10% of 10 year olds on drugs because of ADD/ADHD?!

[Nowhere]

If this is true, this is sickening. Even if the drugs are helpfull...I'd bet in most cases it's narrowminded view of the people who subsribe them ("they brough me this kid here and said he has problem with this and this. Oh, look, I have a drug which will deal with this and this"), together with the pressure from so-called parents.

Even worse...there are apparently quite easy alternatives...but so what, it seems.

[az]

It's the easiest way for the parents and the doctors, it's the most profitable way for the doctors and the pharma industry.

[KvHagedorn]

If they want easy, why not just chain him to the bed?

Parents nowadays.. no time to even love their kids anymore.

[az]

Clarification: It's the easiest way to feel they have done something for the child.

[Sasq]

I have to say, while I think there is over perscription of these drugs, there are times that it may be the only way.

I recently had a conversation with an old friend of mine with a 9yo son. he was diagnosed ADD almost a year ago. She has tried exercise, diet, every damn alternative to ritalin she could find. None of it works.

Kid is ok at home, lots of things to do, keep him amused etc, but at school, the school system just isn't able to cope.

She has only now, nearly a year after trying alternative options decided to trial the minimal dose of ritalin in the morning - school mornings only. it will wear off about 2~3pm he won't take it at home in the evenings or on weekends.

Just wanted to point out that not all people that put their kids on ritalin et al don't explore other options first.

[KvHagedorn]

Getting them into sports seems much healthier.. and there's even a coach to babysit. When I was a kid, we would always go outside to play, too.. none of this sitting around stuffing your face and playing console games. Seems like people are too paranoid to let their kids go out and play now, though.

Physical Education funds are being cut back in many schools, too. PE and music should be part of every school experience, but the school boards seem less interested in helping kids grow into healthy, creative people than in churning out test scores that will rank their schools higher and make the kids good little cogs that are a marketable commodity to megacorps. (Okay, that's all I'll say about that, but it sure seems like it's true.)

[KvHagedorn]

I have to say, while I think there is over perscription of these drugs, there are times that it may be the only way.

I recently had a conversation with an old friend of mine with a 9yo son. he was diagnosed ADD almost a year ago. She has tried exercise, diet, every damn alternative to ritalin she could find. None of it works.

Kid is ok at home, lots of things to do, keep him amused etc, but at school, the school system just isn't able to cope.

She has only now, nearly a year after trying alternative options decided to trial the minimal dose of ritalin in the morning - school mornings only. it will wear off about 2~3pm he won't take it at home in the evenings or on weekends.

Just wanted to point out that not all people that put their kids on ritalin et al don't explore other options first.

What exactly would he do in school without the ritalin?

That video of the psycho German kid on ritalin was just scary.. is this really the result people want?

[Wombat]

Physical Education funds are being cut back in many schools, too. PE and music should be part of every school experience, but the school boards seem less interested in helping kids grow into healthy, creative people than in churning out test scores that will rank their schools higher and make the kids good little cogs that are a marketable commodity to megacorps. (Okay, that's all I'll say about that, but it sure seems like it's true.)

And whose fault is that? It's that damn "No Child Left Behind" crap.

[Sasq]

pretty much what that kid did on it.

again you're making assumptions.

The child does have ADD, this creates him severe learning difficulties, this is a case where both the mother and the school have tried all other avenues. He is 9, and still does not know all the months of the year, or his 2x tables. As I said, she is moving into a trial phase. This is really not her first choice, it is her last, and one she tried to avoid at all costs.

[az]

I'm not saying Ritalin doesn't have legitimate uses, I'm saying it is perscribed much too often. Also, what exactly causes ADD? Why has there been such an upsurge of this in the last years?

[Sasq]

wasn't refering to you az, as a point to note, the mother in question also agrees it is over prescribed.
What causes ADD, no idea, I do know the child in question has proved to be problamatic from 2 weeks of age (needed to be placed on the infante version of valium, and no this wasn't just a cop out by the mother), so I have no question about 'nature or nurture' in regards to this particular child.

