‘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.

[rb22982]

Yeah you are right, I was thinking 10 SD because they had it marked in groups of 10s (I didn't learn SD till 2 years later). This is the bell curve from emode.com which is what I was thinking of in their sample analysis here

[cva66snipe]

He also uses motion sickness medications. I do believe there is ADD ADHD and most likely he is the most knowledgeable researcher in the nation. But modern medicine is just now through Vestibular Science Research beginning to realize what he already knew years ago.

[rb22982]

If your friend took the Stanford-Binet (16 is the standard Dev) test, he's in the top 99.9999850966092% of the population and if you do the math, that means he's one of only a few hundred people in the US with an IQ that high.

I got my calculations from the bottom of this page

Very smart cookie indeed

[cva66snipe]

BTW from what I have read and the medications involved the kid in this article sounds to me from what I have seen with my own eyes in someone else like Serotonin Syndrome. I wonder if they even bothered to check?

[alisasny]

The mothers I have met from going through this are not the brightest. I am in a middle class neighborhood and many just listen to the school shrinks. ( the one I had to deal with years ago is now RETIRED, thank God.)

The motion sickness drug is this meclazine. I think I have that spelling correct. You can buy it over the counter as well.

[cva66snipe]

I fired about 5 shrinks. I found only one who knew and understood Levinsons line of thinking. I'm 45 years old, have General Anxiety Disorder triggered by audio and visual situations like Wal-mart instore paging systems, TV shows, driving in the winter through trees, strobing effects, trying to listen with more than one person talking in the room, things like that. I take Xanax a Benzo class medication in very low and consistant dosages in my blood stream 24 hours a day. My attacks are close to seizures. The medication stands between me and Agorphobia due to inability to tolorate these situations to any degree without it.

[alisasny]

Reflecting on dosage, Levinson was the only person who started the medication from a quarter of a pill for 3 days to half a pill for 3 days to 3/4, to whole ect to find proper dosage. Also, come to think of it Levinson was the only person who perscribed the pills 3 times a day to keep it constant and did not want child off medications for weekends and school breaks.

He was very concerned that his patients get the exact dosage they needed.

He also was very concerned about side effects and felt they needed to be treated as well.

[alisasny]

A few more things about my son ( he is 10 as of this week and going into 5th), he can not tolerate loud music or loud tv's. If we are driving in car and turn it loud he literally grabs his ears and starts flipping out.

Also he is better now but he used to talk so LOUD. We tried this " inside voice" thing where he had to talk low in house and after a while it worked.

While he can read great ( some tests have him grade 11) he can not spell. He does better when he writes his own stuff but in a verbal spelling test he always fails. He spells words in that situation exactly as HE hears them. Yet when he takes a standard state test he does fine since the test is not verbal.

[cva66snipe]

Up till a couple of years ago I could pass a standard hearing test with good results. Tinnitus has now decreased that somewhat. I have been told I yell at times also. Kids with this if you give them a verbal command they will almost always say huh? As if they haven't heard you. So will adults with this that you ask a question to. During your second reply they have just processed your fisrt words and may say OK. They just got the entire message processed. Same information but at a slower rate. I can understand him grabbing his ears. It's a bad startle reflex he can not help it.

If and it's not likely but if he starts having spasms in the shoulders usually and neck when this happens don't freak out it comes with it as well. This may be happening to him later in life. That's another reason I have to take Xanax. My next step up they say is Neurontin. I don't want to go there till it's a must.

[GVnana]

Reminds me of a case cited by Dr. Laura where a mother was receiving constant complaints from her son's teachers that the child wouldn't behave in class and needed medication. After some resistance, she agreed and took the kid to the recomended Dr. who diagnosed the kid as ADD and immediately prescribed Ritalin.

But instead of giving the kid the pills, she flushed them down the toilet. Within days, the mother began receiving notes from the teachers about how much better little Johnny was doing in class and how pleased they were that she had sought treatment. According to the mother, she never let on.

As to school officials who would dope a kid without the parents consent -- I hope this mother takes them to the cleaners.

[luckystarmom]

Well, my son definitely has allergies, and his shoes have always worn out strangely. He did have a prolonged ear infection when he was a child also.

Looks like I need to make a few appointments.

