Association between ADHD medication and depression: A 10-year follow-up

That sounds like me. My parents are stilled married and about to have their 45th anniversary. The extended family are all on their first marriage and in retirement age or raising families.

I started medication after 30, mental health is not a valid thing in my traditional family. According to them, my struggles were because I hadn't learned my proper place yet. Shame and ridicule from adults, and allowing others in the family to participate, was their idea of proper treatment that would 'fix' me into being a proper young lady. This after their first attempts to keep me in line failed. After that, exclusion within family events, that I was forced to attend, was the treatment of choice. At least less parental attention meant they couldn't keep reminding me how defective I was.

Unsurprisingly, I was very unhappy and depressed. Then I decided to love myself and see the absolute dysfunction this nuclear religious anti-mental health family idea is. Now, I am the most well-traveled, curious, adventurous and financially successful person in the family. That didn't happen until I was able to get the help I needed.

By help, I mean medication to do the core things only I'm responsible for in a world that doesn't fit into the way I function. Provide myself with food and shelter as an adult. I am on the higher end of hyperactive ADHD, also dyslexic - which I learned after getting medication for ADHD. I noticed similarities in my niece, I was told I didn't know what I was talking about and that I couldn't be dyslexic or ADHD since I could read and played video games for hours on end.

I don't like medication and it took me a long time to admit it to others, but the world isn't going to change to fit how I function. So, I use medication to fit myself into it for my basic survival needs.

>> As such we see more: single parent homes, abundance of medication, reduction in religion and adult social clubs, etc.

Reduction in religion is not a negitive, I personally experienced it as mental and shaming child abuse within a roman catholic/protestant home. Even now I experience it as other people overstepping themselves by trying to insert and force their righteous will onto my personhood and that of my nieces/nephews. I have a difficult time understanding how this is still allowed and even valued. Of course my family also doesn't see or remember any of this the way I do.

> After MPH treatment discontinuation... returned to baseline levels by 31 to 60 days

I never once suggested the parents were being neglectful in the sense they weren't giving it their all or trying their hardest. To your point, they're ragged, the ADHD children clearly need more work, etc. Further, I'm sure the "mental health professionals" recommended it to them.

I'm not going to share my personal experiences, but I truly do understand all of this and the struggle. I agree we have no proof about what causes ADHD, and those were all correlations. That said, I can say that in the past 100+ years our entire environment as a species has changed. We have some pretty unreasonable expectations on children and not all of them will want to build, some will want / need to lasso cattle, ride horses, hunt, etc (as we did for tens of thousands of years). They may not learn the way we structure our society, they may not respond well to the chemicals, the change in diet, what have you. It could simply be genetics.

The point I was trying to make was it's clear why depression is often correlated (there was no causation in this paper btw) with ADHD and ADHD drugs. Societal and family support is weaker than it was 80 years ago, there's lack of community, less dual-parent households, constantly being told "the world will end", etc That's kind of my point.

ADHD and depression are a disease, meaning they are a variety of symptoms that when presented together are diagnosed as impeding normal function. Those symptoms can have various causes and unless careful observation is made, it's possible to conflate or miss the cause, there may also be a multitude of causes. Treating the cause will "cure" the disease, much like you can cure (or at least dramatically reduce the risk of) type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise (the issue being your bodies ability to process glucose -- often due weight); but not Type 1 diabetes.

What I want to clarify is that I think this is a societal issue, but expressed it through personal observations. Having one parent clearly has an impact (less energy and capability to give to an ADHD child), having structured education, having screens, etc.

Give the example you stated around screen time; would your son be better off trying to learn to focus or playing outside? I honestly don't know for sure, but what is clear is that you care. I'm 100% sure you're doing your best to make that judgement call. My point, was that many times the parents don't care, they just want their kids out of their hair.

My general point was never to assign blame, it was to point out that diseases such as ADHD, Autism, depression, anxiety, etc to be diagnosed together. Further, that those diseases often correlate with some of the issues I highlighted. That doesn't mean it's all cases, but to ignore reality isn't going to help either. If we don't examine the causes and we just medicate -- it wont work well for the children. Medicate as needed, but if we can, we should try to cure the disease.