The Druging Of American Kids.

[Swede!]

AD(H)D is a real neuropsychiatrical disease. But the diagnosis must be made carefully. I've seen people with this condition change overnight from neurotic to normal, not robots, but much better fuctioning and happier people. If used correctly, it's not unhealthy and not addictive.

Time released version is even better, no rebound.

says Dr Dutch

Sometimes it's that.

Sometimes Its lazy american parents.

[gib]

I think they use Adderall now.

It's effective in treating ADD.

I had a friend in elementary school who was wild and uncontrollable and as a result was a terrible student.  This behavior continued into middle school until he was diagnosed with ADD freshman year of high school.  He was put on a regimen of Adderall and he went from a failing student to graduating with honors and attended Princeton University.  He's now Director of Operations at a large hospital in Arizona and makes $300K/year.

Bullshit - the "ADD" was probably because he was highly intelligent. He would have excellent in any case. In most boys, ADD is a normal behaviour, that phases out as he ages. The problem is a schooling system that expects kids to sit at desks, when they are at an age biologically to be running around like crazy. So its the system, not the kid, that is the problem.

[SilverSpoon]

A lot of these kids are suffering from the effects of a terrible diet deficient in amino acids.

And/or are ingesting dyes that they are allergic to.

I grew up with a kid who had horrible reactions to red dye.  Normal, nice kid.  Give him a candycane?  A spider monkey that would try to rip your face off.

I believe it is now referred to as the Feingold diet.

http://www.feingold.org/overview.php

[SilverSpoon]

Dr. Priscilla Slagle believes that many of the adult mental health problems can be cured through diet.

http://www.thewayup.com/

You can download her book for free on this site.

The amino acids she has available on her site are the finest that are made, and are the same company that Rheo Blair used to have his products manufactured.

[maxkane69]

  99.9999% of conspiracy theories are illogical bullshit. You want a conspiracy theory that is real? Here you have it: a 1960's ad for Ritalin, catecholaminergic, non-amine dopamine re-uptake inhibitor, that turns rebellious kids into obedient robots with no personalities of their own. By blocking the reuptake of dopamine in the pre-frontal cortex, it sustains focus and decreases cerebral "noise" thus making a child hypnotized by whatever is in front of him. Truly scary shit...

SUCKMYMUSCLE

Doctor who prescribe drugs like that to kids are worst than street drug dealer just like white collar Bankers are worst than Bank robbers!
The world is so FUCK-UP nowdays because the Governement and Law do not make illegal this kind of practice from doctors and Bankers who fuck-up kids health and our livewood but instead reward them!

[DK II]

Doctor who prescribe drugs like that to kids are worst than street drug dealer just like white collar Bankers are worst than Bank robbers!
The world is so FUCK-UP nowdays because the Governement and Law do not make illegal this kind of practice from doctors and Bankers who fuck-up kids health and our livewood but instead reward them!

Well, it has been like this always....

For example, in Europe if you don't pay your taxes, if it's 10.000 - 100.000 Euro you did not pay, you will pay a huge fine or maybe even go to jail, if you "missed" to pay 20.000.000 Euros, they will drop the charges if you just pay the money.

[Samourai Pizzacat]

Keep in mind that a diagnosis is neccesary in order to receive social security. That means that regularly a psychiatrist, psychologist will label a person that falls short of a DSM IV category, but that can clearly benefit from treatment (whether that be behavioural therapy, drugs, ECT, etc). Without that label you receive no compensation for treatment.

Many disorders didn't exist pre-19/20th century in terms of medical description, or were chucked in groups as 'hysterical' or 'insane'. That doesn't mean they're merely figments of 20th century society. There were times when certain diagnoses like ADD were bandied about like ping pong balls.

Much more worrysome are the attempts of the pharmaceutical lobby to stretch the inclusion criteria for disorders, in order to create a greater market for their drugs.

[DK II]

Keep in mind that a diagnosis is neccesary in order to receive social security. That means that regularly a psychiatrist, psychologist will label a person that falls short of a DSM IV category, but that can clearly benefit from treatment (whether that be behavioural therapy, drugs, ECT, etc). Without that label you receive no compensation for treatment.

Many disorders didn't exist pre-19/20th century in terms of medical description, or were chucked in groups as 'hysterical' or 'insane'. That doesn't mean they're merely figments of 20th century society. There were times when certain diagnoses like ADD were bandied about like ping pong balls.

Much more worrysome are the attempts of the pharmaceutical lobby to stretch the inclusion criteria for disorders, in order to create a greater market for their drugs.

pharma companies = terrorists.

They push their shit on the people, without remorse, and the governments are ALL on their pay lists, just too bad they only push what brings the most money and not what would eventually help people.

Why can you get Ritalin for your kid VERY easily but steroids, amphetamines and other "drugs" are outlawed?

