Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder

The attention deficit/hyperactive disorder ADHD epidemic has become very popular and has almost seemed to grow with the introduction of each new anxiety medication.
There is a problem with the way we approach the epidemic. No one knows for sure the exact number of affected children. The counts may be way off.
The symptoms of ADHD and disposition of doctors to diagnose the disorder have caused extreme rates in allegedly affected children. One school district reports a diagnosis percent of 60, which is extremely high and highly improbable (Wasowicz, 2006).
Part of the problem is that ADHD is an umbrella term assigned to a cornucopia of symptoms that can be the diagnosis of almost any mental anxiety. James Maddox of George Mason University says "it's hard to know if the instance is increasing or if we're willing to use that category and label children who 15-20 years ago would have been considered simply active or exuberant" (Wasowicz, 2006).
The cost of treating the epidemic is as extreme as the diagnosis rate. It is estimated that $3.3 billion annually will fix the mental problems of America's youth (Wasowicz, 2006). But that figure does not even calculate the cost of side effects, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively. How unfortunate is it that we can very closely estimate the dollar cost but not the amount of actual patients suffering, or the number of alternatives to medicine.
In a school setting teachers treat each student as an individual with a disability. But we don't classify them as being medicated/non-medicated students. Teachers must not teach around the idea of medicine, for instance, and give a usually quiet student more consequences when he or she hasn't taken their medication and acts up accordingly. Teachers should also be careful not to assume a student's specific learning disability is a result of ADHD simply because they're active in class. A close relationship with the school psychologist is invaluable for this reason.
In short, the ADHD epidemic has become an epidemic in and of itself. It has become a mathematical mess, and not all the damage can be measured in sheer numbers, making it an even more arduous task to overcome. The arduous task seems unnecessary if there is a possibility to find another way to deal with the problems that arise from its alleged presence, particularly a non medicinal one. Which begs the question: is ADHD really a disorder at all?