CRITICS CALL ATTENTION TO THE RITALIN ‘CRAZE'

New York Post ^ | 8/11/02 | ANDY SOLTIS

[kattracks]

August 11, 2002 -- Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the disease at the heart of the Ritalin debate, is the most researched, most controversial - and perhaps least understood childhood ailment.

Once called hyperkinesis or attention-deficit disorder (ADD), ADHD has been diagnosed in 2 million current elementary-school-aged kids, says the National Institute of Mental Health.

[backhoe]

They're behind the curve:

Rx Nation- are our children being medicated to death?

[Jumper]

Its my understanding that as schools become less gender friendly to boys while tayloring the educational environment to meet the needs of girls specifically - that boys are increasingly being diagonasted and prescribed this drug.

It is my belief that young boys' needs would be better served without the PC discrimination, e.g., no cowboys & Indians (violence traits...), etc., and be allowed to be boys vs. dulling their senses and making them uncooperative wards of a school system which is more like community service and punishment to young men.

I have seen studies that indicate boys are prescribed this drug at an increased 60% level from 5-years ago (the statistics of which sex is prescribed this drug corallates directly with the gender preference towards education and females).

[ChasingFletch]

I apologize for this being off subject, but I knew no other way to do this. Speaking of the problems of the drugging of the kids these days and, on the other hand, their inability to perform the simplest mental tasks..........did anyone see the story that was posted, I believe on Friday, about the guy who went to a store, the "cash register" stopped functioning, and the salesperson and her supervisor were unable to give him change for his $20.00 bill. It was very funny and illuminating. Somehow I think 2 cents were in the title, but I can't find it that way. Sorry, about the interruption!

[spetznaz]

The Ritalin craze

What is especially worthy of note is that in other industrially developed nations (excluding obviously Canada which is basically a semblance of the US) 'diseases' like ADHD are virtually non-existent and having kids getting prescriptions of Ritalin is harder than spotting a Siamese White Elephant smack in the middle of Trafalgar square!

This is purely an American manifestation, and chances are there is such a great propensity to immediately 'identify' a problem and 'treat' it that any kid who shuffles in class is suddenly attention deficient. American schools and psychologists seem to possess an insatiable penchant for intermingling whatever they see with some ailment, syndrome or malady!

Actually I have two examples. Recently there was a case overseas (either in Britain or the Netherlands) where this American kid was attending an 'American system' grade school over there for expatriates. Due to his learning difficulties the school suggested he was ADHD afflicted and Ritalin was prescribed. However the mom 'rebelled' and took the kid to an indigenous school, which tried different tutoring techniques on the kid, and the child became 'normal.' Nevertheless the American school would have been willing to pump the kid full of drugs because they believed he was ADHD and required ‘therapy.’

The second example concerns my childhood. Up to the end of Standard 3 (third grade to those without an international decoder) i had been told i was in possession of what was the equivalent of ADHD then! This was in Kenya and i used to go to one of the local schools there (which by the way have such a tough education system that when it pertains to the level of technical knowledge and intellectual acumen required it is ranked 3rd hardest in the world after India and Taiwan). Anyway i was attending this private Kenyan school and i was, in all regards, a total incoherent imprudent idiotic drooling sot!

Hence the school said i was 'learning disabled' and all that mumbo jumbo, and at least one paper was written of 'my case.'

However after my 3rd Grade scholar year concluded I went to stay with my Granny for 3 weeks (she used to be a teacher …although personally I prefer the title educator), and she taught me the Alphabet and everything is those three weeks. What she did is she discovered my particular learning style, and focused on it instead of just feeding me the daily sop that was dished out as education.

When I went to commence my Standard 4 I was ‘suddenly’ above average, and as the years progressed I just got better. Today I am in college in the states, final semester in finance, with a 4.0 GPA (with membership is virtually all the honor societies, as well as establishing a myriad of things like co-creating an Investment club and being in charge of student finances and campus budgets for the campus , as well as other functions……meaning I just do not chill with my nose in some tome or manuscript. Although to be honest with ya’ll I find the education task load in the States so simple in comparison to what I went through that I really do not study much for my exams yet still clock straight A’s. I remember my shock when I first came here to be doing things in my Sophomore class …I jumped Freshman…..that I was doing back home in form 2…..10th grade for you guys! Anyway back to the main topic).

And all that because my granny had the fortitude and astuteness to refuse what everyone else (and I mean everyone) had to say about me and teach me the way I needed to be taught. I would have been the poster child for Ritalin ( I was so bad in Standard 3 that I even refused to sit down on my chair but instead squatted on top of it like some ape). Yet in three weeks that state was turned around without much ado and enduringly.

And actually one of my friends here has a kid who has been classified as ADHD and ODHD and had been described as a hapless case, yet I spent around 2 months with him and now he seems well on his way to becoming better than his peers. And the first step was that his medicine was cut down ….and now he is actually the perfect lil’ boy yet he is without his medication).

And by the way do not get me wrong. I am not saying everyone with a kid that has been labeled ADHD should go and get them off their Ritalin! Nope, that would be foolish especially when you consider my chosen major is Finance and not medicine (I did want to become a doctor once but trust me the costs are prohibitive).

