<story><title>The Drugging of the American Boy (2014)</title><url>http://www.esquire.com/features/drugging-of-the-american-boy-0414</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>spodek</author><text>The comments here don&amp;#x27;t seem to capture the importance of the &amp;quot;Boy&amp;quot; part. Imagine we were mostly drugging girls. The headlines and reactions would be greater.&lt;p&gt;The story recalls how when Michelle Obama publicized #BringBackOurGirls, laudably promoting saving many innocent girls from kidnapping and worse, Boko Haram had been burning alive and hacking to death many innocent boys for years to little western outcry.&lt;p&gt;We keep changing our culture from the world our emotional systems evolved to handle. Then we declare groups sick who can&amp;#x27;t handle the change, which happen to be boys mostly, and drug them.&lt;p&gt;When we create problems for girls, we ask &amp;quot;what have we done?&amp;quot;, recognize we&amp;#x27;re hurting them, and try to change the culture we created stop hurting them. We may take time, but we don&amp;#x27;t want to hurt them.&lt;p&gt;When we create problems for boys, we say &amp;quot;we&amp;#x27;ll fix you,&amp;quot; as if they were broken. If boys&amp;#x27; behavior was adapted to a different world than sitting in rows for most of the day, why don&amp;#x27;t we change the culture we created to stop hurting them?</text></comment>
<story><title>The Drugging of the American Boy (2014)</title><url>http://www.esquire.com/features/drugging-of-the-american-boy-0414</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>FlyingSideKick</author><text>I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and given medication which made me feel numb and completely changed my personality. After a year or so my father decided to stop giving me the medication and I returned to normal which must’ve been hell for my teachers.&lt;p&gt;Besides science classes, I received Ds in every class through my sophomore year. At the time I looked like a failure but today Id consider myself happy and successful as I’ve travelled the world, become a father and started a number of innovative businesses.&lt;p&gt;ADD is a gift as it has enabled me to make creative connections that others simply don’t see.&lt;p&gt;If you have kids please focus on their long-term well being. Please love your kids and support the things they find interest in. Getting good grades being well behaved in class aren’t everything are not necessarily an indicator of future success.</text></comment>