My son was diagnosed with ADHD and was prescribed Ritalin when he was 7. He had been a difficult, extremely hyperactive child since birth. On Ritalin he coped better in the classroom, but he lost his appetite, became pale, tired and listless, and looked dreadful with dark circles under his eyes. He was only on the smallest dose too, 1/4 tablet. I know it works well for some kids, but I didn’t like what it did to my son, so we stopped the Ritalin and didn’t try any alternative medication.
He did gradually grow out of his hyperactivity, and now at 15, is doing very well. He has gone from being the class troublemaker in primary school, to an A student, totally focused on his studies and his future.
My god! A medication that has a potential for abuse! In other shocking news, exclusive footage reveals what bears do in the woods!
Odd then, that only one of these is in the side effects lists I’ve read so many times
Yes and schizophrenia was once labeled dementia precox. Disassociative identity disorder was once labeled multiple personality disorder. Strangley, scientists like to change terms based on new information or to make them more accurate.
Ritalin is a stimulant? On an unrelated note, We ask the Pope if he is Catholic, see the startling answer at 11!
A long list of side effects, though any one patient will likely experience just a few.
WOW! Three whole cases out of thousands of patients who have been on the drug! I’m convinced.
They took him off methylphenidate, but what else did they put him on? I doubt in the extreme they simply tapered him off the methylphenidate and left it at that.
Yeah, if it’s so bad explain to me why the FDA hasn’t banned it. It’s been on the market how long? How much research has been done?
I say this in utter seriousness, Cite?
My god, teenagers are abusing a legal substance to get high! You won’t believe the shocking stories of teens breaking into daddy’s liquor cabinet, inhaling aerosol fumes, or buying nitrous oxide cannisters from supermarkets.
I want cites that anybody other than this shmuck uses that term to refer to Ritalin.
Yeah, and? Procaine, novacaine, lydocaine, and various legal cocaine derivitives used by doctors are related to the illegal street drug cocaine. The illegal street drug heroin is a synthetic of morphine.
It also imprisons people for impersonating police officers while letting genuine police walk free. And if I charge to perform surgery, they’ll arrest me. But they turn a blind eye to these so called ‘hospitals’.
Just who is Dr Block? What is her doctorate in?
Well, the putz who wrote the article can really improve things by never writing again.
The article has failed spectacularly to prove any medical or psychological abuse.
Parents of diabetic children may have to hold them down and stick syringes in them. The principle is the same.
Wow! Another unsubstantiated claim!
Considering you need a prescription in order to get Ritalin, I’d sure as heck hope that you consult a doctor first.
Improper labels can cause problems. Proper diagnosis is very helpful. And ADHD is a ‘learning problem’.
ms_mom67, you might ask a moderator to substitute this link to this Rutherford commentary page for your quoted piece. In my (totally untrained) opinion, it seems to exceed “fair use” length.
Aside from that, note that Rutherford is an attorney, not a doctor of medicine, psychiatry, or psychology. This does not invalidate his opinions, per se–lots of people have made contributions outside their own fields of expertise. However, if you read through his polemic, you will note that he provides no citations or references for his heavily anecdote laden commentary. As pesch has already noted, his claims seem to be either selective quoting (or, perhaps, deliberate distortion) of the actual studies to which he alludes.
My son “outgrew” Ritalin and moved on to other meds, but there is no evidence that Ritalin harmed him while he took it.
There are other ways to try to address ADHD that, while I freely admit may not help (though I have heard anecdotes in their favor), seem very unlikely to hurt either. If I had a child with ADHD, which was demonstrably not a case of trying to stick an active young child in a chair for 8 hours a day and expecting them to sit down and shut up (as I think some cases are) I would try these first:
Fish oil, high in Omega-3 oils. The typical American diet is unbalanced in fats, tending toward Omega-6.
Removing all sugars and refined flours from the child’s diet, as these cause insulin spikes and crashes.
Consider using EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy) to address emotional components.
Of COURSE I make no claims about the efficacy of these things, only that they do appear to help SOME children. And for that matter, even if the ‘help’ is a placebo effect, it should at least have zero side effects.
www.mercola.com is the resource from which I pull this information. Dr. Mercola is a practicing Osteopath (D.O.) and Naturopath, so even though he does seem to spend an inordinate amount of time shilling his eating plan and all, he also provides cites to medical journals about things like the helpful nature of Omega-3 fats in the diet.
Now, here’s my single (first hand observation) of Ritalin for a boy of my acquaintance:
The boy was diagnosed with ADHD, OCD and something else, some anxiety disorder. He’s six. I found him no more wild than my undiagnosed and presumably healthy nephew, but his school teacher couldn’t deal with him, so the school told the parents ‘drug him or he’s out of here’. So, the parents drugged him. Then, several times, his mother had to get him out of school because of heart rates in the 160’s (caused by the Ritalin). His mother has a heart rhythm problem, so she immediately took the boy off the medication, at which point she met with the school counsellor, doctors, etc., who told her that he HAD to be on Ritalin, as no other medications were suitable for him. She said she wouldn’t; she’d homeschool him first. They were horrified at the very idea, think of what a disservice she would do by depriving him of the rich experience of public education! In other words, they had no advice for her but to put her child back on a dangerous (to him) medication. Period.
