Well I can tell you first hand it increases social anxiety in a large number of youth. While on Ritalin throughout junior high and high school I was too speeded up and nervous to approach anybody, boy or girl I was too nervous and socially awkward to branch out socially to anybody. 7 years of school 0 new friends made. Forget trying to fuck chicks, I was unable to make new guy friends, let alone try to figure out how girls worked. In my youth I barely saw my father, he left for work before I woke up in the morning and had to work weekends as well so I had no masculine role model in my life. There was a post on here yesterday about how single mothers sabotage their children, and this really hit the head on the nail for my life. In some of the sidebar things, I think it was the misandry bubble or manipulated man, they say that women only care about what other women think... my mother cared more about how I appeared to her friends than she did my own well being. After being medicated for 7 years I learned that the reason I was put on these pills was because my friend's mother said that my behavior seemed off while I was at his house. So because AWALT and she cares more about her immediate social circle than her family, she feels that she needs to put her son on methamphetamine so that other parents will like him more because she is so self conscious about what other people think of her parenting. What sane human adult knowingly puts a 9 year old on meth! It sickens me to the core that a woman will sacrifice the well being of her child and put him on METH so that other women will think she is being a good parent. I have seen lots of posts about how single mothers are narcissists who think they are doing great for their child when the reality is the child hates his existence. I know my post does not read well, I am currently in what many of this sub call the anger phase/rebound from medication. I am 21, have been off Ritalin for 5 years now, after taking it for 7 years I still have 2 more years to go before I have been off the drugs for as long as I have taken them. For anyone who reads this, no matter what any other parents say NEVER PUT YOUR KIDS ON RITALIN, ADDERALL, OR OTHER SUCH STIMULANTS AT A YOUNG AGE. THESE DRUGS FUCK WITH THE DOPAMINE IN YOUR BRAIN, IT IS SOMETHING NO CHILD SHOULD EVER HAVE TO GO THROUGH. The only thing that makes it worse for me is this, I was put on pills at age 9 in 2004, diagnosis rate of ADHD was around 8% back then 13 years ago. now it it at 13%, so the number of CHILDREN who will be put on life ruining medication this is 1 MILLION greater than the number of CHILDREN who were put on similar medication in my year. I consider myself lucky, I found this thread and a few others that expose the lies many of us are fed during our youth. Most are not so lucky, on this thread they are called BB nice guys, many of them have been fed not only lies, but medications to regulate their dopamine levels so they become complacent with their shitty situation.