The Drugging Of Our Children

I won't bother to watch the video, simply because I've heard and seen it all before. While it's true that *some* children are misdiagnosed, and some doctors are too quick to prescribe, the mistake, once again, is in peoples ignorance of what ADD and ADHD are, and how they are diagnosed in the first place. It is NOT a simple matter of "oh no, my child is acting up" and a doctor prescribing medication. It is a time consuming process that covers every base before resorting to the last resort of medicating. My 8 year old daughter is ADD. She is *not* medicated for the moment, I'll make that clear, but let me tell you what we had to go through in order to have her diagnosed. She had dietary testing, hormone testing, allergy testing. She had vision tests and hearing tests. She had councelling for 4 weeks and psychological assessments. At the end of it all, she was finally diagnosed ADD. Her psychologist then plans a routine construct for her to follow, sans medication. She has to attend monthly assessment seminars to see where she stands on her routine, and to see if medication may be a consideration for her in the future. And throughout everything, the main input comes from me and her father, and from her teachers. Medication will never be introduced until every other avenue has been explored and exhausted. ADD is a chemical and hormonal imbalance. It is primarily genetic, and associated with other neurological disorders (GDD, Autism, Aspergers, etc) It is NOT a classification for an out of control child with no cause. And it is not a one day trip to the doctors after a temper tantrum that lands them on aderol, turning them into little zombies.

I didn't watch the video - but I know exactly what you are saying. We have given our ideosyncracies (sp) so much attention and turned them into problems. I was just talking with my cousin about the huge attention autism is getting. It made me realize that if I was a child right now I'd be diagnosed with autism!!! Why can't we let people be different??? That's about all it comes down to, someone acts differently than we want them to so we slap a label on them and proceed to medicate them. Nah, that just doesn't work for me.

I do think alot of our trouble with kids is the meds they are on. I do think that there are some that really need them. The schools are participating to much into whether or not we put our children on meds. They are not doctors, but somethimes they act like they are. Doctors need to be less willing to prescribe these meds..

first let me say I did NOT watch the video...simply because I've seen videos on the topic before...However I have a few things to comment on.. "But as is indicated in this disturbing video, the children often become worse...they suffer from hallucinations, become more violent and psychotic rather than better" First off, its NOT "often" that the children become worse...the reason I say this is simply becuase I know many kids and teens including my own son who are on meds for various things from ADD, ADHD to severe depression and they ALL have benefited from their medication...BUT just like with adults, finding the RIGHT MEDS and RIGHT DOSE is key..Unfortunately its very much a trial and error process regardless of the patients age... I will agree though that there are far too many docs out there that are WAY TOO QUICK to misdiagnose ANY patient no matter what their age...I've seen it in children AND most recently in my own 80+ yr old MiL! That doesnt mean however that ALL kids, teens, adults or elderly etc are always misdiagnosed...I'll also agree that many parents/caregivers are too quick to jump on the ADD/ADHD bandwagon...HOWEVER I feel differently about Depression...Yes my sons depression is partly the reason but also becuase I have suffered from it since I was a child so childhood depression si VERY real...Add to that the overwhelming life kids have today in comparison...believe it or not kids today ARE far more stressed and have far more demands on them then we did as kids (my age group anyway) and add to THAT the fact that MANY (far far too many IMO) kids/teens are latchkey and left to fend for themselves..."family" more often than not doesnt exist anymore...so these kids have no one to go to....many have parents/caregivers who really just dont care/cant be bothers OR are far too busy which sucks.... I think a parent IF they are leery about a diagnosis, should get a second opinion and I ALWAYS think a parent/caregiver should DO THEIR RESEARCH when their child is prescribed meds....I trust my doc fully BUT I still did my research when my son was prescribed Prozac....

There is a lot of talk about this here in UK too, and it is very sad. So many young kids being turned into "zombies" and in danger of a lifetime of addiction, and for what!? Just because in many cases they are being "normal" exuberant and lively kids. I have said this here before (and many people didn't like me for it), - but I firmly believe that although, of course, ADHD and other ilnesses of this type do exist, - in the main, there is nothing wrong with half these kids that fresh air, exercise, no junk food and no TV won't cure. There have always been "disturbed" people in the world (children and adults), - but when you and I were growing up, ADHD did not exist, and I'm pretty damn sure it still doesn't exist in countries in the Third World, where the children work in the fields to help their parents from the age of 8 or 9. And no - I am not advocating child labour, - but certainly when a child has loads of fresh air and exercise, they are too tired to "play up". When I was growing up, we walked to school (no cars), played outside in the playgroud at breaktimes, and then outside again at night. TV was restricted to a supervised half an hour or an hour a day, and food was all freshly cooked with loads of fruit and vegetables - no fried food, no burgers or junk food, very few sweets. and no added chemicals. Now these poor kids don't know what this kind of life is like. Many of them eat a refined, sugary cereal for breakfast (usually in front of ghastly, noisy cartoons and childrens' TV), then they are put in a car for the school run (no exercise or fresh air), lunch is probably burger and chips with some tacky, fizzy pop that rots their teeth and gives them more sugar, and when they finally get home from school (again in a car), instead of nbeing allowed outside to run and play sports, many of them are shut inside a house in front of more, mind-bending, noisy TV, before a meal of frozen food, more fizzy drinks, and candy, before an evening of more TV or Internet or computer games. Poor little souls must be climbing the walls with sugar addiction and pent up energy - and then if they try to run about or start crying - they get diagnosed as "ADHD" and put on medication. It makes me mad!

I agree today there are so many kids on meds, for one thing or another. My grandson son is ADHD. He is on two different meds. He is 11 years old. We have even had to have the police at our house 3 times. Twice He ended up in the mental ward at our local hospital. The third time he was off the wall and violent. He trashed the whole house while his mom was at work. He was throwing everything he could find at me in my bedroom, and the girls were with me. I included a pic of some of the mess. Imagine All over a baseball practice for his sister (long story). He even gave the police a hard time, when they tried to catch him outside. Child protective got involved, when my daughter refused to take him home from the hospital. She was trying to protect us. The time before that he was supposed to be sent to a facility for an evaluation. Well it didn't happen. He was on one med to start, then the Doctor put him om another med, and that one is the med that made him change. He was tired, lost his appatite. He wanted to be left alone all the time. He had more problems in school than usual. He even talked about killing himself. He was placed in a group home for awhile over the summer. We found out it was the second med that created the problem. They took him off of it. They said he should never have been pt on it. They now have him on another med, and it seems to be ok. It's called Risperdal. I don't understand why he needs to be on 2 meds. I think the Strattera is enough. He seems to be doing ok though. His dad and other grandmother are both bipolar. My grandson is very bright and smart. He does very well in school. He also is in band, chorus and he likes to play baseball,tennis and fish. He is also glued to his video games. He is also getting counsling. My heart does go out to all the poor kids that have to be on meds, especially the ones that really don't need to be. Thank you for starting this discussion, as it really does give us all something to think about.