I told myself I'd never give my child medication to control them. Then I had my beautiful daughter who had inattentive ADHD so severe that it took her until she was five to potty train. It's so severe that we thought for a long while there that she had autism. No, she just can't concentrate long enough to have a conversation. We enrolled her special ed when she was four. She was in speech and occupational and physical therapy from ages 3 to 5. She's still in special ed with speech and occupational therapy at school.

When she started kindergarten last year she really suffered socially and academically. She wanted to play with the other kids but couldn't figure out how to just walk up and play. So she'd walk up and push, trying to engage them. Her self esteem was suffering. I remember dropping her off one morning and then going back to my car and sobbing because some sweet little five year old told me how bad my kid is. And I don't blame the other kid for saying that, but I also know that my daughter is so sweet and well meaning but she just couldn't figure out how to kindergarten.

We started her on meds on a Saturday and I was physically sick from the idea of giving my kindergartner a stimulative, but I couldn't stand by and do nothing while she suffered. It was amazing. I was able to have a conversation with her for the first time in her life.

A couple of weeks later I went for a parent-teacher conference and her teacher pulled out a notebook that my daughter wrote in every day. As she flipped through it there was page after page after page of scribbles. Until the first day at school on medicine. She had written her name, perfectly, for the first time in her life. I knew then that we absolutely made the right decision.

My daughter is repeating kindergarten this year and will probably always have difficulty learning and be socially quirky, but she's taught me not to judge situations because you never know the whole story unless you're living it.