I think ADD Mom that you are basing your opinion solely on your own, personal experience of receiving meds as a child (way back when :-) and have not researched the condition very much. I think you made a typo typing "odd" instead of "add" and do not even realize that ODD is a wholly separate, very serious disorder of children that now has taken this thread in a different direction.

ADD/ADHD is not a phase children or adults go through. Your term "phase" tells me that your knowledge of child development may not be very deep either as development happens, naturally, in "stages", and is not just certain types of behavior a child deliberately and willfully engages in for awhile to make the adults around him miserable ADD/ADHD is a problem with development and yes, it can be very hard to tell when there is a legitimate problem in development and when it's just a problem in nurturing style that can be corrected. That's why we have child specialists and doctors to help us determine which is which.