She removed him from that school, put him in another school where the classroom was more open, with different areas where kids could move around and work on different things while the teacher talked at the front of the class…and yes, found a different medication. I guess the kid is doing just fine now. No thanks to his original school.
I like to agree that ADD is linked to nonconformist thought, creativity, and independence, and according to books I’ve read on ADD, that may be true. But I have to say - Ritalin was a godsend for me.
I think the argument is that the children who are nonconformist, independent, and hyperactive are put on Ritalin in order to cope with their behavioral problems, and that therefore Ritalin must produce conformity and cause the children to start acting like any other kid. In my experience, that is completely untrue. I, for one, still think the way I did before Ritalin, except that with it, I’m able to do something useful with my thoughts. The drug doesn’t cause the patient to lose their independent thoughts, and it allows them to turn those thoughts into actions. The organization that Ritalin has enabled has allowed me to really act on my ideas in a useful way.
Ritalin has helped me to harness my creativity towards useful ends. The searching, inquiring mind that I have used to cause me to be distracted and unable to concentrate in class. Ritalin has allowed me to listen to my professors and use these attributes of my mind to let me question and explore what I’m being told.
It lets me perform acts of creativity, instead of stopping partway through or never getting started in the first place. If you have no attention span, you can’t get anything done! Ritalin can allow you to act on these creative impulses rather than being imprisoned by them.
When I forget a dose, I find myself unable to concentrate on a lecture for the length of a sentence. People may claim that we put unrealistic demands on children (or adults), and that ADD is just the inability to fit into these demands. But you could not structure an educational experience to fit my ADD. So either I sit in class, miserable, and have to manage to teach myself the material later, or I take my Ritalin and I can suddenly understand, take notes, and get so much more out of my education.
People oppose Ritalin on philosophical grounds, in my opinion, because the medical research simply doesn’t offer any reasons to oppose its use. It’s made so much difference for my life that I can’t imagine where I’d be without it.
This is the way school’s sometimes deal with this. This was the first year that my son liked going to school. He liked his teacher. She had been teaching ADHD childern for 20 some years. The open house they had before school started, I went in there with a folder of things I had gotten off the net, and also a 4 page leter I wrote about me son. Explaining his streghtens and weakness. His likes and dislikes. And I was surprised to see she had him sitting right up front in the middle where he was involed in everything. They re-zoned our schools for the fall. So we are starting out at a new school… But I am looking at that as a new start for him too…Like he’s on even ground with everyone else.
Thanks Excalibre I am really happy to hear that. It makes me feel better about the choices I have made for my son. Since he is not old enough to make them. The other battle I have is when he goes to his grandparents(father’s) everyother weekend. I found out from my son that he wasn’t getting his meds when he went. His grandfather doesn’t believe there is anything wrong with him… He’s just a boy, he says. But I informed his father if I found out again that he wasn’t getting his meds there I would get in contact with my laywer… In other words he wouldn’t be alowed to see his son until they took care of his needs.
I have not had any trouble since. I just cross my fingers.
Is this Rutherford Institute a Scientology group, by any chance? I’ve been hearing about celebrity Scienos speaking out against it recently like they’ve got a big movement going on or something. Horribly wildly inaccurate speaking out*, but still trying to stir up shit against the ancient enemy Psychiatry.
Danny Masterson’s recent Celebrity Poker appearance was to benefit a group dedicated to “fighting abuses by the psychiatric community”. Someone else was on Oprah going on about overmedicated children, but I can’t recall who. Is the Rutherford Institute ligit? (I don’t have a dog in this fight, I just wanted to ask.)
*The schools are prescribing these dangerous drugs to entire classes of children!! Horrid zombiefied children!!! Won’t somebody think of the children???!!! (Yes, they actually said the SCHOOLS were prescribing Ritalin.) :rolleyes:
Note that according to most books I’ve read on ADD, all the studies trying to link diet and ADD have demonstrated that there’s no connection. Perhaps, in a very few cases, ADD behavior results from a bad reaction to diet, but these things simply to not provide any benefit for ADD symptoms except possibly in very, very rare cases.
And removing all sugars and starches from a kid’s diet most assuredly has negative effects - children like sugar. No, it’s not the foundation of a healthy diet, but to simply never allow Junior to have birthday cake or an ice cream cone strikes me as quite a nasty thing to do unless it’s really necessary.
No question that we could use more omega-3 fatty acids, though.
