Just remembering how some teachers push for medicating kids who might not really need it.... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12946241&dopt=Abstract
It's probably over-used, but there are definitely people who need it. I think there may be a tendency to say, "this kid has a high IQ, does poorly in school, and has trouble paying attention, and therefore needs ritalin or amphetamines" automatically, when in fact there are many factors that could account for it.
Id say, how ever did we survive wihtout it? Well, frpom what ive read over the years, most prescriptions of it are unnecessary, you can alter behaviour positively by giving them a better diet, more exercise and some discipline.
I am currently on 80mg a day, soon to bump back up to 100 again. Do you really think I would be OK with dietary changes? Not likely. I wish I had it as a kid!
A lot of kids are misdiagnosed based on teacher statements and end up taking drugs without needing them. That's one issue. And the other issue is... noone is talking about alternatives. Even kids who are properly diagnosed are only offered meds, and their parents are unaware of the possibility of dietary supplements, behavioral therapy, or a combination of these three.
IME, anti-depressants and ADHD medications can be usefull when used as a tool to allow kids and adults to learn how to survive on their own. However, most of the time, those drugs are used as a crutch for survival. This can only result in individuals who are fully addicted tot he medication (phycologically, at least). Had I not taken different medications growing up, my inability to see the world clearly would have prevented me from ever becoming a fully-functional adult. However, had I followed the directions for taking that medication as perscribed by my mother, I would still be on that medication. I would be functional, but very depressed; reliant on a pill to get through a normal day, I wouldn't have felt like a full human being, but a failure who only got things done because of a little blue (or purple) helper. To be completely honest, had I followed the directions for those pills, I would not be alive today. The depression those pills lifted from me only allowed me to function well enought o get by. And the depression they introduced (based on me being unable to be a capable individual on my own terms), was much sharper. Given the amount of time I spent as a child mired in suicidal depression, that medication would have only kept me going long enough to kill myself. However, without the medication, I would have killed myself before I turned 12, no doubt (I attempted suicde 12 times between ages 4 and 9, when). So, in my case, had the medication not been available, I'd be dead. Had the perscribed dosage been followed, I'd be dead. In the middle there, was, thankfully, the path I found - which has allowed me to find what life can be. In that slim margin, I can confidently say YES, ritalin, et al. are good and useful things. However, the treatments currently being employed via those medications are not always the best thing for a person. There are times when suffering through something difficult is the only way to learn to stand on your own two feet. And other times, you may need someone's (or something's) help to remain standing. It's finding that moderation that is the important thing. The drugs themselves are just tools. IMO, those tools can be used to clears the heads of the kids who actually need this stuff, at which point they can learn things like dietary supliments, conscious awareness of how their bodies function, and how to compensate for shortcomings. Medication as a solution should only ever be used as a last resort in any situation. too often it's used as a first &last step when dealing with ADD and depression in young people.
Gosh river, I'm glad you made it through whatever dosage got you in trouble... had they prescribed too much? What was the problem? I agree, psychoactive drugs can be lifesavers, but Geez, they should not be randomly prescribed without proper assesment and diagnosis (which a teacher cannot provide). And, like you said, meds should be the last resort, not the first. I'm glad you got your dosis rights, though it seems it was purely by chance.
I think the dosage was designed to help my mother deal with me, and not to help me learn how to live. Every time we went back to the doctor, my Mom would ask them to increase the dosage, and if they said no, I'd soon find myself at a new doctor. Yeah, I guess my final dosage pattern came out of luck; though I'd like to think it was arrived at through self-observation. That's probably just me being full of myself, though. In elementary and middle school, I knew alot of kids who were put on medication to help symptoms which were nothing more than adolecent angst. Kids not sure what role they are suposed to play in life, and were acting out because of that confusion. instead of talking with their kids, many parents would just have them, FAIAP, drugged into submission. It got really disgusting at times- I'd say about 60% of my highschool friends have no contact at all with their parents now. They're still too pissed off at being shoved aside as kids. It's very unfortunate.
