds except Don  my husband...(not my childrens father) And as my mother always said insanity does not run in our family ...it gallops !!! LOL  Add and adhd is very much a REAL problem. Been there done that! ps......I think there is also a link with alcohol and add and adhd....manic depression...and bi polar. Just my opinion as all of the above has been in my family at some time. MMMMMMM Now isn’t that a pleasant thought ? LOL