LIVING THINGS - LIVING THINGS SINGER CRITICISES MEDICATING TROUBLED TEENS

LIVING THINGS singer LILLIAN BERLIN is still bitter about the way he was treated at school because of his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The American rocker insists treating minors with mood-controlling medication is the wrong approach, and is still incensed he was segregated from the "normal" high school students. He says, "My story is the story of what a lot of kids went through in the 1990s: The big whole ADD and ADHD phenomena kicked in. "Kids were getting diagnosed with ADD, which is just a glorified term for daydreaming. You'd get put on Ritalin or Prozac or Paxil, all these mood-controlling prescriptions, but since you were under the age of 18 you didn't have a choice. "You'd have your teacher or your parents telling you to do it. In my school, if you were diagnosed with ADD you'd be put in a special district for handicapped kids. I think that's obnoxious because every kid daydreams and every kid is wild. It's just that some kids are more wild and some kids daydream more than others. "I would get into fights. If you didn't take the pill, you could get expelled." Berlin was diagnosed with ADHD aged 12 - he was put into a class for slow learners and prescribed the drug Ritalin.