I don’t know anything about the therapy model you mention, and I’d be interested in hearing more. Therapy can be a great help to people with ADD, especially if their nonachievement has led to low self-esteem or depression. And while psychoanalysis and similar approaches don’t usually yield much result for ADD, there are therapy models that can help them cope with the problem and learn exactly how to operate. Probably most people with ADD should be in therapy (though I admit I’m not.) But therapy on its own is probably only effective in very mild cases.
You have to understand the stress of trying to concentrate when you just can’t concentrate. Therapeutic approaches that help a person overcome the problems ADD causes are a great idea, but if the attention span is just too short to manage in school, or at work, or to have a conversation with your spouse, then the medicine offers enormous benefits. As much as people are wary of the drugs, all the coping strategies in the world are insufficient in cases where the person has to work so hard to pay attention that they end up miserable. If I managed to organize myself, and become so structured that failure (and skipping classes) wasn’t possible, I could probably manage in school without Ritalin. But the effort of trying to pay attention in class, even when I really wanted to, was so much work, and so miserable, that I ended up skipping half my classes just to avoid it. Just learning to do well in school wouldn’t be enough for me if I was desperately unhappy the entire time.
ADD drugs are sometimes used for a person’s entire life, and sometimes not. They may be used everyday (as in my case) or only at particular times that demand an especially high attention span. Don’t dismiss them without understanding exactly how much benefit they can provide for people who need them.
I never said they’re not suitable in situations where they’re needed. I wouldn’t say that about any medication, including anti-depressants (which I took during my pregnancy, when stress related to an extended hospitalization, and mother-in-law issues, made me so depressed I would not eat). However, I see no harm, and potential good, in trying alternative therapies, such as adding Omega-3 oils to the diet. What will they hurt? That would be like saying, “Yes, I have arthritis, but methotrexate controls it, so I’ll eat stupidly, never exercise, and trust the medication to make everything all better” (or diabetes/insulin, etc.) I would not necessarily try alternative therapies instead of traditional ones, but in addition to them.
They are a conservative Christian group that seems to ally with the CoS on a number of issues like opposing Ritalin and opposing the banning of Scientology in Germany. However, there doesn’t seem to be any official connection.
I have heard this argument some times, but I sort of find the statement self-contraditiary.
ADD is better though of (again IMHO) as a over abundance of attention, the person w/ ADD notices everything, this causes distractability, the seaking for greater stimulation then the boarding school leture (this seakign of greater stimulation is not under the control of the person, it is an automatic tendancy). If you take meds to be able to focus, you HAVE to be less distracted by what is going around you. You are also not trying to find more efficient ways to learn the subject matter. (using your example - which admittadly is hard to justify as school enviroment is just a ADD unfriendly enviroment).
A slightly different take on the school setting, lets say the professor is teaching and off to the side outside the door the hallway was on fire, who is more likely to sound the alarm, the ‘normals’ who are watching the teacher and taking notes, the treated ADD kid who is also watching the teacher and taking notes, or the untreated distractable ADD kid who is looking around. This is just one example how one person w/ untreated ADD can be a benifit to the greater whole, but he (the ADD kid) will have a tough life. Also the ADD kid will be more likely to invent better ways to study, I know one who learned, somehow, he doesn’t even know how, to JUST take notes on what was going to be on the test. While not perfect, it was fairly accurate and his notes were about 1/4 to 1/10 the lenght of the other students - and actually he got in trouble a few times for not taking adaqutie notes :rolleyes: . This method now helps him later in life (out of school) being able to get a point right away. W/ meds this ‘compensational method’/‘natural gift’ might never been explored.
While the meds may make you think you are just as creative, I’d say not (again MHO here), you are more productive, more focused, but creativity requires combining many things together. You are getting things done, but that does not mean creative.
I understand DocCathode and have read some of that romance noval you linked too. I am not saying that ADD meds don’t help in social situations, I know they do. I also know that ADD meds have different effects on different people. But we will have to agree to disagree on if it helps or hurts the benificial ADD traits, in favor or non-ADD traits.
My son is 12 and has been diagnosed with ADHD since he was in 2nd grade. We have run through the whole litany of different medications for him. We tried Ritalin a few times and I just didn't care for the side effects at the end of the day, it was a roller coaster. We finally have him on Concerta and finally, there seems to be a good balance, and it is something he only takes once a day. I also found that extreme structure is necessary and a lot of limitations on tv and video time. Best of luck!
Structure is very important, unfortunately he doesn’t have that all the time. He just got back from his dad’s for the weekend. I am not sure of the rules at his Nana’s house. But it’s like I have to retrain him for being here. He is so wild when he gets home it takes a while to settle him down. Good thing we only have to do this twice a month.
Personally, I do not believe that there is a pill for every condition. There is a pertainent line in a song by Zager and Evans somewhere.
I’m curious if you give a child ritalin to manage it when it’s 5 or 6 and when it is 15 or 16, you tell it, “Just say no to drugs, drugs are dangerous.” How do you explain giving it drugs for the past 10 years?