NEW BOOK PILL-ORIES JFK JR.

New York Post ^ | 7/03/03 | BILL HOFFMANN

[kattracks]

July 3, 2003 -- John F. Kennedy Jr. had plenty of experience with powerful drugs when he convinced his wife, Carolyn Bessette, to take anti-depressants - the hunky son of JFK was regularly popping Ritalin to control a severe attention-deficit disorder, a bombshell book reveals.

[liberalnot]

why people pay attention to scum like the kennedys, or hollywood for that matter, i do not understand.

a friend of mine was upset once that a movie actress had died. yet, she was more upset than when her father died.

the people in your family and that you socialize with are far more important than these public figures.

[xsmommy]

i am not going to play one-up the medical professional, but suffice it to say that we didn't take this route lightly, and we have the utmost confidence in our daughter's physician.

[onyx]

And I have no doubt whatsoever that you are a marvelous mom!

[xsmommy]

but being as i am given to histrionics and my husband is a sociopath, i guess that disqualifies our opinion... LOL!!

[xsmommy]

thanks, but i am not looking for validation here. i am incensed by the oversimplification and the generalizing that goes on on these threads. mostly by people who have NO IDEA what is at issue. reducing it down to hyperactivity and lax parental discipline is just ridiculous.

[onyx]

I merely typed my husband's answer to my question wherein I questioned the statement made by Jommy Valentine in post #12.

Absolutes have absolutely never had any place or value in medicine! :-)

Of course you do not require validation: You KNOW you're a good mommy.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Thank you and bless you for that response.

ADD has been used as a bludgeon by the educational establishment against parents they find inconvenient in the raising of their children. How many children are subjected to daily doses of Ritalin to make them (or their parents)easier to handle?

Regards,

[mtbopfuyn]

Interesting you should mention coffee (though I wouldn't know) because I know one teacher who recommends to some of the kids on Ritalin to try a cup of coffee in the mornings instead of the pill and it seems to do the trick for some. Something about coffee being a stimulant but with those kids it had the opposite, a calming effect.

John Jr. "remained on Ritalin for the rest of his life" after a doctor diagnosed him with the ADD and dyslexia and prescribed it after his dad's assassination

I think some folks here are missing a point that John John may actually have had ADD (if the book is true). There must be more to the story because one doesn't take the advice of one doctor and not get a second opinion over the next 40 years. The guy wasn't a 4 year old, he was a grown man of 40ish. If the man was taking Ritalin at 40-whatever then either he did indeed need it or was getting a rather cheap rush.

[I_dmc]

I forget which one offhand, but one of the anti-depressants tend to induce psychotic behaviour as a withdrawal symptom.

[Cacophonous]

Or he was addicted to it.

[onyx]

ADD has been used as a bludgeon by the educational establishment against parents they find inconvenient in the raising of their children.

You could not be more correct! To be blunt: they're practicing medicine without a license!

[NCLaw441]

And, obviously, having a pilot's license doesn't mean you can actually fly.... unless diving into the ocean is considered flying (Clinton definitional caveat).

[Jimmy Valentine]

Don't believe in absolutes? You don't believe in cogent factual argument either it seems to me.

Try to make an argument based upon fact please, and while you are at it, eschew the personal insult. It reveals the shallow nature of your position and of yourself.

Regards,

[Conspiracy Guy]

Yes it would

[Conspiracy Guy]

Yes I have a tendacy to make targeted personal insults rather than blanket insults as you choose to do. Stating all children on ANY type treatment are victims of bad parenting is a huge insult to masses of good parents. I do not disagree that Ritalin is abused. I do not disagree that ADD has no standard diagnosis. I know of many cases where Ritalin did not help and cases where it did. I still take exception to your blanket approach to the subject. I believe in absolutes, God and Death are the only two I am aware of. You accused me of a personal attack in my reply on your first insulting post. There was an implied insult so I made it specific on the second reply. I see no need to make a cogent factual argument in reponse to a non-cogent factual argument. You statement that children on ritalin are the victims is neither cogent or factual. It is stupid, shallow, and indefensible so it does not deserve a respectful response.

[Labyrinthos]

And in the case of JFK Jr, (and I'll admit, he offended me less than most Kennedys) it seems to blame behavior such as his on anything other than the trauma he and his family endured is quackery.

I would agree, accept for the strong correlation between dyslexia and ADD, in that something like 30 to 40 percent of dyslexic children are also diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. In other words, assuming that JFK was properly diagnosed as dyslexic, there was a 30 to 40 percent change that he also suffered from ADD or ADHD.

[ricpic]

JFK Jr. flunked out of Phillips Academy and failed the bar exam twice because of drugs?

Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't all that bright.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Does it at least deserve paragraphs or an absence of run-on sentences?

Your reply is as ignorant as your sentence structure.

Take a pill, go and sit down somewhere, chill out.

[Conspiracy Guy]

"Does it at least deserve paragraphs or an absence of run-on sentences?

Your reply is as ignorant as your sentence structure.

Take a pill, go and sit down somewhere, chill out."

ROTFLMAO.

How can you type with your thumb in your mouth? I consider this forum to be informal so I may be a little lax in my comments. But unlike you I do get my point across.
The sentence structure comment is your first good argument. I award you one point.

But back to generalizations. I wouldn't say that everyone is Maryland is an idiot.

Good day.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Different people, different reactions. I had Ritalin briefly as an adult (several years before I became a Christian). I couldn't tell the difference between it and Mountain Dew.