Skip the Ritalin and Treat Parents Instead

mom of 5

I started my 8 year old son on Concerta last week. He's been in the special ed program at school for 2 years due to his poor reading skills. Our district tests these children for ADHD, so when he started deteriorating and saying he wanted to die this year, and having an extremely hard time concentrating in home and school we decided to open his case back up and retest him.

I don't like the fact I'm "drugging" my child.

But he has improved 100%. We haven't told the teacher, yet, that he is taking meds. She has called me everyday this week and reported outstanding behavior and participation in class. This has NEVER been the case with my son, and I feel he is really shining. I feel this was a quick fix, and meanwhile I am searching for social skill classes, and classes that will teach me (and my husband) how to apply behavior techniques that will benefit everyone in the family. I feel you must weigh the pros and cons of giving your child medication. Would my son be "okay" without the medication? Maybe. But he was suffering from extreme low self esteem, no friends, not being able to "keep" friends, being impulsive, extremely distracted in all areas of life, and numerous other issues. I consider myself a good mom, and set aside afternoon and evenings just to help him complete his homework. So far the Concerta has worked, and I will continue other ways to help him. I think education is key for all parents considering ADHD meds. Not to mention, close monitoring of your child while on them.

adhd nedication

Usually when a child or adult are diagnosed with adhd they always add some kind of other diagnosis(Bi-Polar) so they can perscribe more drugs.The doctors may know medication but they don't know the patients the therapist they relate their lives to do. Yes, I was diagnosed with ADHD & Bi-Polar but I'm questionable on the Bi-Polar more than the other. The doctor didn't take in the consideration that I've worked 21yrs at the same factory 7 days a week 10 or more hours a day to support my children & 1 grandchild. I did this so my daughters didn't have to live with the abuse physical & mental abuse that I brought them into with their father. In the beginning I chose to treat violence with violence and shot him in self defence before he harmed me more or my children next. Wrong choice but helped them diagnose me with Bi-polar. Maybe it was sleep depersation or combination of stressers in my life. I'm on short term disability know & have been for 3 months. For the first time in 21 yrs., and getting atleast 7 to 8 hours asleep a day. This has changed my mood swings and my self control. I only take adderall and not half as much as I did while working full time. Yes I still get depressed but its not as deep and I do take pain meds., when I'm in severe pain. The depression only comes from everything to not knowing where the money is coming from or workman comp lawyers and my employer refusing to take responsibility for my injury to my back. Maybe we need to go back to the basics & simplify things more instead of making a diagnosis that no doctor in the same field will disagree with because they go up against another in the same field so lets just keep experamenting on humans with drugs instead of treating them with some-one to listen and give them different approaches and directions. Let 1 parent stay home and raise the children and the other work and get a decent salary to support them. Give single parents a chance to be both and live a less stressful life. I'm not who I was 4 months ago but I'm sure I will be when I return to my job & the long hours so I can support my daughter and fight the results of the lawsuit I started. Thats not what I choose but will have to be because I'll never put my children in harms way just because their father should pay child support. Its not worth their lives. Its not all about drugs its people honestly caring and helping others instead of just turning the other way. They can know the medication & not the person or vice-a-versa. Its all about money not the person. Alot of things wouldn't happen if we took the time to treat the people instead of always giving them mental drugs to which there is no proven test to diagnose except some college giving them the right to give out perscription drugs because of what they want to diagnose you with without all the facts in the same bucket.

Stop doping the kidds-treat parents and teachers

Well...kids were and will be kids forever. Every generation had to find way to deal with children's exhuberance. It is part of growing up. Any other way it is abnormal. Ehe quiet child that sits still in the corner is the one who may have a development problem.

In simpler societies of the past the children, most especially the boys were sent outside and told to be physical: run, jump, climb, swimm. Then came chores that also involved physical movement. School and brain use were almost secondaty. That was true for thousands of years of evolution. That made us how we are.

Modern society locks the kidds in a classroom, more often stuck in front of a computer for hours at the time. Then they are sent home where busy and tired parents put them in from of the TV, the computer, the viii or other game player and tell them to be quiet.

Pity the boys of this and future generations. Stop and notice the distorted shape of their bodies. Numbers are scarry.

Also count the ones wearing glasses. The weak vision come from having their young eyes focussed for long periods at one spot without eye movement, without looking close and far. without looking at bue sky and green grass and red and tellow flowers.

Unless we change our perception and change the grownups attitude toward boys ...and girls growing up we may end up raising mutants instead of humans.

wire 2008

country responsible adjust intense increasing efforts

too quick to medicate

I have a stepson with mild ADHD. His mother would not describe it as mild, and she insisted that he be put on medication about 1 year ago now. He was doing poorly in school, he was argumentative and loudly disrespectful to her, and she "just couldn't deal with it anymore". His father also has mild ADHD and does not take medication. We have only had partial custody up until recently, but we saw none of the same symptoms of which she complained except disorganization. We objected to the medication, but she did it anyway, feeling she had the right since she had principal physical custody.