[Parker]

Keep in mind that a diagnosis is neccesary in order to receive social security. That means that regularly a psychiatrist, psychologist will label a person that falls short of a DSM IV category, but that can clearly benefit from treatment (whether that be behavioural therapy, drugs, ECT, etc). Without that label you receive no compensation for treatment.

Many disorders didn't exist pre-19/20th century in terms of medical description, or were chucked in groups as 'hysterical' or 'insane'. That doesn't mean they're merely figments of 20th century society. There were times when certain diagnoses like ADD were bandied about like ping pong balls.

Much more worrysome are the attempts of the pharmaceutical lobby to stretch the inclusion criteria for disorders, in order to create a greater market for their drugs.

Well, I don't think in the late 19th century, early 20th century that they had all these chemicals, dyes, and hormones in our food. Nevermind the populace who experimented with all sorts of mind altering drugs. Compound that with a society that started to reward mediocrity.

[Samourai Pizzacat]

Well, I don't think in the late 19th century, early 20th century that they had all these chemicals, dyes, and hormones in our food. Nevermind the populace who experimented with all sorts of mind altering drugs. Compound that with a society that started to reward mediocrity.

You're dead wrong here, there were many chemicals in high dosages in the human environment especially since the start of the industrial revolution. Arsenic, lead, and later radioactive elements like radium (in toothpaste and hair cream!) to name a few. Pollution in England's big cities was ghastly in the late 18th and 19th century.

But we're discussing 2 different topics here:
-causal link between pollutants and psychological disorders

and

-overdiagnosing and stretching of inclusion criteria (partially under pressure by the pharm industry)

  

[The Abdominal Snoman]

Putting kids on drugs early on in life only set them up for looking for more powerful drugs when they become adults. 

[The Abdominal Snoman]

Bullshit - the "ADD" was probably because he was highly intelligent. He would have excellent in any case. In most boys, ADD is a normal behaviour, that phases out as he ages. The problem is a schooling system that expects kids to sit at desks, when they are at an age biologically to be running around like crazy. So its the system, not the kid, that is the problem.

Good post. They want every kid to be the same. A robot in the system they created. And the ones who really stand out and excel will be put at the front of the class. The ones who fall way behind will be put on mind altering drugs.

[SF1900]

A doctor tried to get my son on Ritalin.

He has attention issues or so they said. Others said Autism. At 3 years old, he couldn't talk. You'd ask him what he wanted to do and all he'd say was "spiderman, spiderman, spiderman". You'd put a CD on 3 times and on the 4th time he's sing along every damn song almost word perfect.

I shopped around many, many doctors listening to their nonsense until I found someone who's explanations and recommendations made sense.

What a psychologist eventually found was that he had some language development problems that will be with him forever but which he can work his way around. He spent 1.5 years in a special school which took him from "spiderman, spiderman, spiderman" to being able to go into the regular school system. He's not the top of the class but he's not the bottom either. To me, this was nothing short of a miracle.

As school gets harder as he gets older, we have to intervene and teach him the strategies he needs to wrap his head around the way a regular classroom works. With that he goes in and gets along.

All the psych tests show he has above average cognitive abilities but he's not wired the same way other kids are and he doesn't respond as well as them to the teaching methods in school. I have to help out a lot with his school work and retention skills/strategies.

He's almost 10. He was in the special school at 4, regular school into his 5th year.

Doctors - well they just wanted to write him off or give him drugs. As it is, he's on no medication, very happy, very charming and doing just fine.

Fuck these people who want them on drugs. They just aren't all the same.

You're implicitly referring to a term called, "Goodness of Fit." This term basically means is there a Good Fit between the child's temperament/personality/behavior and the environment. That is, does the environment make the appropriate accommodations to fit the child's needs. In schools, the answer is no! Children have to adapt to the school, instead of the school adapting to the kids needs. Thus, the kid is forced to learn, think and act a certain way that is contradictory to his or her true nature. This does not create a "Goodness of Fit" between the child and the environment. In fact, its a pretty poor Fit. The child will inevitably wind up with difficulties, because they are being told to act opposite of who they are.

Better explained by Thomas and Chess:

"Stated briefly, there is a goodness of fit when the person's temperament and other characteristics such as motivation and levels of intellectual and other abilities, are adequate to master the successive demands, expectations, and opportunities of the environment.

This formulation stems from the conviction that normal or pathologic psychologic development does not depend on temperament alone. Rather, it is the nature of the interaction between temperament and the individual's other characteristics with specific features of the environment which provides the basic dynamic influence for the process of development.

If there is a goodness of fit between child and environment, the foundation for a healthy self-concept and stable self-esteem is laid down. If there is a poorness of fit, a negative, denigrated self-evaluation begins to crystalize. If, in latter childhood or even in adult life, a poorness of fit can be altered, such as by the emergence of new positive capacities or a favorable change in the environment, then a negative self-image may be transformed into a positive one.