Posted on 05/22/2002 6:19:33 AM PDT by Lance Romance
The source of this information is...? Drug usage of the biologial mother may very well result in damage to her child and if that is the case, it is not ADD that is the problem, it would most likely be directly related to the drugs/alcohol used by the mother. These are the children who may be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD who do not have it at all. Certainly an actual case where ADD does exist when complicated by other factors does make diagnosis and treatment much more difficult. The problem is not the ADD/ADHD, but the other 'factors'.
2) When children ingest Ritalin over a number of years, their brains start to shrink at about the age of 20.
The source of your 'evidence'?
3) More boys than girls are on Ritalin, because teachers are not allowed to insist on well-mannered behavior in our classrooms. Therefore, the boys are drugged so that they will act more like docile girls.
This is a real indication of your ignorance about ADD/ADHD. If a child who does not have ADD/ADHD is given medication for ADD/ADHD they would really become hyperactive, disruptive and an even bigger 'terror' to the teacher. ADD medications are stimulants, some of which are class-B narcotics. If a non-ADD/ADHD person were to take ADD/ADHD medications, the last thing they would be is 'more docile'.
These may be things of which you were unaware. While I agree that ADD/ADHD might be overdiagnosis, it is quite another to say it doesn't exist. You also seem to imply that people with ADD/ADHD cannot perform well. I know several people with ADD who have graduated from college with excellent grades, many of whom hardly ever studied because they were able to 'just remember' the important stuff when listening in class or reading the material once or twice.
If ADD/ADHD does not exist, how could the giving of a stimulant to a child make them 'more docile' or 'manageable'? Wouldn't you expect just the opposite?
If you have no reasonable explanation and are at least willing to recognize that maybe your earlier opinions might need to be re-evaluated, I would graciously withdraw my diagnosis of terminal stupidity.
You are misinformed. Physicians as a group are not taught that young children can not get asthma. I don't doubt that you may have anecdotal data to support your misinformation, but this generality is simply not true.
To some extent your castigation of physicians as a group is also misplaced. The quality of medicine practiced in this country has declined over the last thirty years, but the fault does not lie with the profession. The blame almost exclusively belongs at the feet of government and government regulators. Government assumed responsiblity for the quality of medical care during the early 70's by stripping that responsibility from the physicians, the only group qualified to police physicians. I will be glad to debate anyone about who is competent to police physicians. I will be glad to debate anyone about the competence of government to police anything. No group has ever demonstrated such overwhelming incompetence as well as government.
All the wonderful accomplishments you attributed to someone with ADD seem to have the symptoms of someone without ADD. Your theories are starting to head down the "Global Warming" path. i.e. it's cold because of global warming. What a crock.
I would applaud doctors if they acted a lot more humble about what they think the know. The other attitude can cause deaths.
My daughter is a believer in ADD and potentially poisons my grand daughter on a daily basis as part of a giant poorly controlled experiment. I don't mind you putting your children at risk betting on the outcome of an experiment, but I resent what my daughter is doing immensely. Judgment is acquired over time through experience. Wisdom is proper use of judgment combined with experience. Faith is the acceptance of theory without proof. Unfortunately, it is not the kids who are stupid, but the same can not be said for the parents.
There is no medical proof that ADHD exists. There is also no proof that drugs are of benefit. Faith is not a substitute for science.
Before citing religion and faith in God to me, please take the time to read Julian Jaynes's Book. But be aware, that it may challenge your faith. I don't know, but am fairly certain that Jaynes is correct. Man invented God, not the other way around.
In children, asthma may be diagnosed at age 3 or younger. In infants, asthma may be the aftermath of flu, a cold, or virus infection. Bronchiolitis (a viral inflammation of the small airways that occurs in young children during the cold months) is sometimes followed by asthma, and the symptoms of asthma resemble those of the viral infection. Although wheezing represents the hallmark of asthma, this breathing problem can also be caused by other respiratory disorders, so most physicians do not diagnose asthma until they carefully examine a child and note more than two asthma episodes.
You sound like a very unconventional doctor. I bet you would be one of the few who alo believe the rule of "first, do no harm". Unfortunately, this attitude is rare these days but I would like to see more of it in the medical profession.
How did my daughter go from the worst reader in the class to the best when she was started on ritalin ? Coincidence ?
IMHO.. yes.
I really hesitate to wade in here...this is a personal issue for you, while it is an abstract discussion for me...always a risky start to any debate...
Some of the improvement has to be attributed to the fact that you became aware of a deficiency in your child's performance and took steps to correct it. Just like any good parent would.
You learned your child was a poor reader. Did you just give her the ritalin and make no other changes? I doubt it. No doubt you took increased interest in her reading, practiced with her at a greater level, became more involved in her school in general. All of these things would lead to improved reading performance.
I'm not saying that the ritalin didn't help. I don't know anything about your personal situation. But, my guess is that the drug wasn't the only thing responsible for the improvement.
To this day I wonder if the teacher understood it.
Read my above post. She was getting special attention and special services the entire second grade.
My daughter had no behavior problems. In fact the classroom teacher did not think she would test out as ADD but using the classroom teachers own observations she tested 3 standard deviations above the mean.
The idea that kids with ADD are only kids that are acting out is false and most likely such kids don't have ADD.
Then why does the coincidence continue to work after 8 years ?
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