This book captures the bigger picture of all that is sacrificed with the pivotal decision to put a child on Ritalin or medications. There are so many physical and psychological side-effects that never get mentioned to the parent who is seeking help or being pressured by the school to do something about their child's behavior or poor performance at school. This book fights for the parent to have full disclosure of the truth. Parents are never told: "Oh by the way, once in a while a child dies simply by taking their prescribed medication, or by the way, children on stimulant medications have twice the future rate of drug abuse, or by the way, 1/3 of all children on these medications develope symptoms of obsessive compulsive behavior within the first year. Most doctors don't tell parents these things because they simply don't know. Most doctors get the majority of their information about these medications from the same pharmaceutical companies that have a tremendous vested interest in selling more and more medications each year. Most doctors can't tell parents the truth about the psychological side effects becuase they have no idea that simply giving children these drugs makes it near impossible for the child to deeply believe in themselves and their own power and resourcefulness but rather the child comes to be reliant on the hoped-for power of the medication. Worse, the message to the child is "neither you, nor your teacher, nor your parents, nor we the doctor can handle your