Ritalin May Change Brain Long-Term, Study Shows

Reuters News Service ^ | November 11, 2000 | Reuters Staff

[bvw]

As I said "ding ding ding"!

[HelgaHawk]

Never happened in my case. A teacher was never involved. As a very observant parent I realized something was 'just not right', and he was diagnosed by doctors. No social security benefits that I know of. And if we were eligible for them, I wouldn't be interested in them at all.

[HelgaHawk]

Wowzers! That ringing in the ears must just be terrible. Maybe you should see someone about it. There may be some good medication out there for it.

[lowbridge]

Ritalin Is Poison

ADHD - Is Ritalin Kiddie Cocaine? (Ritalin - The Feminists’ Answer to Active Little Boys)

Ritalin Abuse Is Government Child Abuse

Lawsuits target Ritalin maker

Fight Over Ritalin Is Heading To Court

Ritalin: Letter to JAMA

Ritalin: Recreational Drug of Choice for Some Children

Ritalin:Violence Against Boys.

Dying on Ritalin (I thought we had a war on drugs)

Just say yes to Ritalin!

Stopping Ritalin leads to child abuse charge

Connecticut Approves Ritalin Law

Medical examiner: Ritalin killed 14-year-old boy

Youth snorting Ritalin for rush

Stop the Ritalin racketeers

(Part 2) - The Ritalin Racketeers and Their Chemical Lobotomies

Debate over Ritalin extends into schools

[anniegetyourgun]

It was a joke, WC....with it's basis in all who find gov't boogeymen under every bed.

[Dimensio]

Grr...

I can't stand seeing posts from the ignorant (either willfully or from lack of experience) who deny the reality of ADD or ADHD. I suffer from ADHD. Not "suffered" when I was younger, but "suffer" as in currently deal with it as an adult. I was diagnosed at a young age and put on Ritalin (very low dosage) and it did make a noticable difference. I went off shortly into Junior High, and the lack of it made a difference there. I wasn't depressed or in withdrawl as might be expected with cocaine or another drug, but I had trouble paying attention -- by the time I got to college it was very noticable.
When I started college I had been off Ritalin for nearly six years -- I could not pay attention for more than five minutes at a time. It isn't that I didn't try, it isn't that I didn't make an attempt, I did struggle through classes but it wasn't until I started back on again that I was able to sit still and concentrate.

I have no doubt that my condition is genetic. My mother also has (as in "still has", not "had") ADD and knew the pain of trying to get through school with an uncontrollably short attention span. Oh, and before anyone tries to make the argument, my mother was all for corporal punishment and did administer such punishment when it was warranted.

I believe that ADD and ADHD is all too often misdiagnosed in the place of either another neurological disorder or, more commonly, a child just being a child and that Ritalin is overprescribed for kids like Prozac is for adults, but there is a difference between an overenergetic kid sitting in a classroom uninterested in the current subject matter and a kid sitting in a classroom who cannot force themself to keep their mind focused on a single subject for more than a few minutes at a time. Maybe the reality of ADD can only be understood by those who have dealt with people who have it or by those who do have it.

[bvw]

Another ding-aling dings!

Reply #86 for the all-important self-testimonal!

"I suffer from ADHD ... put on Ritalin ... it did make a noticable difference."

Time to sing along with Ritalin! Everyone in a circle .... have those insurance cards ready!

[freedomson]

I have two kids that are on low doses of ritalin and please don't think for a moment that it doesn't break my heart to 'give them drugs'.

But, I remember when they were picked on and bullied at school and their grades were low and they couldn't stay focused long enough to enjoy anything and they were very unhappy and that broke my heart too.

There is no job harder than being a parent and we parents are always having to make hard choices.

[HelgaHawk]

Thank you. I know I am doing the best thing I can do at the present time for my child. I will deal with whatever comes later, I know I can. I too believe it can be handed down through generations. My kid gets it from both sides of the family.

[HelgaHawk]

I know what you mean. It was very sad to see their inability to sit tight long enough to hold a conversation with their friends. It truly affects them emotionally when no one wants to be with them and they can't understand why. My son has ADHD, and has been on ritalyn since he was 4 years old. In second grade my daughter's teacher DARED to suggest that my daughter (they are twins) had ADHD, because she would not sit still and stop singing and tapping her pencil. She recommended that she be put on ritalyn also. I put an end to that suggestion PRONTO! A simple meeting with the school principal present and a keen suggestion made her think twice. I told her that we could switch my daughter for my son in her classroom for a week; just ONE measly week. During that week I would not give my son his medication; and if after that week she STILL thought my daughter had ADHD, that then we MIGHT discuss it. The whole issue died down a few weeks later and I never heard it mentioned again.

[Dimensio]

>"I suffer from ADHD ... put on Ritalin ... it did make a noticable difference."

Time to sing along with Ritalin! Everyone in a circle .... have those insurance cards ready!

