Posted on 06/15/2009 5:36:23 PM PDT by pissant
For Ann Hohmann, Oct. 21, 2004, began just about like any other day.
On that morning, the 54-year-old mother of two living in McAllen, Texas, was preparing to take her eldest son to school. She had an early appointment, so her husband, Rick Hohmann, would be dropping off younger son, 14-year-old Matthew, at his school that day.
About a month earlier, Matthew had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. And like an estimated 2.5 million other children in the United States, he was taking medication for the condition.
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>>> they often lead to schizophrenia. <<<<<
Yep, because they’re amphetamines or amphetamine-like in their effect.
Adderall, for example, is basically dexadrine.
My son says they are snorting these drugs at school. We had a nice little talk about vaso-constrictors and sexual dysfunction. Awkward, but necessary. You do not hear about this kind of drug abuse in the media.
Don’t know about the effects on teens but I’ve been taking Adderall XR since I was 31 (about 8 years) when I was diagnosed with adult ADD and it’s been a godsend for me. That’s not to say the concerns about it’s effects (along with other similar medications for ADD and ADHD) on children and teens aren’t valid. I can only speak for myself on how much the medication has helped my focus and organizational skills at work.
Back in 2004 I did a thesis on methylphenidate and the overdiagnosis of ADHD. What happens is that kids take this drug and need to take other medication to go to sleep and you end up with kids on ritalin, and prozac and and other prescription depressants to help them sleep because the ritalin keeps them awake at night. Then all the meds these kids are on start interacting in bad ways (kids start hearing voices telling them to hurt others and themselves), so they end up on anti-psychotic drugs.
It helps not to stuff kids with sugary crap but get them to unload energy in sports, and keep them busy with work and hobbies.
You are the exception... when it comes to children most of the ADHD diagnosed is not real ... someone with ADHD/ADD will get reversed reactions to drugs ,, alcohol for them is a stimulant and speed is a downer, for them speed has a calming effect and allows more focused thought... you are an adult and probably self diagnosed or had a formative hand in the design of your treatment, you have the power to say yes or no... for kids it’s basically teachers pushing speed on kids to burn them out... if teachers were given the power to prescribe (essentially what they do now) back in the 1970’s Rorer would have rebranded Qualludes with a cutesy name and they would be prescribed to this day.
Speed kills...
Certainly didn’t “self-diagnose”. Did it through medical professionals. As to teachers being able to prescribe it, my wife, brother and father are/were all public school teachers and I’ve never heard them talk about how they or anyone in their school pushed “speed” on kids to burn them out. If anything they, and most of their colleagues I’ve been around have said that ADD/ADHD is overdiagnosed.
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