You point out that most children can be seen as meeting the DSM criteria for ADHD. This is one of my major criticisms of the system. The criteria are so elastic that virtually anybody can be embraced.

Your identification of sleep deprivation as a major issue is profound. In my view, lack of sleep plays a major role in many childhood problems. The APA position is that children behave dysfunctionally because they have mental illnesses. My position is that the reason for dysfunctional behavior is almost always something much more mundane, such as ineffective discipline, or, as you point out, insufficient sleep. Tragically, the APA has already trumped this position, by including lack of sleep as a mental disorder in its own right! And of course, the treatment is: sleeping pills. So the dysfunctional behavior is a mental illness, and the lack of sleep is another mental illness! And business is booming for psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies.

I am glad that your parents had the good sense to reject the “official” medical wisdom and that they didn’t send you down the “primrose path” of diagnoses and drugs. The pressure on parents to toe the line in this area is truly enormous. Parents are told that the child has an “illness” and needs “medication.” “If your child had diabetes, wouldn’t you want him to have insulin? Well this is the same kind of thing.” Etc., etc. The vehemence with which these spurious positions are promoted has to be seen to be believed. So your parents did well to resist this.

Finally, you mention sleep routine. In my view this is a critical component of child-rearing, but one which is often neglected. Children are allowed to stay up very late perhaps to watch a TV show or to finish homework that should have been done earlier, etc. But they still have to get up early to catch the school bus. The results are as you describe.

Once again, thanks for your comment. I’m glad things are going well for you.