Ritalin Debate: Some Experts Doubt Existence of ADHD

Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com) ^ | April 18, 2003 | Patrick Goodenough

[Marie]

Everybody's got a cool screen name but me. :o(

Yeah. My screen name is REAL imaginative! ;-)

[Politicalmom]

I don't know if it will help you, but "The Out of Sync Child" is a book that was very helpful to me. It disusses sensory problems. My son was helped quite a bit by occupational therapy, although medication has been much more effective.

[nkycincinnatikid]

bump

[cupcakes]

Laz,
I used to be like others here and then I saw what meds, once the right combo was found, did for my children's cousin. She is a completely different child for the better and believe me if any child had the kind of support and nurture to do better on behavioral restraints alone, it was this child.
I've also seen similar behavior to what those with ADHD go through with my mildly autistic son. He is not medicated currenlty, but like I noted a post or two up, I have considered it to deal with rages that are completely uncontrollable. The naysayers would do well also to recognize that some of us have other children who we can compare these children next too. Why would they think we had issues with discipline when our other 2 kids are just wonderful in behavioral areas? Until I dealt with my own child who can be impulsive to a dangerous level, hyper, non communicative, and out of control when angry, I never knew what it was like to deal with a child who is absolutely non-responsive to discipline. My son doesn't talk and this just adds to his raging and impulsiveness.
These conditions do exist. I do believe things like ADD are overdiagnosed, but certainly there are children who can not even be responsive to behavioral cues until their hormones or whatever are brought into right order.

[cupcakes]

Not this girl. I've always known I am a weak multi-tasker. I bet I would qualify for attention problems with the things that I exhibit as a female, but I've never been treated for it. I often wonder since I am this way and my husband is naturally this way as a man, if it contributed to our son being more prone to autism which is an extreme of your average boy.

[cupcakes]

BTW, although I have a difficult time with my son, when I say he's autistic, I always second that by describing him as boy times ten;-)

[tx4guns]

My mom and girlfriend being public school teachers, they can tell you that ADD does exist, but it is more rare than not. From what they tell me, the vast majority of kids on medication don't need medicine. They need parents who aren't afraid to be parents, not friends. A good dose of whoop-a$$ once in a while can work miracles in these kids. Discipline is critical for young kids IMHO. The lack of it turns them into irresponsible adults a lot of times. I got my butt spanked, and I turned out OK.

[cupcakes]

Yup, we are having those issues with my autistic son. He is only 4 now and we are working hard to give him more time for behavioral things to work, but if he continues this even a year or two from now as strong as he is, we will have to do something to control him and at that time we will have to seriously consider medications.
I suppose you've had the "honor" of dealing with autistic rages? Or the insomniac autistic child--argh!
We are expecting another son and I gotta tell you I am downright scared that we will have a repeat with him. It is why we were really hoping for another daughter this time around.

[cupcakes]

BTDT--I'm home, have been for years. Hasn't done a thing to quell rages in my son.

[cupcakes]

That could be a component. I know for the longest time I couldn't figure out why my son would vomit a couple of times a week. We finally realized that he never outgrew the lactose intolerance to milk like the doctor said he would so we put him back on lactaid.
He also gets terrible rashes still if he eats too many acidic foods like oranges, orange juice, lemonade, etc.

[Marie]

I watched as he walked home from the bus stop after school, and saw that a fly captured his attention...he followed it out into oncoming traffic trying to swat at it.

Did it ever occur to you that this behavior is normal for a child, especially a boy? It's a sign of immaturity, but also a male, lazer-beam focus that would make him a wonderful hunter, builder, warrior. I've seen boys climb into danger to achieve a small goal (see the bird's nest) without even thinking about the potential for disaster. It's a struggle for most male children to learn caution, but that's the male brain. It's something they have to develop into and be taught all at the same time.

[cupcakes]

I'll give you that. I have an awful hard time with my autistic son. My husband certainly handles him better, even if that means he has to be restrained to keep from banging his head or breaking toys.

[cupcakes]

FourPeas,
Our stories sound similar. So much so. I had the same attitude as you and now I'm dealing with my autistic son and I plan to consult a doctor once I give birth to finally look into my situation as well. I have problems like your hubby does and have for years. It is something if I am to homeschool again next year I *MUST* address to be effective as a teacher to my children. It's hard to suck up your pride and admit you were wrong. You are a big person to do so.

