I've only seen one person to whom I thought forced ADD meds was approperiate for (I was a teacher for years), and he was an extreme case (couldn't stay in one spot if his feet were nailed to the floor). There have been a few others to whom I would strongly recommend them but they were adults...

To use the threat of taking one to a psychiatrist as a displicinary action suggests many things about your parents, doctors and schools; none of them good. If someone tried that with an adult, the adult would clearly have grounds for legal action. The situation is more complex with a minor, but the minor could challenge it in court (would basically be requesting that they become a ward of the court - not easy to win but not unheard of either). Why is it of questionable legallity? Precisely because it leads to issues like depression, suicide attempts, anti-social behavior, running away, etc. With adults, the only way to force them to take medications is to declare them legally insane or otherwise incompetent. With a minor, the issues are the same but one has to consider the competence of the minor to decide for themselves (older means more competent). In all cases, medical treatments only work well with the consent of the patient - clearly you didn't consent.

Even if you were a discipline problem, as opposed to being spacy and not getting your school work done, your schools should not have forced you to take medicine as they may have been seeing problems with the medication which your doctor should have dealt with (Ritalin does have side-effects and in some people, like myself, it causes mania).

To answer the your question, your story is unfortunately common even today.

I wish something was done when I was younger. But your parents were clearly not very savvy in how to handle behavior issues. psychiatrist are never supposed to be for punishment, but I can't blame you for how things are handled.

I guess Im wondering under what circumstances were you threatened with being taken to a psychiatrist?
what was going on when this happened ?
and did you parents talk with the school to make them take such actions.?
what would you say was your behavior at the time this all happened or days/momment before this would happened?
Im trying to understand .
Im positively not saying you did anything to deserve any unfair treatment because no one does.
I hope your feeling better too.

thanks
jess