Free Republic

>Ron Paul is a kook.

And Lincoln was a tyrant.

Hayek in the Constitution of Liberty said (and I paraphrase): When the government says that we must do something. and claim that it is the only way to do it, they are most assuredly leading us down the road to serfdom.

Real interest rates actually are negative right now.

not one who goes door-to-door trying to convert people.

So I guess when Jesus commanded his apostles to go two by two and preach his gospel he was doing so to deliberately annoy people?

Perhaps Christ just recognized that there were some who would accept his message and atonement and appreciate it for what it is.

If you can't see that it's your shortsightedness, not his lack of caring for your immortal soul.

HTH, clr

I would have said something equally stupid 5 years ago. I would rather my child not be on concerta, but it helps her considerably.

As somebody who was only diagnosed at 31 years old I commend you for trying the treatment for your daughter. Many of us that have been properly diagnosed look back and wonder how our lives would have been if only we had been diagnosed earlier.

For kids who really have ADHD it's not just school that's hard, it's getting everything together in life so that you can be successful, so that you can be the person that you WANT to be.

Is ADHD over-diagnosed in children? Probably. Is it under-diagnosed in adults? Probably.

Either way if somebody tried to take me off Concerta, they'd have to deal with my wife, and it wouldn't be pretty.

Don't judge him to harshly, he was being provoked. I'd say the unprovoked comments about my mother being a whore were much more out of line.

He simply was unable to focus on any classroom task at hand. The meds have helped him there and we're hoping and praying that maturity will eventually make them unnecessary.

I'm so glad to hear these stories. I grew up in a time when ADHD was not so well understood, and school was a big struggle. Like your son I never expressed hyperactivity, but I was very impulsive and distractable.

Fortunately in about 60% of the cases the symptoms go away as children approach adulthood. Unfortunately if the symptoms perisist into adulthood, it's a lifetime condition. Fortunately, we live in a time where there are very good treatments for ADHD. I'm interested in knowing more about how Strattera is working for your son, almost everyone I speak to about Strattera seems to believe that it is a very promising drug.

One of the biggest risks of ADHD is self medication with other (illicit) drugs.

While I never had an addiction to Alcohol or Drugs, many people with ADHD at some point in their lifetimes do. I know that I have struggled with bad habits in my life, and was able to overcome them with the help (not because of) of pharmacalogical therapy.

Denial that ADHD is a real disorder does a diservice to those people who fit the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV, are carefully diagnosed, and could otherwise be treated and overcome their addictions by balancing out their brain chemistry, and fixing whatever is wrong with their brain.

ADHD is still new to people, and I can hardly blame them for being sceptical. How do you know what abnormal feels like if you've only ever been normal? I certainly didn't know. I just lived my life the best I knew how, tried to do the right thing, but I felt I was dammed to keep screwing everything up, and never finishing the things I started.

Some people may feel it's unfair that we can overcome with God's gift of modern medicine. I see it as a blessing, an answer to a lifetime of prayer. I've lived life this long with what I can only describe as limited agency, and now I can appreciate the gift that I have been given that others without this experience may not recognise. Life is not perfect, but with His help, now it is possible.

I saw a doctor, got a pill and it's night and day. I feel it, my parents see it and every friend of mine sees it.

Congratulations. I know how you feel.

As for the chicken/egg thing. There's a strong genetic link to ADD/ADHD. You may inherit it, but it doesn't always express itself. The books Driven From Distraction/Delivered from Distraction will make you laugh/cry when you read them because you will see yourself in much of the book as he chronicles many of his patients.

in the future try not taking it for a while

I appreciate the advice, sincerely I do, the pharmocological therapy right now is helping me get things in order, perhaps after nine years, I'll be up to the challenge. Maybe then there will be an effective non-pharmacalogical treatment.

Honestly though, ADHD is treated very effectively with meds, and I don't feel like they influence me to do things that I don't want to do. They do help me to do the things that I know I want to do, but couldn't get it together enough to do before.

Only a "classic liberal" would make such a statement.

I see you found my about page, and you're as ignorant about liberalism, as you are about ADHD. Friedrich Hayek, Margret Thacher, and the great Lord Acton are all on my side.

. . . but what pill or shot or holistic treatment is going to make you better able to control yourself?

To be specific? In my case it's Methylphenidate. And I'm not the only one, it's proven to reduce implusivity by about 60% in most studies of people diagnosed with ADHD.

Maybe if mommy or daddy or the guy mommy was shacking up with had put a boot in your A$$ when you were growing up you would have learned some self control.

Now I have to wonder if I'm not the only one who needs to get hold of his/her impulses. You have no idea how many boots I got in my arse growing up.

Good luck with the pills, do they have anything to help me balance my checkbook?

I'm not sure, the pills won't teach you arithmetic, you're on your own for that one. But they might help you to focus on the task long enough to get it done.

And I have to know, you really think perfect parents make perfect children? Because if you do, I'll have to roll my eyes back into my head again.

It does exist. . . Now thatI have identified it, I am using strategies to help me focus. Knowing is a lot of the battle.

I feel the same way, just knowing that there is a battle to fight helps.

The neuro-normals among us have a hard time accepting that some people's brains are just different.

I like your analogy, although my favorite is that living life with ADHD is like playing tennis with a pickaxe.

Now I can stop and enjoy life. Spending time with my kids, sitting on the porch in the evening, reading... I can finally be the man I've always wanted to be. Methylphenidate has been one of the best things that ever happened to me.

You can't undo bad child rearing.

I guess if you have to blame somebody, might as well be bad parents... Because we all know that good parents only raise perfect angels for children. *rolls eyes*

Believe it or not, the condition is real. In fact, it persists into adulthood in about 40 percent of the cases.

ADHD is actually a bad name for the condition, as it is much more than an attention deficit, it includes impulsivity, and a host of other symptoms, not to mention that in most cases there are co-morbid conditions like depression, and anxiety disorders.

I was recently diagnosed, and am now being treated. It's hard to tell somebody who doesn't have it what life is like after just a month of treatment. At 31 years old I have to wonder how my life may have been different had I been diagnosed and treated earlier in my life.

Is it over-diagnosed in children? Maybe, but to be honest the side effects of the drugs are not significant in most people who take them, whereas living a life where you're just not able to "get it together" is much more damaging in the long run. Not believing that the disorder exists, doesn't change the fact that there is a host of research gives evidence to the contrary.

I've been to Britain before, and I must say: Without indian food, the island would lack any suitable eating estabilishments.

The British are good people, but the cuisine is lacking. OTOH, the indian food in Britan is some of the finest in the world.

Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore

Rofl
The price is WRONG b1tch!

97 is a pretty long run, at that.

A master economist, but misguided. It's too bad that Hayek couldn't bring him to the light, he was surely given enough opportunity.

The reason Firefox would be easier than Perl is because all the authorization is already set if you use the cookies.

That.. and perl rots the brain!

mplayer r teh hax0rz! Oh noes!

This new law makes possession of the tools needed to break copy protection a federal crime with a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.

That is the strongest argument against this new bill.

I have already contacted my congressman about this bill, and you should too.

As somebody who has a strong affinity to security protocols and research, it makes my hobby, and some of my work criminal, when all I want to do is make things safer for everyone.

It's not about getting free music/movies/media, it is about being able to use the music/movies/media we have fairly purchased within our rights of "fair use".

If you think this is bad, wait until all your computers have "Trusted Computing" hardware, then we can add our own computers that we no longer fully own.