http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1149909/posts
Hollywood makes science fiction movies about this kind of insanity but when it happens in real life everyone just yawns.
BTTT
I do think that there are too many children who are given Ritalin too quickly. My son's ADD is accompanied by a mild form of OCD. My doctor told us that Ritalin would make this more pronounced.
One interesting thing I have noticed—and I do not want to turn this into class warfare–is that most of the other parents and children I have met with ADD tend to come from lower income families, or from broken homes or disfunctional families.
I am curious how much of this is a nature/nurture thing.
I know that Stratera has been a Godsend for my son. He is an all together different person when he takes his medicine.
Bump for later - It's almost midnight! < Yawn! >
Shut up and take your Soma
A close psychologist friend cites many contributing factors to the ADHD phenomenom. Lack of exercise & physical activity, over-stimulation from TV & video games, poor diet, lack of discipline, lack of positive attention from parents (who often are too tired to raise kids), etc.
But the #1 reason for the explosion in the use of the diagnosis is SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY! Believe it or not, there are families who manage to get each child diagnosed, thereby qualifying each of them for a monthly government check!
It is truly epidemic! And insane! Of course, we the taxpayers are making all this possible.
In the case of teachers recommending drugs, I think it is a combination of laziness (a drugged student is easier to control) and improper training - even indoctrination- by the teaching beauracracy.
Class action lawsuit
Shouldn't a decision like this be made in consult with a child's pediatrician and maybe some other specialists as well?
This kind of stuff really does happen. Unfortunately, my family knows about this first hand. The teachers "diagnosed" my son in kindergarden and were backed up by the school psychologists. They told me that I had to medicate my son for school or be reported for neglect/abuse. The only good thing (after reading the fine print on the back of the school forms) was that we went thru an appeal process where the district had to pay 3 other independent doctors to examine my son. They ALL said he did NOT to be medicated and so that was that. If I had just "rolled over" and let them medicate my kid, God only knows where we would be today. He is now 17 and a good student with no discipline problems. Parents need to stand up and fight this insanity with everything they've got!