Thanks for the info.

[maxwellp]

Some common sense is called for here. Drugging little boys, many of whom are ordinary little boys and act that way, like out of control, to me is outrageous. How many little girls are given drugs? And generations of Americans grew up just fine without drugs. Something very screwy is going on.

My own doctor pushes all sorts of pills at me, and I'm no child. I smoke so he wants to give me some pill to help me stop. I told him I have no desire to stop. Then he comes up with some pill for my old bones. He gave me a sample and when I read the warnings, I tossed that pill in the garbage. Bottom line - ring that cash register - it's all about money. I can make my own decisions, but a child cannot. So parents must be VERY AWARE about drugs or pills for their children.

[cva66snipe]

Good Luck & by all means ask the Audiologist if the are C.A.P.D. testing qualified. For well over 30 years I thought I had ADD ADHD. Ask an Occupational Therapist for help. They can show you exercises that will help with coordination and balance. Also teaching some other usable tricks to compensate. The shoes breaking over means there is a balance problem. To compensate the person will walk with the feet positioned to make up for it. I also passed two military physicals even though I only have functional vision in one eye. They tested the left eye, they tested the right eye. I passed. Had they checked both at once I would have failed. Even some eye doctors don't catch it. It means poor depth if any depth perception.

I spent two years as a kid in the early 1970's in a physical rehab center to learn how to live with it. I did well up till 8 years ago when my sensory system worsened to a point to bring on attacks. This doesn't mean it happens to all with CAPD life stress factors figure in also. But the mind in dealing with this is indeed in a constant state of stress dealing with this whether the person having it realizes it or not.

[nonliberal]

Interesting.

[BMeyer8622]

I attended a private Elementary and High School. My first and fourth grade teachers claimed I had ADD as well. They repeatedly told my mother to put me on Ritalin. She decided to test it by not telling the school when I began taking the drug. Of course, there was no difference in my behavior and I stopped taking Ritalin. Teachers use ADD as an excuse for not being able to reach children. I’m 19 now and a sophomore at Vanderbilt, I guess ADD was not too big of a problem.

[Liberty 5-3000]

What we need to do is stop drugging the children of America, and start taking care of them! We give these kids Ritalin and a plethora or anti-depressants, when all that's wrong with these kids is that they are experiencing things that just about everyone inevitably faces. Some kids have trouble keeping focused in class, some are a little hyper, some get bothered more easily by stress and become sad. We should be paying attention to them and talking to them instead of adding another pill to their regimen.

[WyldKard]

Dr. Levinson was also the only person who told me that I should have a tutor for my son to help him one on one at home. We did that and it truly helped. Anyone who simply puts there kid on RITALIN without doing their homework is a jerk. I'm sorry but that is how I feel after going through this.

Amen! My parents spent a good two years doing research and consulting with various doctors before putting me on Ritalin, and then continued to monitor me closely. They would have taken me off the second I indicated the drug was causing more problems...just lucky for me it helped, during the time I took it. Of course, back then, only a good 1% of the number of kids who take it today took it back then....

[Aquinasfan]

In the case with which we're most familiar, the boy was BRIGHT - he was doing well and was simply bored in school.

Yup. Other explanations for "unruly" behavior: unhappy home life, high-sugar diet, inability to read (dyslexia caused by 'whole language' instruction).

[Aquinasfan]

But in my 40s I don't want to start any drugs I don't have to. I'm also learning more about nutrition as I deal with my own weight problems and with arthritis.

You might want to try a gluten-free diet. Do a search on "gluten-free + arthritis" and see what you find. Gluten is associated with many auto-immune disorders like arthritis, MS, lupus and some forms of colitis.

I have a form of arthritis and celiac disease (gluten intolerance). I wound up diagnosing myself for both conditions (eventually confirmed by doctors) after doing a lot of web research. I don't tell the doctors that though.

[philman_36]

Then he comes up with some pill for my old bones.
Your bones may be old, but it seems that your heart and mind are still young.
I don't blame you for throwing those pills away.
Ah yes, the "antidepressent" Wellbutrin (bupropion), the Dr.'s cure-all for smokers. Like you, I like my cigarettes.

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that "the doctor" gives you
Don't do anything at all...