Sounds very frustrating. That's the kind of situation when diet/habit changes could have brought about the same result as drugging the poor kids. What meds were you on?
Although its true that people are prescibed ritalin who don't need it, I think a far greater problem is the stigma attached to psychiatric medication. In a case where a restricted diet and/or vitamin supplements can make medication uneccessary, but the medication is working fine and has no long term health problems associated with it, I think much of the time the medication is still preferable. I take ritalin to help me focus on my work and classes(one thing about ritalin is its usually prescribed as "take 1 every 3 hours" or something along those lines, when really it should be used as needed, if there's no need for concentration there's no need for it for most people). it may well be that I could stop taking ritalin and instead have a strictly regulated diet, but I'm really not interested in finding out. Taking a relatively harmless pill now and then seems a much better option than not being able to eat my favorite foods and not being able to go out to eat with my friends. People who take medication for other kinds of things aren't subjected to the same types of criticizm. For example someone taking blood pressure medication isn't looked down on for not being able to deal with it by changing their diet.
Actually, psychotherapy is more stigmatized than medication. A lot of people would rather confess that they are taking prescription drugs instead of confessing that they are seeing a therapist. A pity, because in a lot of cases (not all of them ADD, I'm talking about depression, anxiety, etc), therapy can be as helpful as medication, or even better.
Very true. However, its pretty well accepted that where psychotherapy and medication both help with depression, the best thing is to have both.
Some parents use it as an excuse to hide their bad skills at parenting and the lack of effort on their part........ It is over prescribed but no one make a judgement because it varies from case to case.
you ever see what happens to the kids with the "liberal" parents, who dont get the meds when they realy need em'? they get realy outa controll, and inevitably kicked out of school. and what do they do then? home school! lol. but seriusly, im surounded by kids like that. theres that one boy, tray, who runs into walls, beats up people for no reason, and screams all the time. theirs trever whos ALWAYS talking and smashing things (he also wets his pants alot, but thats another story...). thad, whos also a good friend of mine, is so freakin hyper his parents lock him in his room and have alarms on all their doors so he wont leave the house. these kids would realy improve on ritalyn. the problem is kids who are generaly normal, just annoying, and get on it. but the kids who are realy manic like these guys get brought down to a normal level by meds.
cthulhus slave, That's very true. A lot of parents with kids who genuinely need meds say "they don't believe in medication" with the results that you described. It seems unlikely that they'd take that approach if their kids were diabetic and needed insulin. Psychiatric medication, in general, does not change someone's personality as popular belief holds, but only corrects imbalances that cause people problems. For a lot of people, they can't be themself without it.
I don’t ‘believe’ in ritalyn, probably because I’ve never been in the position to need to believe in it but I do sympathies with people who are. One thing that sets my bells ringing is the variation in numbers of prescriptions between different countries. It could be that America has developed a genetic mutation which leads to such a high ritalyn needing symptom rate in children. I’m more incline to jump onto the ‘multifactor’ bandwagon and say that diet and life style are a likely indication (e colorings in baby food ext). I remember in the 80’s Norway had band a particular color of smarty as well as yellow powered custard because it had such a coloring. I protested with stamping feet, but now I’m kind of glad. But that does not change that something has happened to these kids, and changing diet does not tend to change their behavior but giving them a drug does. My main interest in this subject is that it is often said that the drug lets the kid ‘be their true self’. I find that interesting. Drugs don’t tend to make me my true self, just isolate part of me from the rest. Is this maybe a myth that parents want to believe about their children?
Probably. These are the same parents that believe their kids need their drugs like a diabetic will need insulin for life. I've heard tha comparison very often made, when a mom talks about stopping her kid's medication: Would you stop giving insulin to a diabetic? Parents are made to believe that medication is an integral part of their kid's life and will be forever.
