Leading pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman says hyperactivity is “an illusion, a contrivance [and] a deception.” Without a shred of scientific evidence, psychiatrists claim the symptoms of this “disease” include: often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat; often leaves seat in a classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected; often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly; is often “on the go” and often talks excessively.      And what of Ritalin? Ritalin is actually an amphetamine-like drug, but in children it acts as a tranquilizer. It’s a Schedule II drug in the same category as opium, cocaine and morphine. Highly addictive, withdrawal from it can cause suicide. Side effects can include: loss of appetite, weight loss, inability to stay asleep, heart palpitations, drowsiness, joint pain, nausea, chest pain and abdominal pain. It can also cause hallucinations and increase bizarre and abnormal behavior.      But doesn’t that sound like some psychiatrist didn’t like Cobain being a typical child – full of energy and, in Cobain’s case, probably full of independent, even precocious action – and thus he put him on a highly addictive and physically dangerous drug to chemically suppress the child in him; to make him sit still?       And if all that is true, couldn’t it underpin everything from his later drug addiction, to his severe physical problems, to his irrational behavior and finally to his suicide?       There is more. In Cobain’s case, Ritalin kept him awake. Consequently other drugs were prescribed to counteract it – sedatives. And despite psychiatry’s claims that Ritalin can help a child study, Cobain was and remained a poor student who dropped out of high school.       After years of prescription drugs, the progression to street drugs was almost a given – a too often repeated consequence of Ritalin. For example, actress Jill Ireland’s adopted son was given Ritalin for childhood “hyperactivity.” She attributed this to his later use of cocaine and heroin. As did another mother, Faye O’Donnell, whose son was prescribed Ritalin and later continued it illegally, then took up “crank” and speed because it made him feel “normal” again. Cobain’s battle with heroin addiction would become widely known over the years, as he repeatedly tried and failed to resolve his dependency.      Compounding the Ritalin were untreated chronic medical conditions which effected him his entire life – including a curvature of his spine, which was aggravated by the weight of his guitar around his neck and a “burning, nauseous” stomach that often drove him to feelings of suicide. In fact, Cobain praised heroin as the only drug that “quenched the fire in his gut.” What nobody mentioned was that abdominal pain is a known side-effect of Ritalin intake by children.      His inherent artistic genius still intact, within a short time of leaving school, he recorded an album and signed with Geffen Records. However, increasingly crowded by the mental and physical legacy of prescribed, mind-altering drugs and ultimately street drugs, Cobain’s drug problem became critical. In desperation, wife Courtney Love and several friends enrolled Cobain in a psychiatric drug recovery center. Thirty-six hours after admission, he bolted from the program and in a small room above his garage in a quiet Seattle neighborhood, ended his life with a single shotgun blast to his head. Heroin and the addictive and potentially harmful psychiatric drug Valium were reportedly found in his bloodstream.      In his suicide note, he alluded to two things that had brought him to suicide – the stomach pain that had haunted him for years, and his agony over his music, about which he wrote, “I don’t have the passion anymore.” Chemically nullified, the music was gone and with this, Kurt Cobain was simply deprived of his prime reason for being.