Posted on 03/02/2008 7:56:16 PM PST by Coleus
all i can say is... duh
I’ve watched quite a few ADD/ADHD kids “grow up” on these drugs. Short-term, the kids use their “problem” as an excuse for bad behavior. Long term, they are absolutely devastating.
Not only does it not help the kids with academic development, long term, but it ages them prematurely.
One thing it does do is make the kids sit still- lots of people prefer that to squirming kids who need tending. They certainly focus short term on what is in front of them, but so do autistic children.
I’ve seen girls with their period at 8, and boys losing their hair at 16.
In boys particularly, it is known to cause sterility.
Are there a few kids who benefit from it? Maybe.
Should it be used as frequently as it is? No way.
One of my sons fits the description, too. As young as age 4, people were commenting on his unique behavior. ;-) He put the kids diagnosed with ADHD to shame... lol. His energy level was so over-the-top, and he refused to pay attention or focus on anything, except things that interested him. So, there was no way I was putting him in school. (With all the talk of “diversity”, the schools are really about conformity.)
Then, a few months ago, at his checkup, a doctor blamed his behavior on homeschooling. He wasn’t responding to her, making eye contact, etc. (I said nothing, just waited to see what she would say.) Her evaluation: He needs more socialization. I described how busy his schedule was (until recently) and how much “socialization” he had, and that we need a break from it all. But she was anti-homeschooling all the way. I said nothing to sway her into thinking ADHD because I’d rather she blame me and homeschooling than label him in his medical files. But, needless to say, we’re not returning to that doctor.
He is a sweet kid who is creative and imaginative and a dreamer. He has boundless energy, but he’s bullied by other kids. He advances quickly in subjects that interest him, but he finds schoolwork (math, English) boring and progresses at a slower pace in them. But, that’s the benefit of homeschooling for him: He can work at his own pace, not the state’s.
Drugging a child for what is generally not a problem is insanity.
Most who are on this stuff are guilty of nothing more than A) being relatively strong willed boys, or B) being a bit later bloomers than the average in maturity or C) Are undiciplined and spend too much time passively watching TV or Video games or D) A combination of those 3.
My nephews have been put on this stuff for ADHD, he came and stayed with me for 2 weeks, and forgot his meds... it was amazing after a few days of simply having discipline that his own parents didn’t place on him, how well behaved a child he was after a few days... no meds at all. Went back home and became a holy terror again.
My daughter is taking “crap” that alters her brain, and I am very thankful.
She has a seizure disorder.
Kids can look normal, but sometimes they really are messed up in the brain.
Snuck some Red 40. Spell check don’t work when it’s spelled right and proof reading is your friend....
ADHD is a comorbid with lots of other problems (autism, brain damage, serious speech problems (apraxia), etc).
I think if a child has something else going on in his brain, and he can’t learn at all then it may be a good idea to put them on medication.
My daughter has brain damage which has caused speech problems. She didn’t really talk until she was 5, and at 11 she still has lots of speech problems (immature speech and still hard to understand).
Anyway, she doesn’t have attention problems, so her therapist have always been able to work with her. That’s one of the reasons why she can talk and she is at grade level in school.
However, if you added ADHD to a child with speech problems, I can imagine it would be horrible. The kid would be too unfocused to learn how to talk. I know people take talking for granted, but there are some people who do not learn to talk. I know of parents who have put their kids who can’t talk on ritalin, and then the kids have learned how to talk. It would be worth the risk for those kids.
You’re an adult, capable of making decisions for yourself about medication. This practice of medicating kids to control their behavior is what is most worrisome.
Here’s a shameful admission: I experimented with drugs in high school to calm down. You could say I self-medicated. I was a nervous wreck/overly-excitable as a 13yo freshman, and other students would comment on it. I told my mother, and she took me to a doctor who gave me little green pills he said would calm me down. Turns out, they were “sugar pills”, and I truly believed they were calming me down until I found out they were a placebo. ;-)
A friend knew the school drug dealer and suggested I try smoking pot to calm down. So I did and would smoke pot - with my newly-found friends ;-) - once in awhile. Then I was introduced to “speed” (amphetamines), preferred them, and took them several times, so I understand the effect: It’s a calm, cool, self-confidant, everything-is-right-with-the-world feeling, and then you crash.
Luckily for me, other students gave me something bad once as a joke, and I never touched drugs again. That was back in the 1970’s. Back then, our parents blamed us, and rightfully so.
Today the adults are to blame. The schools are pushing drugs, and doctors are over-prescribing them. There’s a problem with kids selling prescription drugs to each other at school. (Gee, I could’ve told them that would happen. These rocket scientists didn’t foresee that?) Kids are being taught that drugs are the way to control your behavior. It’s not a valuable lesson. They’re learning to blame something else - a condition. Nothing is their fault. It’s the condition.
I have never said there were no children with ADHD. I have met some that truly do have mental issues.. Most however diagnosed with it and subscribed ritalin et al.. are nothing more than typical boys in school situtaions where female teachers have ZERO idea how to handle rambunctious boys.
They want them to sit like little girls and when they don’t give them any outlet for their energies label them as problems and get them doped up on drugs.
I believe it. I'm sure that I would have been ADD (had the diagnosis existed). It was because I was bored with school.
Fortunately, in the earlier grades (when it really mattered) the teachers had enough initiative to find outlets for me. In 1st grade, I was teaching the "Dinosaur" modules to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Also, in the early grades, the teachers set me up as a "tutor" (no teacher's assistants back then) for some of the kids that were having problems reading.
The school administration - no help there at all - wanted to promote me from 1st grade to Jr. High. Idiots all. Fortunately, the teachers and my parents had enough sense to tell them to get stuffed and find an outlet for all that energy. I wish that I still had that much energy, I'd rule the world! :-)
Anyhoo - I think that there is a time and a place to use Ritalin. I also think that it's overprescibed by about 90% - its a quick fix. Lazy parents and lazier teachers make for a bad situation for the kids.
WBill Jr. has the same problems I did as a kid. This is going to be a fight, assuming that he winds up in Public Schools. Homeschooling is looking like a bigger and bigger possibility.
Do you use the ketogenic diet?
I can't see it as a positive. IMHO, beig slapped with a label like that would be a more negative thing than any drug.
Ritalin has the same long term affects as cocaine, in that it interferes with endorphins, resulting in depression, or anxiety. The kids that take ritalin long term often end up on anti-depressants, which eventually stop working, as well. You just can’t keep drugging kids for the rest of their lives.
Homeschooling is a godsend in situations like that. It’s worse today than when we were kids and you’re clearly younger than I if you have little ones.
What’s that kind of diet? I’m not familiar with it.
Many years later I saw a follow up story on the same family. I think the daddy had a foundation to teach people about the diet.
It's high fat. I'll see what I can find.
Many years later I saw a follow up story on the same family. I think the daddy had a foundation to teach people about the diet.
It's high fat. I'll see what I can find.
We’re not there, but I’ve read about it. I know some other moms whose children are on it with good success.
However, those children have not done well on meds and they were having lots of seizures.
My daughter is doing okay on lamictal, so we’re not ready to try the diet. The diet is very intensive and I think it would be very difficult to keep an 11 year old on it.
I think it would be easier with a younger child where you really control everything they are eating, or an adult who is totally willing to commit themselves to it.
I just see my daughter sneaking cookies at school.
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