Posted on 11/19/2006 9:59:54 AM PST by paulat
DON'T DRUG THEM
Parents' obsession with their children's self-esteem plus profit-driven diagnoses create a dangerous prescription
Lawrence Diller
In our zeal to help our children feel better about themselves, are we really doing them any favors, or could we actually be hurting them?
[snip]
Several years ago, I treated an 8-year-old patient who had an IQ of 130 but was getting only B's and C's at his private school because he wouldn't turn in his homework despite his teachers' and parents' best efforts. He was more focused on reading adult level texts about the Sahara desert, his current interest. But he was feeling worse and worse about his less-than-stellar grades, so I ultimately prescribed Ritalin for him. After that experience and many similar ones, I began to wonder if someday I'd be seeing "the last normal child" in my office.
[snip]
ADHD has become the ubiquitous way we view problems of children's behavior and performance. While the Centers for Disease Control report 2.5 million children take a medication for ADHD, most research epidemiologists say the number is closer to 4 million. A more precise gauge comes from a medication insurance clearinghouse report that shows nearly 1 in 10 11-year-old white boys is currently treated with a stimulant such as Ritalin.
[snip]
First, we should make a concerted effort to involve fathers more immediately and directly in the evaluation of their children's behavior or school performance
[snip]
Father's involvement is critical. He often has a different perspective than the mom (he generally sees less of a problem because he's around less and also stereotypically is more effective with discipline). His participation with any behavior plan (or medication treatment for that matter) makes its success far more likely than without him.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
God bless your pediatrician. My son (not the one I talked about earlier in this thread) has recently been diagnosed as bi-polar. He's 30 and has had a hard life but the meds are doing wonders now. He's my oldest and as I look back I wonder what else we could have done for him. He was always very bright but didn't do too well in school, was not popular, had some weird behaviors but who knew? I do know that he is an honorable person. He has a very good soul. I just wish his life were easier but I know God has something in mind for him. I used to think that they didn't diagnose bi-polar in children but I guess that they do now. sigh.
My parents' doc has my 85 year old mother (cognitive/dementia kind of probs) on what he calls a small dose...5mg, a.m. and noon.
His reasoning is to give her some "spark", because she'd otherwise be content to lay flat on her back and stare at the ceiling - or snooze off and on all day.
That's not true. They can't be on medication at the time of enlistment.
My daughter has short term memory problems as well.
I think before a parent puts a child on medication, they should put the child through a thorough evaluation (outside of the school).
My daughter had a great evaluation through a neuropsychologist and a learning specialist. It really helped us figure out how to help her.
Thousands of sexually abused kids are mistakenly dignosed with ADD while the sexual abuse goes untreated. Ritalin gets them through their youth but they can become tormented adults. A self destructive adult lifestyle after a seemingly smooth adolescence is a sign. The ADD mills of the 80s and 90s did more harm than we can imagine.
My parents' doc has my 85 year old mother (cognitive/dementia kind of probs) on what he calls a small dose...5mg, a.m. and noon.
Wow...I am not a medical person at all...do we have some gerontologists out there who might be able to answer ErnBatavia's question?
Likely the most undiagnosed medical problem in kids is sensory processing disorders. The symptoms can mimic ADD ADHD quite well too. Todays hi-tech environment is a trigger to these disorder which a couple of decades ago would have likely gone unnoticed. Sensory processing disorder which can come from such physical ailments as Inner Ear Dysfunction are also the most likely culprit in adult anxiety disorders.
Shrinks are not trained to detect sensory processing disorders but a good Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor is as well as an audiologist. Some progress is being made in changing the thinking of teachers and principals on this but there is still a long way to go. But the last thing these kids with this need is Ritalin.
I think I've shown you this before but for the benefit of others here's some links on it.
But to understand the why and how comes both in adults and children I highly recommend this link. Click here to get to the link
My wife was on Ritalin and formulation of amphetamines efore she passed away. They are very addictive, and progressive increased doses are needed (she started taking very small doses, then....). I have to think that the effects are the same on kids too. REALLY bad behaviour comes out in adults if they don't get their meds, once they are dependent. My wife had DT's and hallucinations after missing 2 doses (1 year on meds). My son's teachers are asking me to consider ADHD meds, but I can't find a good reason to start him on a lifelong fight with addiction. I do know others that have been helped by Ritalin too. I also have a relative that has a kid that takes the ADHD meds in the AM and sleeping pills in the PM basically for bad behaviour. He is 5 now. Some need meds, but they shouldn't be a replacement for parenting. Strattera, Concerta, and others are all various formulations of amphetamines.
You're right about the difference, but it wasn't really all that long ago when the same was true here in the US.
My mother had never chosen a girl's name while she was pregnant, she was going to have a boy because that's what her husband wanted. I was 3 days old before I had a name.
Just like in 1960 with my mother, in 1998 my husband and I had no idea whether we were having a boy or a girl. But unlike my mother, we did not have a preference, and we had names for either.
Ditto!
My daughter has sensory problems also.
Occupational therapists also diagnose sensory processing problems.
