‘I WAS TOLD TO DOPE MY KID'

New York Post ^ | 8/07/02 | DOUGLAS MONTERO

[kattracks]

Should school systems be allowed to recommend that children be put on psychoactive drugs?

A 12-year-old upstate boy says the trusted educators in his local school forced him to take a cocktail of drugs that turned him into a psychotic who heard voices in his head.

[Warren_Piece]

Wow. Your son sounds just like me, except I was in school in the 70's before all of this medication stuff started. To this day I am unorganized and forgetful, but PDA's are really wonderful things. I am also considered one of the best at what I do in a very large company . The very things that make me unorganized and forgetful are what me highly creative AND logical (a rare combination, I'm told). Which brings me to an interesting story. Shortly after I turned 30, I started having "panic attacks". They were intense and they were real. My doctor heard my story and immediately prescribed antidepressants. No physical, no trip to a mental health professional, just "take this pill, it'll be all right". I took them for years, with the usual side effects. Well, a few years ago, my forgetfulness caused me to forget to renew my prescription: I went a couple of weeks without taking the meds. When I finally realized what was going on, I was amazed that there had been no panic attacks. I went back on the meds, but the bug had been put in my ear, so I created a plan to get off. I dramatically changed my diet, started working out like a 20 year old, and taught myself to turn all of my fears over to God. It worked! I've been off the meds for 2 years now, I've have several major upheavals in my life, and still no panic attacks I tell this story because it's another example of laziness on the part of "professionals" - I know I'm not the only one who's been misdiagnosed. It should be criminal when they do it to kids.

[Houmatt]

So how come I am not surprised?

Teachers and administrators can no longer properly discipline children who engage in bad behavior, while the behavior itself has been rationalized into a psychological disorder (ADHD, in this case). So they have no other choice than to drug these kids up.

Bring back the paddle, and you will see a lot of this foolishness come to a screeching halt.

[TxBec]

:)

[Tired of Taxes]

It may be that, when the school initially insisted on ritilin, the boy was just being a boy and the school had assigned him a weak teacher, a woman in over her head and thus who couldn't handle him. Two years ago our younger son, labeled ADHD, got a bad public school 3rd grade teacher,

There seem to be too many kids (mostly boys) labeled with ADHD. We personally know parents whose sons were labeled with ADHD; the schools referred the parents to a psychiatrist; and the doctor made a quick evaluation and prescribed medication. In the case with which we're most familiar, the boy was BRIGHT - he was doing well and was simply bored in school.

I suspect this "disorder" was invented by pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs, and educrats and public schools receive more funds for "special ed" programs, so labelling them with a "disorder" could provide school systems with more money from the gov't. I hope you don't mind me asking: Exactly how does a child with ADHD behave that is so "bad"? We homeschool our sons (for now, at least), and, while they're still very young, they're very active. We're convinced that the first two could be labeled with ADHD very easily. I'm just curious to know how an ADHD boy acts that's so different from any other boy, and if my one of my own sons would fit that description, as we suspect.

[philman_36]

In the meantime, I'll move along.
Yeah, whatever.

[Tired of Taxes]

a friend of mine has a son with a similar case. She said all the meds they told her that her son "needed" really messed him up. (She home-schools him now and he seems to be improving - off the meds)

Thanks for the ping, Txbec. We know too many children medicated on Ritalin, and I think this issue is very important. The educrats are bullying parents into taking their children to the school-referred psychiatrist who (surprise, surprise!) finds that the child has ADHD and prescribes Ritalin. Glad to hear your friend found an alternative.

[Nov3]

Get a clue

[philman_36]

What do you say about prescribing a drug very similar to cocaine to a 12 year old as a behavioral management strategy?
You ever gonna answer that or just leave it hangin'?

[philman_36]

My question, unlike your "hypothetical", deals with what is happening not what might happen.
Do you even recognize the difference?

[Tired of Taxes]

When I took Ritalin, it was for only about 10 years (1981 to 1991, age 6 to 16), and I was allowed to make my mind up as to when I wanted to go off it.