[Marie]

My problem with the ADD diagnosis is that it's just to flip. My son was diagnosed with ADAD and I fought it for FOUR YEARS. Did he have issues? Yup. Was it ADHD? Nope. He was a celiac and nobody knew it. Something just told me that his behavior was a symptom, not a diagnosis. It took a long time to figure it out and a lot of doctors told me that I was wrong, but I didn't give up. Now he's calm, stubborn, happy, imaginative, bored and willful, but he's also managable... "normal."

Another thing that irritates the h#ll out of me are the mothers who tell me, "My little Johney's problems can't be food issues. I've tried eliminating everything I can think of and nothing works. My son's pediatric GI told me that it takes SIX MONTHS for the brain to BEGIN recovering from a food intollerance. He also told me that he has CURED EVERY CHILD WHO HAS COME TO HIM OF ADD, ODD, ADHD, etc by changing their diet for a period of one year. But one year is way to long for most parents and schools to wait, so they just medicate the kids and sigh and say that there's nothing else to do. ("I took my son off everything; sugar, red dyes, gluten, milk for a MONTH and he didn't improve..." It takes 6 months! That's like saying, "I've been pregnant for a whole month and the baby didn't come. I guess I need surgury to have it removed." These things take time, for the love of Pete!)

ADD symptoms are also the same symptoms a child will show when they are sick. When they are tired. When they are in chronic pain and can't even pinpoint, verbalize or understand what they are feeling they will act out. When they are hard of hearing or have a tummy ache. When their body chemestry is wrong or they are missing a vital mineral or vitamin. It's too darn easy to drug 'em into behaving and ignore the fact that there is a very high probablity that something else is wrong. We expect all kids to fit into this nice neat little package and get very upset with them when they won't comply. We insist that something must be wrong with their brains then pour medications into these same brains and say that we're treating their illness.

And it's the public schools that insist we fall in line.

[Marie]

Sorry 'bout all the typos. Got </I>distracted</I> by a phone call! LOL!

[sauron]

Hannity mentioned that there cannot be ADD because an ADD kid can play video games and not lose concentration.

That argument was absurd. Video games have such a high level of sensory output that it satisfies the ADD's need for a high level of sensory input.

I raised this with my son's teacher, and she gave the same stock reply you just did.

I then changed it to "plays chess" for over four hours without loss of concentration and maintaining an ability to sit quietly still, and the teacher's argument failed flat. Where's the sensory input in chess? ;)

You should have seen the look on her face. She clearly wasn't ready for THAT. She was dumbfounded, and her expression revealed it. (I still derive satisfaction from that memory.)

In most cases, it appears to be an internal discipline issue.

In fact, I always refer to ADD as "Adult Deficiency Disorder"--not enough adult supervision in the young kid's life.

[Lazamataz]

I then changed it to "plays chess" for over four hours without loss of concentration and maintaining an ability to sit quietly still, and the teacher's argument failed flat. Where's the sensory input in chess? ;)

Curiously, I, too, played a lot of chess. I have a particularly vicious case of ADD, to this very day. This might be something that ADD people do. We do a lot of mental gymnastics when playing chess. We're constantly analyzing patterns. Maybe that's the sensory input?

If you don't believe in ADD, ask my ex-wife. She'll tell ya. When I got on ritalin, as an adult, I became much easier to live with.

[luckystarmom]

Supposedly allergies also play a big part in ADD/ADHD. A kid with allergies can have the same symptoms.

Unfortunatly, a lot of parents do medication as the first thing they try.

[luckystarmom]

My daughter with cerebral palsy has had lots of issues with rage. How have you dealt with it with your autistic son?

The pediatrician and neurologist have been useless. The pediatrician has always advised us to use timeouts, and that should work. If it doesn't, then I must be doing something wrong.

I don't know if he's ever seen a kid with half a brain (literally), who is very tired, very smart, and can't talk at 4 1/2. I will say that my daughter is better now, at 7. She's talking better, and she handles being tired better. She also handles being disciplined better. I'll put her in her room now, and she does seem to calm down pretty fast.