I personally know of parents that have put their kids on the meds, and then I'll ask several questions and the parents are just clueless.
The other thing is allergies. Some kids get very hyper when they are allergic to foods.
I know of kids that really do have ADHD, so I don't want to pretend it is not real. I just know of a lot of kids that are put on medication before other alternative treatments have been tried.
Sinus allergies caused mine. My Inner Ear by the time I entered school was damaged. I also spent two years with an Occupational Therapist working with me to teach me how to deal with it. That was during my 7 & 8th grade 1970-1972. Besides audio processing disorders I have visual as well. That too can trigger ADD ADHD symptoms. With the audio many times comes the visual processing disorders. The average eye doctor misses it. They do not check for vision in both eyes at once. The Navy didn't for my physical and I passed. The Army didn't when I joined the guards but technically I am one eye functional.
I'm 49 and retired for 12 years now on disability due to this. When my sensory processing finally got to where I could not function in a working environment the doctors sent me to a shrink. The shrink gave me SSRI's. That about sent me over the edge. The last thing I needed was more flooding of sensory impulses. I'm on a Benzo type tranquilizer for this. For it to go to the extreme it did with me is rare as I have seizures also Myloclonic in nature.
I stopped looking for answers in the mental health area long ago and started looking into Vestibular Disorders after reading a book by Harold Levinson MD caleed "Phobia Free". In the mid 1970's he accidentally found the linkage tieing Vestibular Disorders to Adult Anxiety Disorders, ADD ADHD symptoms, in kids and adults, as well as Dyslexic ones. Once I started down that line of thinking I got the actual help I needed.
Many elderly people have this problem but I've known two young folks who had it.
When I was a kid, I remember my teacher had the whole class run three laps around the schoolyard before school even started. The boys got an extra lap, sometimes two. There were no problems with disruptions in class that I can remember.
That sounds like part of it at least. A trip to a Walmart is a torture chamber with their blasted announcements. But I'm also loosing my hearing now as well. A blessing and curse so to speak. Less seizures and attacks etc but I do like to hear things. Tinnitus varying at 4000-8000HZ is constant and loud now and I have Menieres as well. This came later on even after I went on disability. Kids and adults with this will have a difficult time concentrating. 10 years ago I could still read a book now I can't keep the thought process going long enough. I'm 49 years old and this hit me at an acute stage at about 36.
Some notable symptoms that started showing up was having to consciously tell the brain to climb stairs. Sometimes no problem sometimes the sensory system doesn't get the message through to expend extra energy. Another was trying to do simple task like sign my name. I could not get my eyes to read nor my hand to sign something. After a few seconds it would pass.
The worse part though and now thankfully less frequent was full blown attacks where I would be out driving and all of the sudden loose awareness of where I was, where I was going, how long I had been driving, etc. It was almost like a stroke in nature but passed in about 15-30 minutes or sooner if I popped a Xanax under my tongue and let it dissolve.
To deal with it you have to toss everything written about Anxiety Disorders as they are in large written for phobic anxiety or traumatic induced. This is neither as no fear except at first a fear I was having a stroke came with it. Once that was ruled out it just became a nuisance. I do have a fear of heights but I also have poor balance. A fear would be reasonable and not phobic in that circumstance.
I live with it by as much as possible limiting my exposures to triggers. I'm not agoraphobic and I go out every day and in the public a lot as well but to do such functions as grocery shopping etc late at night. The stores are quieter & my concentration isn't broken.
My maternal great aunt provided foster care for Down Syndrome children. As a child, I really enjoyed my visits to her home. There was always so much love and patience in her home, and the children reflected love and an understanding that I can not explain. She never drugged and abandoned them, although the hospice period was heartwrenching.
I know two excellent young men that have had their lives destroyed by the Ritalin gang. They only took it for a few months, but the law requires that records be kept of those who have taken the drug, and even graduating from the ROTC program didn't overcome the Ritalin black mark.
Thank goodness things like recess and dodgeball are still status quo in this school district. The elementary school is right on Rte 13, and so it is not unusual to drive by and see several classes outside for recess at various times of the day. PE classes at all 3 levels of school are also regularly held outside, weather permitting.
Except for an assinine and archaic policy in regard to headlice, this district is not quick to seek drug remedies for problems. Thank goodness. I am working on the ignorance of current public health knowlege that shows the district no nits policy and policy of pushing antibiotics for lice are far more detrimental to the children than the stupid bugs themselves.
"A 21 year old school district "psychological counselor" that has NEVER had, nor dealt with children is not qualified to even discipline children; let alone diagnose mental and physical illness."
Yep! I will definitely agree with that. We just put our daughters in private school because our last meeting with the public school officials was a joke. We had a neuropsychologist (who was a PHD and lots of experience) at the meeting, and the young school psychologist (who had never even met my daughter) was disagreeing with the neuropsychologist about placement for my daughter. The neuropsychologist was very glad that we were not going to put our daughter back in the public school.
I feel very sorry for the kids whose parents are uneducated and actually listened to the school psychologist.
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