However what I am saying is that there is a huge inclination for psychologists in the US to prescribe medication for kids without ensuring the particular case requires it. And it seems to be increasing with every passing year. And if you really reflect of it there is no way statistically that many kids can have ADHD and yet the rest of the world somehow seems ‘immune’ to it.

However chances are some asinine psychologist in some ivory tower would say the reason for that is due to some ‘condition’ or ‘syndrome’ and then proceed to prescribe some new medication to ‘tackle’ the problem!

Ai yi yi!

Sometimes I wonder if these guys do not get paid to do that by drug companies that manufacture Ritalin et al! That is the logic conclusion (although I am sure it would be denied by all and sundry and I would be called a kook for even suggesting that).

However think of it ……what’s the deal with all the prescriptions! Conspiracy or not that is rather ‘strange.’

[grundle]

"Tales of Mathematical Inadequacy (Just imagine if he gave her $20.02!)"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/729329/posts

[piasa]

The schools also recieve additional funds for 'special ed' from the feds, so the more kids they put in special ed, the more the schools make.

[Nonstatist]

as schools become less gender friendly to boys while tayloring the educational environment to meet the needs of girls specifically - that boys are increasingly being diagonasted and prescribed this drug

That is exactly correct. One need go no further than that. It's a travesty and "educataional proffesionals" know this and could care less. Still, we hear about all the supposed institutional blocks against women while 60% of college entrants , and the majority of med school and law school student are women.

I don't how you reform a system with such an extreme bias built in. Without administering Ritalin, their only solution for the problem of "boys" seems to be expulsion.

[meenie]

Zombies are easier to control in school. Their learning process seems to suffer, hence the poor preformance records of a lot of our public schools. The illiteracy rate keeps increasing as the prescription rate keeps increasing. Also the rate of illicit drug use keeps increasing. A physiciatrist should be able to explain the reasons for this if he is competent.

[uncbob]

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the disease at the heart of the Ritalin debate, is the most researched, most controversial - and perhaps least understood childhood ailment.

If there is even such a thing

Nothing but the latest diagnostic FAD

[Lil'freeper]

If there is even such a thing.

Indeed, it is "diagnosed" by means of surveys and checklists given to his teachers. Personal and collective agendas too often make their way into the process. Behaviors, even the severity of them, can be misrepresented all too easily. Surveys filled out by dissenters, those who believe the kid is perfectly normal, are ignored as abberations. The kid ends up on drugs- often unconscious until they get the dosing figured out- and his formerly vivacious personality is dimmed and dampened. It is truly criminal.

[wotan]

Boys are nearly three times as likely as girls to be diagnosed, and white children are more than twice as likely to be labeled as having ADHD as Hispanic and black children, recent studies found.

Thank God someone has found the reason white males are so evil and is responding by drugging them while they are kids.

[guitfiddlist]

It might be just time to reseparate boys and girls, and chalk up another defeat for 60's "enlightenment" and "progressivism, man". Boys are completely wimpized by the school system - and the Ritalin is one way that the school State enforces it. But that's about the only thing they enforce. They don't enforce education standards, they don't enforce discipline, and they don't enforce any kinds of coherent social standards. In what I call the Britney Spears/Madonna effect, young girls often dress and act like little sluts and whores, and they're damn proud of it. They are out of control and this nation doesn't seem to A) recognize it B) think it's a bad thing C) want to do something about it.

Separate the sexes in school, and you won't have to drug the boys to behave like girls, and the girls might get bored dressing and acting like sluts for each other. And who knows, they might actually learn something.

But, it'll never happen in our ghetto-ized public school system.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

In my admittedly anecdotal experience, working with troubled kids, schools have gotten away with this in part because too many (usually liberal) parents have accepted the idea that "it takes a village" to raise their child, are unwilling to discipline themselves and want the government to "fix" their kid.

[FreedomFriend]

This is not a real disorder. It is called being a child, and it is parents who don't want to deal with their children who put their kids on this poison pill.

[goodieD]

Thank you for the insight into the other countries... I've always wondered if they dealt with things in the same way we do.

[goodieD]

Actually this was done in at least one "ghetto" school, with great success.. and of course the press covered it up as fast as could be.

[FreedomFriend]

You should see how many women teachers get onto boys for running and rough housing on the playground, things that we were allowed to do in school.

[ward_of_the_state]

Jumper, I believe you are on to something here. Many little boys have a lot of energy, and they need to be taught self control and how to channel the energy effectively. What really frosts me is that all to often alot of parents just don't want to deal it with and go along with the Ritalin because they're lazy parents!

I remember when I worked for the KidCare program for the State of Illinois, one mother called up very angry because she hadn't gotten her medical card yet, and her son had not had his Ritalin all weekend and she was nuts. I had to bite my tongue to keep from giving her a dose of reality.

I've heard of other successful ways of treating ADHD, such has enrolling a child in a martial arts program, where they really learn discpline, self-control, and how to focus. I definately would try that first before I ever put my kid on drugs!