Mind if I ask: How did the drug help you? How were you feeling when you had "ADHD"? What was happening that led to that diagnosis? And, if you were diagnosed with ADHD then, why don't you need the drug now?

[TxBec]

When my son was in 3rd grade he had a teacher who said he needed Ritalin. She said he had ADD, not ADHD. While she said he was "as sweet as could be," he would stare off into space when he was in class and be in his own little world. She said that Ritalin would help him focus. She also cited numerous occasions where she would leave the class unattended and then sneak back to watch them all through the glass in the door. My son would be "perched up on his chair and not sitting in it properly as he should." My question was why she would leave the class unattended and then feel the need to "spy" on them. If that was the worst behavior she could cite him with, I considered myself blessed. Needless to say, I said no, and he went on to make honor roll in later grades without Ritalin (go figure.)

[Nov3]

Let the lawyers loose on these Nazi's. This is a case where lawyers perform a function. This woman and child have been harmed by the state's little Nazi minions.

I know this point of view means I have an acute low level of an SSRI in my blood and need to be immediately medicated.

[TxBec]

They also had put him on other meds that the school/doctors told him he "needed" (anti-depressants, etc) which really affected his behavior. Thankfully, he is now off them. He still has problems, but seems to finally be coming out from under that cloud.

[Huck]

What do you say about prescribing a drug very similar to cocaine to a 12 year old as a behavioral management strategy?

I am skeptical of using drugs for behavior management. I would first see to it that, absent a rock solid diagnosis of disease which would indicate use of a certain drug, all less intrusive strategies had been tried and exhausted. Old Friend mentioned diet and observation to identify triggers. Change his school. Behavioral drugs are very serious. I agree with Steve Eisenberg that it appears as if the mother was less diligent than perhaps she should have been in pursuing her son's best interests.

That being said, if I had exhausted all other strategies, and if I were convinced by enough doctors that a medical intervention would be beneficial to my son's best interests, I would have to seriously consider assenting to that approach. The term you used--"similar to cocaine"--is a meaningless phrase to me. Similar how? Color? Taste? Chemical makeup? Molecular structure? Side effects? Cost?

[Tired of Taxes]

I have a friend who was advised to "medicate" his son because the teachers claimed he disrupted the class. This kid's IQ is 182+/- and the teachers were often being corrected when they taught mistakes,

This is always a big discussion in our household, and my husband thinks that, if he were a boy in elementary school today, he would be labeled with ADHD and medicated. He saved all his report cards from grade school back in the early 70's, and, just like the boy you mentioned - he got all A's, except for "conduct" where he would get a "D" and a teacher's written comment, like: Needs to learn to stay in his seat. Needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. Needs to learn to stop interrupting the teacher.. He said he would finish his work before everyone else, and then start walking around helping other students, and correct the teacher when she was wrong. Lucky for him, his mother was a teacher, too, and she pulled some strings and got him switched to a better school.

[Tired of Taxes]

p.s. to make it even better, he is a bi-racial child (insert huge gasp here; these kids aren't supposed to be able to do ANYTHING according to the psychobablistic statistics)

Haha... I've got three of them myself - those "biracial" boys who are supposed to be sooo confused and so on. (What a lie that is). I'm only 5'2" tall, too. Mine are still young, but the oldest - only 6 - could kick my butt if he wanted to. He is going to be very tall, and I used to worry (and still do) about disciplining him as he grows bigger. Good to hear someone else the same size can do it, and all on her own, too. Congratulations. =)

[BossyRoofer]

Remember COLUMBINE HIGH and the bad voices telling them what to do. They gave a clue in there transcripts to the intentions being dictated into ther minds! Assanation through subliminal suggestion America would not do that to its childern would they?

[philman_36]

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) C14H19NO2

Cocaine C17H21NO4

[Mfkmmof4]

Even properly prescribed Ritalin can have adverse effects. I have a child who is medicated and CANNOT tolerate it and is only something else. But anything in the Ritalin family makes him nuts. So I believe the mom. By the way my son is medicated because I asked his doctor.