mentalblog.com comments:
Ritalin is an amphetamine and has been defintively linked with stunted growth, long term deleterious effects on the chemicals in the brain, dperession and by extension suicide depression,nausea, stomach disorders,zombie like bahviour, insomnia, irritability, lack of motivation, impaired cognitive ability, weight loss, and often leads to drug addiciton etc. This is only a partial listing of its down side.
Some studies indicate it also leads to cancer and heart disease later in life.
Parents should be encouraged to find alternate means to deal with their children's behavioral problems. But the medical establishment is in large part fueled by the drug companies. Doctors are inculcated with a 'drugs are a solution to everything' mind set and are given financial incentives by the drug companies.
Any responsible loving parent would never allow their child to be given Ritali if they were informed of its actual dangers.
Say NO TO RITALIN!!!! :-:
That's a very disturbing trend.
Thanks for the post. Many "well-meaning" knowitalls have told me to give ritalin to our son. B"H we have not followed the advice and he is improving with proper social and occupational therapies.
Ritalin cures nothing. It is similiar to chicken soup & prozac, doesn't cure anything but makes you feel better.
Ritalin is not only not a cure, but it creates worse problems. And don't be so certain it makes the child feel better either.
Edited By Siteowner
Camille Paglia writes:
http://www.salon.com/col/pagl/19.../
nc_25pagl.html
Dear Camille,
What do you think of the Prozac-ing of America? It seems that every other person I know is taking either anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drugs. What broader, cultural impacts do you think this will have on our population? Will we become a happier, saner nation -- or just more placid and less creative? Would you yourself, with all your Amazonian fire and neurotic energy, ever consider taking drugs like this?
Drug-free (so far)
Dear Drug-free:
I would be very interested in knowing how old you are, where you live, and what social and professional circles you frequent. It seems to be the urban white middle class and its feeder cells on the elite college campuses who are addicted to Prozac, which I view as the drug of choice for glum, PC sentimentalists unable to face the spiritual deficiencies at the heart of their own decaying liberalism.
I have continually argued that we have a national schizophrenia about drugs and that it makes no sense at all to push synthetic Prozac while banning organic marijuana. The government's hysterical crusade against tobacco (a consciousness-enhancing Native American herb) is a fancy piece of tap-dancing to avoid dealing with these irrational inconsistencies.
Though huge numbers of people seemed to be using pot or hallucinogens in the 1960s, followed by cocaine in the 1970s, I wasn't interested, mainly because the altered states those drugs produced didn't seem attractive or useful to me. My mind is already hallucinatory enough, and my natural Amazonian amphetamines give me the energy, confidence and hyper-alertness that others bankrupt themselves to achieve through coke.
As an Italian, I am loyal to Dionysian liquor, with its primeval pagan ancestry. My grandfather grew grapes in his backyard and made wine in a tiny shrinelike room in his cellar that reeked with the damp, fruity aroma of oak casks. Liquor, always consumed with food in the Mediterranean manner, stimulates engaging conversation and brings general enjoyment and hilarity in every kind of social setting.
Unlike Prozac, which is an all-day, all-night wet blanket, liquor can be measured out and taken at will to light up whatever hours or evenings one chooses. Its effects, even in excess, rarely last long. But Prozac flattens mood, robs creativity and turns you into a bourgeois clone of everyone else. What a bore!
Check out the Manhattan magazine culture. Do you wonder why the writing is so stale, the thought so derivative, the graphics so cluttered and clichéd? It's Prozac, the favorite pick-me-up for whiny, passive-aggressive, drag-ass, scribbling moles.
I am surprised at this outrage against "drugs" in general. I mean, advocating some common sense measures for better learning environment, as the post recommends, before trying medical interventions is just good common medical sense. But for some kids, the drugs DO help and they are the only things that help, though not nearly so many as turn to it, agreed. Now, I will be panned as advocating the "drugging" of kids, but that is not my position. I am just saying we can't go all the way the other way and ostracize those people for whom these drugs make the difference between a functional and dysfunctional child.
Certainly, we do not need to turn to anti-medical Scientology type rhetoric or magic. Many kids who are taking Aderall should not be. But some should and helps them.
I think drugs have a use, as a last resort.
Sometimes there are different / better ways, but there may be times when medication may very well be the right way to go. To be sure, other avenues should be pursued, and it shouldn't be treated lightly. I know kids that were on medication for ADD / ADHD, and some were completely incapable of focusing / learning without it. You could even spend hours on something - and they would get it - but the next day it was as if it never happened. With medication they were completely different.
However, I know of one kid like this who was put on meds and started doing well - I'm not sure how long it was (months? years?), but after a time suddenly his grades dropped. When his parents asked him what happened, he told them that he stopped taking the meds. His reason: He can really focus well with the meds, but life become like "flat soda" - he is never happy, never say, never excited. He said that learning isn't that important if he has to sacrifice his emotions.
My son's yeshiva pressured us to put him on Rytalin when he was in third grade.
I can't tell you how glad my wife and I didn't listen.
They sent us to a "child psychlogist" who told us us how not only are her children on it, but her husband too!
Parents..use your common sense, most children are not born to be able to sit 12 hours a day in yeshiva.
CE
I cannot be sure with the limited info you gave, but it sounds more typical of bipolar disorder than straight ADHD, though the two are linked. The multitude of conditions lumped under ADHD today do not all exhibit emotional highs and lows. Stimulants help when the part of the brain that helps the person control impulsive behavior are understimulated.
However, the other symptom description, the kid that understands today and is as if he was not there tomorrow is typical of ADHD. Sorry for harping on it, but this subject is a little close to home.
My advice, force the schools to have reasonable hours. Insist on gym class. Get our of Brooklyn, the environment, air, and just about everything else can make a person ADD, ADHD, or crazy.
I don't want my kid in school past 2:30PM. Kids need time to run around and explore their own interests, academic or not. As far as I can see, pre-school until 2:30PM followed by kindergarten until 3:30PM, followed by later and later let our times will only contribute to burn out and behavioral issues. And, unfortunately, the secular studies who teach at the end of the day in the boys schools are stuck with the worst behavior.
Rebel,
I'm sorry if I was unclear - this child did not have mood swings. He struggled to focus and retain information. The medication seemed to effectively make him emotionless.
Commenting by HaloScan
