Excerpt from Bonus Chapter

1) Medication

The big gorilla in the room is medication, which almost all psychiatrists swear is the best treatment for ADD. It certainly is the fastest treatment for ADD. You can take a pill (or slap on a patch), you can focus. Until the medication wears off. But medication also incites heated debate in the ADD community as to safety, potential for addiction or abuse and effectiveness.

There are angry accusations that pharmaceutical companies “push” drugs to boost their bottom line. I know enough about corporate America to take those accusations somewhat seriously. But for some people, ADD meds are quite literally a life-saver. So here’s a look at the lineup of ADD medications. Most of these drugs are FDA-approved for children only, but doctors routinely prescribe them for grownups.

There are two kinds of ADD medications: stimulants and non-stimulants. in the stimulant corner are two heavey hitters: amphetamies and methylphenadate. In a strange paradox, stimulants can actually focus even the hyperactive ADD brain