My doctor said that if you take medication for ADD/ADHD and do not have it, then the medicine will do nothing for you. So, if you take it and it works, yay...I'm all for it! (The converse it NOT true, if you take medication and it doesn't work, it DOES NOT mean you do not have ADD/ADHD. It simply means you need to try others.) My son was diagnosed at a young age, and one of my daughters at a later age (12?). Lo and behold, I too was diagnosed, as an adult. I find the medicine helps me to be able to stay on task at work, and it reliminates that "helter-skelter, willy-nilly" feeling I get in my head which prevents me from getting started on something instead of walking around the house aimlessly not really getting involved in anything that needs to be done--or not finishing it. I sometimes say it's like my brain feels like a ball of yarn. ...... But to answer the question, I think the vast majority diagnosed do have a condition we call ADD/ADHD. I don't necessarily think there is something major malfunctioning in the brain. I think it is possibly because our lifestyles have evolved into doing everything at a fast pace, and those who can't keep up, or step it up when necessary, if you will, come to realize that their inability to focus/concentrate, or start and finish a task in a timely manner or at all, is impeeding their productivity. That wasn't such a problem decades ago when everything you did wasn't so easily quantifiable and people may not have been held as accountable for the volume of production as now (production being whatever it is you are supposed to get done. At your job, in the home, at school, etc). And again, there are so many things pulling a person in different directions now adays that it is difficult to cram it all in. idk, but that's what I think!! View Thread