His father and I noticed negative changes in his behavior over the first 3 months of being medicated. Over the summer, we insisted he be taken off it. The doctor agreed, as these stimulants are often habit forming. In the fall, his mother resumed the drugs. His teachers complained that he was jittery in class, so his mother had his dosage doubled, since it "clearly wasn't strong enough anymore". Over the 3 weeks that he was on this increased dosage, his behavior changed radically, yet she stubbornly maintained it was helping. Consistent outbursts of rage, both in school and out, spinning in circles for several minutes if left unchecked, screaming at other kids and getting suspended for a week. How could these not be seen as direct effects of the increase? There were worse behaviors beyond these even, and eventually we were awarded temporary custody by the state. Since being with us his behavior has changed radically again. Why?

One, he had no set bedtime at his mothers. By his own words, he'd be up until 3, 4, even 8am, even on school nights. She was inconsistent in consequences, and rarely stuck more than a day or two of any dictated punishment for misbehavior. She screamed and rarely explained her reasoning beyond "don't do this, i said don't do this, what's wrong with you." I've witnessed some of it, it's ridiculous. No structure, no interest in his homework or anything he was doing in school, she never checked his homework, never helped him study. We have changed all of it. Expectations are clearly stated and clarified as unforeseen points arise. There are consistently-implemented negative consequences of undesireable behaviors. Bedtime is bedtime, mental control is much harder on no sleep, and we stay up until he's asleep to make sure he's not sneaking upstairs to watch tv. Games and books stay out of his room at bedtime, reducing temptation. Homework is checked as are grades. Disagreements are kept calm, and emotional outbursts result in a 5min break to control his temper, repeated ones in grounding. We work with him on memory and organization. His grades are now nearly straight As, not even Cs, and his teachers think he's a great student.

So from my experience, increased focus on counseling IS required. Too many people think issues can be fixed with a pill, and except in extreme cases, this is no more than an easy way out for lazy parents.

ADHD

Kill your television! Then lock the computer, cancel the cell phone and hide the MP3 player. Put your child outside to play and/ or in library every day of the week before siting down for dinner and a talk. NO BRAIN CAN DEVELOP NORMALLY IN AN ABNORMAL BARRAGE OF NOISE AND DISTRACTIONS.

Adults with ADHD

Wouldn't it be great if this could apply to spouses as well? How doesn't one ADHD spouse get along with one that isn't and v/v? Of course they haven't had all that great childhood supportive upbringing so what do we do?

How about school-teacher training?

I have a son with ADHD and other issues (most kids with ADHD do have other issues). It wasn't until we finally started medication - after 3 years of tormenting the poor kid in school - that he was able to focus enough to perform at his intellectual level and qualify for our school's gifted and talented program.

I have problems with any system that arbitrarily comes between a patient and their doctor. Stimulant medications for ADHD are among the longest-use drugs we have data on for children. Think about it: kids have been taking Ritalin long before ibuprofen (or even tylenol!) was available. Outcome studies for kids who have taken stimulant drugs show very positive results!

I'm not a big medications fan - we've spent thousands of our own money on OT and other interventions and family counseling. But I truly believe it would be evil to withhold this medication, that allows him to focus, to create comic books and drawings of great complexity, and read novels. My kid has an amazing and creative mind and I feel truly privileged to know him - but the power of failure and rejection, even for a preschooler, is a fearful and horrible thing. It has taken a couple of years for him to think of himself as a bright kid at all. How could it possibly be a bad thing to save him from the continued poor opinion of his teachers and peers?

Which brings me back to the point of my subject line - parenting him is something we've learned over the years and we're fine with him. He doesn't take his meds on the weekends or holidays or summer. It's the school environment that's so difficult. So are the school teachers also going to be forced into counseling in the UK?

ADHD does not exist

All children who are loved, cherished and encouraged will thrive and grow. We have failed and abuse our children when we label and poison them with psychotropic drugs.

Official warnings issued: The ADHD drug Strattera CAUSES psychosis, hallucinations and agitation.

Consider the Source

Consider the source in this article, CHADD has been taking Big Pharma's money for years. In addition CHADD has misled parents into place their children onto psychiatric drugs in the first place. Therefore, their advice to now "treat" the parents should be placed in the same place as their advice to drug the children- in the trash bin.

How about taking on the legal and constitutional issues surrounding labeling children with psychiatric labels before their lives ever really begin. A total violation of their Liberty. Parents, Buyer Beware of the product ADHD and the very profitable and sometimes deadly treatments that are recommended. Not to mention how the State Governments are involved in your rights on the issue of mental health.