You hit the nail on the head as I see it. ADHD is a symptom, a set of observable behaviors. That's that. Can a person give blood and have a lab report back that they have the ADHD virus? Nope. ADHD is a set of observed behaviors that are ascribed to a persons actions. Causes are too rarely considered in diagnosis before medical intervention is prescribed.

Unfortunately, as I've seen teaching public elementary and middle school students, the causation of ADHD behaviors is overlooked as too often we jump to medicating. Why spend the time and energy adjusting a child's sleep routine, diet, and behavioral expectations when an MD will, often all too happily, hand over prescription medications? Medications that will evenly regulate the emotional state of a child who instead might need a different diet, an improved sleep schedule, or some behavior support in the form of defined boundaries, expectations, and incentives for excellent behavior.

Medication for ADHD comes too often, too easy. Some cases, of course, may only be treatable via medical intervention. In my experience, though it is far too uncommon to speak with a parent that has run the gamut of searching for environmental factors that have lead to their child's ADHD. Most often a parent hands me a doctor's behavioral observation checklist to fill out, and then has the same child medicated two days later. Having a sedated child in my class may be easier than having a side-tracked wild-child, but it's just not the right way to do things.

I'm a bit ashamed to say that we ought to learn a bit from the French in this situation.