Letters to the Editor
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Subjectivity: The disorder
This article might have been more interesting had it been about what the title actually implied (i.e., the apparent tendency to pathologise events or experiences that used to be considered a "normal" part of life. For example, is menarche really a "syndrome" that needs to be "treated" with prescriptions? is there something ethnocentric about how we diagnose and treat illness? etc. - please note here that I am not suggesting that PMS or ADHD is not a valid diagnosis, but rather that there is room for debate about the fluid and shifting classifications of the DSM and the cosy relationship between pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners).
Instead, however, we get the author's somewhat solipsistic, and very particular, experience of selling Ritalin. What does this tell me about prescription drugs in American culture? Nothing. It tells me that a dumb teenager managed to luck into some Ritalin (of which he was too naive at first to recognise the street value of) and then managed to capitalise on a ready and willing market that has always existed (if not Ritalin, then something else). Added to that, he presents the most tenuous of evidence as proof of ADHD medication addiction by stating that there has been a rise in the number of sleeping pills prescribed to teens. Is there a direct correlation because you imply there is? Has anyone actually done any research examining whether or not teens who are taking sleeping pills are also taking Ritalin? "Most popular theory" aside, I don't know the answer to that, but I would certainly expect the author of an article to at least do a google search and check.
While I certainly don't disagree with everything that's stated in the article - and there are some interesting points made - the article would have been much more persuasive if the author had focused on proving some of those points rather than delving into the anecdotal and writing something that comes off as rather light and dismissive.