Bart Simpson
Posted on 12/18/2006 6:44:16 AM PST by shrinkermd
Newly minted grown-ups are carrying out a massive natural experiment by choosing to do without the drugs that profoundly affected their experience of childhood.
...American society remains deeply ambivalent about the diagnosis of ADD, a catch-all term used more commonly in the past that includes today's more well-known attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Children diagnosed with ADD typically have difficulty focusing and paying attention. Those with ADHD are physically frenetic as well.)
Almost three decades after the psychiatric profession first detailed the condition in its diagnostic manual, nagging questions remain: Does medicating a child with ADD help that child's well-being in the long term? Are there any negative consequences? And must it be a life-long prescription?
Although most mental health professionals believe that about 2 in 3 children with ADD will continue to contend with the condition as adults, the truth is that "we have very few firm numbers," says Dr. Xavier Castellanos, a leading ADD researcher at New York University.
In short, "There are more questions that are unanswered than are answered," says Lisa L. Weyandt, a psychologist at Central Washington University who studies college-bound kids with ADD. Nobody, she says, knows how these fledglings will fare away from home and neighborhood schools, and whether the medications that appeared to help them in grade school will continue to be of use to them as adults. "They are," Weyandt says, "in uncharted territory."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"In 2005, they reported that the young adults with a childhood ADD diagnosis were more likely to have dropped out of high school and to have been fired from jobs. They were more likely to have had sex earlier and became parents at a younger age than their non-ADD peers. They had higher credit card debt and fewer savings, and were far less likely to attend college.
"Young adults with ADD also appear to have more motor vehicle collisions and traffic citations and are more likely to experiment with illegal drugs. But the data suggest that ADD sufferers who took prescribed medication were less likely than those who did not to use illegal drugs.
This article is not of general interest, but for those dealing with the problem it is a good review of the disputes. There is a lack of evidence clearly documenting the need to continue Ritalin into adulthood.
Funny, seems to me the pyschobablists who are drugging a generation of children are the ones doing the experimenting on children.
My stepmother was just diagnosed with ADD (at the age of 58) and I think I liked her better before she went on meds for it.
Now she just seems high all the time. It's very hard work being around her. She talks a mile a minute.
But she's happier, so I bite my tongue.
"Massive natural experiment"?
What an absolutely idiotic choice of words.
There's no such thing as ADD!!! It's called BAD PARENTING!!If you're an adult and have been diagnosed with ADD, it's called BEING SUCKERED!!
If you tell your kids they are screwed up..and give them drugs....then they will BELIEVE they are screwed up....and will get screwed up...
Bart Simpson
Here's the red meat about ADD - some kids need drugs to fit them into that monster called school. When the same kids are allowed to learn in a manner better fitting their personalities and drives, there is no need for drugs.
Any parent of such a kid needs to homeschool or use a tutoring service that works with high energy kids. In fact, I consider it bordering on child abuse to drug a child into submission.
It won't be long before the meds-bashers come along. I'd bet those people don't even have any kids, and if they do, have not faced one with real ADHD. My daughter probably wouldn't have survived without ADHD meds.
It's a shame you are so ignorant on the subject. I'm sorry, but you are dead wrong.
I was put on Ritalin as an adult, believing the shrink when he said I had adult ADD. After two days I dumped the entire bottle. I hated the way it made me feel...spacy and loopy. On that day I swore I would never drug my future children with it.
Oh, and I dumped the shrink too.
Looks to me like diagnosing kids as ADD stigmatize them and makes certain that they have problems later on in life.
Perhaps the dearth of sleep experienced by these overdiagnosed and overmedicated (like my son)children could account for later problems?
Ritalin is easy for the teacher, seductive for the parent, disaster for the child.
As a parent of a child with ADD, let me be clear.
You're a moron.
"This article is not of general interest, but for those dealing with the problem it is a good review of the disputes. There is a lack of evidence clearly documenting the need to continue Ritalin into adulthood."
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
please give this site a read, it really opens eyes
http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
I thank God that there was no such thing as Ritalyn when I was in school. I may have had some bad days, bit at least I was still me.
Amen... and bad teachers and bad schools have a hand in it as well. A lot of this starts in the schools where the teachers are "diagnosing" ADD.
-jw
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