Released On 27 August 2026
Anna’s blog: Parenting a Child with ADHD
Anna reflects on parenting her child with ADHD and the pros and cons of medication
On a recent Channel 4 documentary, psychiatrist and author Max Pemberton argued that ADHD is a social construct rather than a genuine neurodevelopmental brain disorder. He speculated that children are being too readily medicated for ADHD.
In the programme, we meet 10 year old Mason who has ADHD and had been taking medication for 2 years. It has helped Mason to perform better at school, with significantly lower levels of disruption and greater ability to focus in class.
However, Mason did not feel happy on the medication, he felt he was less than his usual self. The documentary saw him take part in a 6 week trial where he stopped taking medication and using any technology and replaced unhealthy food with a healthy, high protein led diet.
The results were both interesting and sad. The first week was really, really tough on him. I thought that cutting all these elements of his life out ‘cold turkey’ was not kind. But as the time went on, the benefits of removing screens gave rise to creativity and lots of outdoor play. And without the medication he really seemed to find his personality again, and crucially, feel happier.
However, within two months of filming Mason was struggling at school and his mum made the difficult decision to re-introduce the medication. Watching the programme, I felt so strongly for his mother, seeing her try to make the best of two tough choices for her son – for now and for his future.
My 9 year old son also has ADHD and has been taking medication for nearly 2 years. Before he started, he struggled hugely at school, he would fidget and roam the classroom, often being told off by frustrated teachers. By the end of year 2 he was nearly a year behind in reading and writing.
Within 6 weeks of taking the medication, starting at a very low dose and increasing slowly, his brilliant brain was able to shine and he caught up nearly 2 terms worth of progress. I could see the change in his own self esteem build gradually – and the more it improves, the more he achieves.
But of course, none of us medicate our children lightly, it’s a big decision. There are pros and cons. For us the benefits far outweigh the challenges but with these benefits certainly comes dependency.
As our paediatrician says, learning basic social skills and norms and being able to participate in school life – and thrive in it – in these formative years is important. And medication enables this. And yet, as an old friend wisely said to me once, while stabilisers are brilliant, he’s still got to learn to ride the bike. I ponder this thought often and I bet other parents of medicated ADHD children do too.
My mum often asks me why so many people have ADHD now, or did they always and we didn’t know. I always say it’s the latter, and I believe that’s correct. I think my son is lucky to grow up in a world that understands him much better than previous generations would have.
However, I think that the heavily digitised world we live in does have a part to play. It was an important element in Mason’s experiment too. We battle with screen time in our house – my son could so easily be totally addicted to his ipad and we need to manage his time extremely carefully. I can see that the ‘unhealthy dopamine’ hits that games and short form content give him absolutely to contribute to his naturally poor ability to focus for longer periods of time.
This summer, I have read Sam Thompson’s book called ‘You, Me and ADHD’ to my son and I can’t recommend it highly enough. There is so much information available to adults, but Sam has written his book for children of around my son’s age – he describes it as the book wishes he could have read when he was a kid. He writes in such a relatable way for young children and my son loved it – constantly telling me how what I was reading resonated with him: ‘oh, being impulsive is like when I was desperate to buy a kite and couldn’t wait until after lunch’.
Importantly, and unlike the documentary, Sam brilliantly emphasises all the positives that come from having ADHD (often referring to it as a superhero’s superpower). And it’s full of practical things to try to help manage the tricky bits.
To all the other parents of children with ADHD out there: it’s tough isn’t it! While there is so much information and plenty more support available than in the past, it still feels like new territory with many big questions and decisions that only we can make for our children. My approach is to talk to my son a lot, so that we can both learn about his brilliant brain together. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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