Examining Drugs for ‘adhd’
justify starting children on a life of drug addiction.” The U.S. Surgeon General Report declares, “the exact etiology of ADHD is unknown.” Lastly, Dr. Joe Kosterich, Federal Chair of the Australian Medical Association states, ” “The diagnosis of ADD is entirely subjective…. There is no test. It is just down to interpretation.
Maybe a child blurts out in class or doesn’t sit still. The lines between an ADD sufferer and a healthy exuberant kid can be very blurred.” What we are experiencing are children in conflict. We cannot blame and denigrate the child and not respect his dignity. We cannot label and suppress behaviors. If a child is conflict, we must take responsibility to see why this child is in conflict and to use responsible and carefully planned interventions to aid this child in being successful. Some believe that they see enormous benefits from children on medication. I will give them this benefit, only if we see suppression of behavior, basically chemical restraint, and the creation of zombies as our idea of ‘progress’ or ‘success’. But once again, we are taking normal children and drugging them to suppress their behaviors. In order to achieve such a ‘result’, just what is going on in this child’s body? Stanley I. Greenspan, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University states that, ” The growing use of medication on their own is a worrisome trend while more and more people on Prozac or Ritalin are becoming bolder and less distractible, at the same time, more and more people are altering their moods without understanding what is happening to them or how it relates to their core personalities.”
He also states, “given appropriate nurturing, many affected children may not require medication.” University of South Florida Professor of Psychology, Diane McGuinness comments, “The first factor of being put on drugs is to attribute your bad behavior to factors beyond your control. Drugs become a substitute for learning self-discipline. This problem is compounded when children are taken off medication and problem behavior initially rebounds to fantastic proportions. Second, longitudinal studies have confirmed that children on drugs actually deteriorate in academic performance over time. And we must consider the sense of worthlessness most of these young people experience. (McGuinness, 1985). Paul Wender, M.D. lists criteria when beginning medication, he states that a child must first understand why he is receiving medication, yet as Greenspan states above, this isn’t always happening. Wender states, “Most acknowledge problems in his own behavior that he himself does not like, so that -he will not feel that medicine is being given to him simply so that other people can tolerate him more.” Now, Wender is one who began the first tests on the use of methylphenidate and is in support of its use in treatment.
I have had instances of being kicked, and even bitten by children going through behavioral difficulties, but at the same time, I found methods to help a child be able to deal with behaviors and to have progress while at the same time encouraging the child’s own responsibility and sovereignty, and working on the creative strengths of the child. Greenspan comments, “working with the strengths of a child can create motivation.” A child needs to be able to recognize and be motivated to change behaviors and work on strengths. Even Wender states that getting a child to ‘label’ behaviors is effective, that a child must recognize what is appropriate and what is not, and that parents should not encourage the idea that because the medication was wearing off or so forth that such excuses a level of knowledge and responsibility for certain behaviors. In my experiences, I would argue that a child often has complete knowledge of some of his or her behaviors and may develop a manipulative manner and ‘test’ the parent and find various triggers and weaknesses where he the parent will give in to his immediate desire. My concern lies too in that whereas some may feel medication to create some responsive in level of focus and so forth, it comes with a cost in side effects. Some may take the view that the potential for progress outweighs the potential side effects.
This is where I disagree, and feel it better to avoid that which would cause any side effects, that psychotherapy alone can manage the difficulties. These are some of the things that bring alarm to me. Wender states, “Most common side effects of the stimulant medications are appetite loss…difficulty in falling asleep.” He suggests the use of a small dose of sedative ‘major tranquilizer’ an hour before bedtime to solve this in some cases. So, here a see a cycle of drugs needing to be used and that’s worrisome. Wender states, “Research is being conducted to determine the -exact- effects of stimulant medication on growth.” This tells me they are prescribing something,