You did notice that I acknowledged that ADD and ADHD are often misdiagnosed and that Ritalin is overprescribed, right?
I probably should have mentioned that diagnosis wasn't a simple visit to a psychologist who read War and Peace, quizzed me on it and shouted, "He has ADD! Get him Ritalin!" when I fell asleep after the first chapter. The process involved months of testing -- my parents were well aware that Ritalin isn't something to be handed out like candy.
I also should have mentioned that I didn't actually notice a difference until I was in college and realised the incredible difference between my ability to concentrate from the first semester (when I was off for over six years) to the second (when I went back on). When I took it at a younger age I wasn't really observing the changes in behavior as much my parents did.

I don't advocate Ritalin as a miracle drug. I know that it isn't a miracle drug -- it is not a cure for hyperactivity and it won't help with students who don't pay attention simply because they are completely uninterested or lazy. I just get tired of people denying that ADD does exist and that for some (as in, not all and not even necessarily many) people Ritalin does help.

Just out of curiousity -- do you have a medical degree of any kind?

[bvw]

I have my life. And that was gotten from the great Medical School known as being the keeper of own's own health.

You have nothing a coffee and a cigarette would not have also cured.

[pchuck]

It also changes brains over the short-term.

[bvw]

And in that Medical School, the learning never stops, so they don't give Degrees, Certificates, Licenses or Diplomas on account of that many people who get such things figure they know it all.

It IS your own life to make your decisions with, good that you have. Bad that you offer comfort to the ninnies who have way over-prescribed this mind-altering substance.

Playing an musical instrument, creating art, a good book, any task that draws your attention -- these are all startring points to build your powers of concentration out from -- with or withoout drugs. If you have a weak muscle, you work on excercising it or build up other muscles to compensate.

There is a big environmental contribution -- what environments do you find you can concentrate better in, worse in?

[bvw]

Then stop dosing them up.

[Johnny Gage]

There is a great book called
Bright Minds, Poor Grades : Understanding and Motivating Your Underachieving Child
by Michael D., Ph.D. Whitley

This is a good book, having read it. It seems to the author that there are several different "levels" of ADD/ADHD behavior and only a few do require Ritalin. The non-medicated types can usually be treated through simple behavior mods. It also covers many other topics of poor behavior and how to handle them.

I have no association with author/publisher, just someone who's read this book and found it very helpful.

Dave

[Dimensio]

I have my life. And that was gotten from the great Medical School known as being the keeper of own's own health.

So you know more about human psychology and physiology than several licensed child psychologists and pediactric doctors? You can understand the causes of uncontrollably short attention span better than people who have actually done research or even the people who experience it?

You have nothing a coffee and a cigarette would not have also cured.

This is your solution? Give hyperactive kids coffee and a cigarettes? This can cure ADD or ADHD? I assume that you have peer-reviewed research to back this claim up, right?
I won't comment on cigarettes (I'd rather avoid smoking -- I don't care for the stench on my clothes and it causes nasty buildup on computer equipment), but I have heard that small doses of coffee can help when dealing with ADD (thought it can be dangerous to intake too much caffeine while taking Ritalin). Still, I've been drinking coffee regularly since I was 12, it doesn't help me do much more than wake up in the morning.

I also find your diagnosis rather presumptious. Have you ever sat in a classroom while trying to listen to information that is genuinely of interest to you yet still have your mind wander off and lose focus every five minutes? Have you had this happen every single day for months, regardless of what you do to stay focused and without any external stresses or concerns in your life that might distract you? Find yourself fidgeting around in your seat as you struggle to keep your thoughts from wandering from the lecture, every single day regardless of the amount of sleep you got the night before and regardless of how much caffeine or nicotine you've fed yourself?

[dpa5923]

My son's school wanted to do the same. I told them to go to h*ll and be a teacher and I'll be a parent. If he is a discipline problem call me, don't just let it fester. After one call and one "talk" with my son, no more problems.

Ritalin is just an easy out!

[HelgaHawk]

Ugh! A total ignoraMoose! Art work? Creative? Shat! My kid couldn't sit long enough to draw a thing. All I ever got him to draw were tornadoes. (That's what he called his quick hurried drawings 'so he could get to the next thing he wanted to do' drawing. You are obviously TOTALLY uneducated on this topic. You've been arguing one side without knowing Scheis about the other.

[bvw]

So you know more about human psychology and physiology than several licensed child psychologists and pediactric doctors?

As stated, the answer is yes. Yet it doesn't matter. What does matter is that YOU, yourself, take responsibility for knowing, for learning, for your own best interest.

Just as a driver's license is no guarentee of a good driver, a pyschologist's liscense is also no guarentee of good medical advice, nor even a medical license. Yet every day on the road we -- you and I, anyone -- can quickly tell who is a good driver. Isn't that strange?

We can't give out licenses, yet we know pretty quickly who is a good driver and who isn't.

It's like that in medicene too. Once you start looking after your own health in a diligent, responsible, self-responsible manner you will become able to see who is a good doctor and who is not. It isn't hard, but it does take effort on your part.