SHEILA'S mild-mannered son comes into her room and gently starts brushing his mother's hair for hours on end, while she sits and does her cross-stitch. But she's also got a son who shouts, screams and throws whatever comes within reach when she asks him to tidy his bedroom.

"I've only got one child but it's like having two different people living in your house, depending on whether Daniel's taken his Ritalin or not," says Sheila, 34, from Northumberland.

She says Daniel, ten, showed signs of abnormal behaviour early on in life such as hyperactivity, lack of concentration and constant attention-seeking, but was only diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperacticity Disorder (ADHD) two years ago.

Since then, he's been taking amphetamine-based drug Retalin and his behaviour has been transformed.

"For the first few days, it seemed like he was a little drugged," says Sheila. "But after that, he was calm, yet alert, and full of energy and started to concentrate at school. It was like the destructive boy I had for nine years had been taken away and I'd got this lovely, well-behaved lad in his place."

Daniel first started showing ominous signs of hyperactivity as a seven-month old baby when he wouldn't sleep a wink at nights.

"He'd be able to sleep in his pram for a while when I took him out but he'd scream all night. I was a single mum at the time and I found it near-impossible to cope. I knew something was wrong because I've got two sisters with children and I knew the difference between a healthy and an ill baby. The sleepless nights really ground me down."

But the worst was yet to come. It was as a toddler that he began to have uncontrollable temper tantrums when he'd scream and throw things or wreck furniture.

"I would take him to the doctor every few weeks because I was so worried, but nothing was diagnosed," she says.

"I felt like the classic paranoid and over-protective mother every time - but I just knew something wasn't right." Most worrying for Sheila, he started harming himself for attention - biting himself until he bled and banging his head against the walls. He once tried to throw himself out of a window and was rushed to hospital twice for self- inflicted wounds.

Sheila got so desperate at times, she was on the verge of involving the social services to take him into care. The older he got, the worse he got. "I used to dread him coming home from school," she says.

"There was one time when I just couldn't cope so I phoned my mum in London and told her I felt like putting Daniel into care. She drove straight up to Tyneside and helped me through that terrible weekend."

Sheila has not been put off giving Daniel Ritalin despite reports of its supposed "dangers". Recent Selby train crash victim Professor Steve Baldwin, a child health expert at Teesside University, took a public stand against the increasing widespread use of Ritalin to treat children with ADHD.

He regarded the prescription of such powerful psycho-stimulants for children as abusive and advocated a non-drug approach - including special diets, counselling and psychotherapy.

Indeed, allowing Ritalin into Daniel's life wasn't a decision Sheila made lightly. She had already tried alternatives to control his manic moods - and nothing had worked.

"My health visitor and I had tried all sorts of things when he was younger. I started cooking without sugar or salt, reading labels in supermarkets for E-numbers, colours and additives, banned all sugar-drinks from the house and even put him on herbal drinks. Nothing worked and he remained completely unchanged. I felt so trapped and got to the point where I couldn't cope at all.

"I also felt isolated and embarrassed by it. I couldn't take him to the supermarket for fear of him causing havoc and I even watched him when he went to the toilet in case he hurt himself - he'd been known to stick his fingers down his throat and I felt like I couldn't control him at all."

Sheila feels strongly that counselling wouldn't have worked on Daniel when he was at his worst.

"Firstly, if I had gone to my doctor and asked for counselling for Daniel, how long would I have had to wait on a waiting list?

"Secondly, Daniel couldn't sit still for more than a minute, even at school, so I can't imagine he would be very co-operative with a counsellor. It may well have become another battle ground where he'd dig his heals in and cause a fuss, because he was being forced to go."

She didn't go into it blindly and did her homework before giving her assent to the drug.

"I didn't know a thing about ADHD or Ritalin at first, so I researched them on the Internet and I agreed to a one-month trial period of Ritalin because I was just desperate for Daniel to improve," she says. Daniel was put on a low dose of the drug for the first month while at primary school and closely watched for signs of side-effects by the school doctor.

The biggest factor which swung Sheila's decision was the question mark hanging over his educational future. Daniel's disruptive instincts did not stop at school times. He was marked out as the 'problem child' and Sheila and step-father Paul Westerby were forever being called in to hear about his latest disobedience. "He would be chucking crayons at the teacher or even throwing chairs around and he was considered to be a naughty child who wouldn't follow rules. I breathed a sigh of relief when the school doctor diagnosed his ADHD because he could finally be seen as an ill child, not a problem child."

His academic performance has come on in leaps and bounds in the past two years. From being bottom of the class, he passed his Sats with flying colours last year and he's passionate about maths, science and history. And when he's not pouring over his school work, he's out fishing with step-father Paul.

But there are blips in his behaviour and the old Daniel still rears his head at times - times when the Retalin fades and the old unrest starts creeping back into his system. Sheila lives on tenterhooks even now and dreads those moments when she hears banging from his room or hears him watching videos at 3am.

Admittedly, she's not entirely comfortable with her son taking such strong medication and the dose has increased from one to six daily tablets over two years. She was shocked to find she needs a doctor's letter to get the Ritalin through customs when she travels on holiday with him later this year.

She lives in hope that one day her little boy will come off the drug, but in the meantime, she feels it's his only solution. His educational future is all important for her and for him to achieve at school, the Ritalin is all important, too.