[Jessterw]

I think the problem is that there was a rush to diagnose children and adults as affected by ADD/ADHD and other related problems. With this came an onslaught of over medication in an attempt to deal with what appeared to be an increasing number of those affected.

While I was still in grade school the kids that appeared bored and restless in class were moved to accelerated or gifted classes. I know I was. Anymore, these same kids would be diagnosed with one of the above and either sent to therapy or medicated. At least, this was true until more recently, which has seen an increase in the number of parents, teachers, and even doctors looking at alternatives to both the diagnosis and the normal treatments.

There are situations where the use of Ridlin is perfectly suitable medication, in appropriate doses, for those that need it. I've known a few children who truly did well on the drug, more so than they would have done without or through other known treatments. Like any drug it affects people differently based on several variables.

Yes there has been a definite overuse of Ridlin and like drugs in the effort to combat ADD/ADHD/etc.; however, this happens with any drug that looks to be a viable solution. In this case, even the alternatives are less than perfect solutions themselves.


In regards to kids playing outdoors, there are some places where it's truly not safe to let your child play outside and not every city, town, or area has adequate programs to provide suitable activities for children as an alternative to being stuck inside. Nevermind the number of child abductions has risen, so parents have a reason to be paranoid.

[KvHagedorn]

While the statistic for abductions is there, is it not often the disenfranchised parent in a broken family who abducts the child? And in a country of 300 million, is not every individual abduction given more publicity than in times past, raising fears past the level warranted (and giving truly bad people ideas at the same time?) A host of other social ills aggravate this paranoia.. one which comes to mind is our unfamiliarity with our neighbors relative to times past.. and fear's breeding ground is the unknown. I read a statistic a few years ago which said that the average American moves 30 times during his lifetime, while the average European moves twice. Little wonder many parents feel uncomfortable in a strange new neighborhood.

Back on topic, while I think ADHD is probably a real condition, it is similar to many others, and is often misdiagnosed, partially due to it being a fad topic among yuppie parents. I truly believe that when you treat a person differently, they feel more different, and are farther away from blending in to become "normal," so kids who are misdiagnosed find in ADHD a magic crutch for antisocial behavior which they could be normally trained out of by social interaction and exercise. This creates a problem where none really existed.

Now, what I am talking about here are many cases, not all, so kids like the one Sasq knows or that German maniac may truly have a problem, which I am not all too sure could not be lessened with corporal punishment. The wimpy attitude against spanking in early childhood has probably increased the incidence of kids that are just undisciplined being categorized as ADHD. Kids still need to be taught how to behave at a YOUNG age. I can't even begin to express the disgust I feel for parents whose 3yo is acting out in public when they do absolutely nothing to stop it. Kids are intelligent mammals, and at that age go on instinct more than thought.. if they can be trained to behave at this point, they will be trained for life. On the other hand, if some wussy yuppie parent threatens him in a weakling voice that he will get a "time out" if this behavior continues, this wimpified response to his challenge will trigger the same response in his instinctive mind that seeing a wounded wildebeest triggers in the mind of a hunting lion. Weakness is exploited in nature. Always. And most weakness is psychological, not factual. No normal 3yo child will respect a weak parent. And there is an epidemic of these weak parents.. conditioned to be such by certain loud, indignant, wrongheaded voices within modern society.

[Jessterw]

While the statistic for abductions is there, is it not often the disenfranchised parent in a broken family who abducts the child? And in a country of 300 million, is not every individual abduction given more publicity than in times past, raising fears past the level warranted (and giving truly bad people ideas at the same time?) A host of other social ills aggravate this paranoia.. one which comes to mind is our unfamiliarity with our neighbors relative to times past.. and fear's breeding ground is the unknown. I read a statistic a few years ago which said that the average American moves 30 times during his lifetime, while the average European moves twice. Little wonder many parents feel uncomfortable in a strange new neighborhood.

I couldn't say on the percentage of abductions by relatives vs. that of strangers; however, abductions are actually far less publicised than you might think. It's only certain cases that are granted any media attention.

You are right that in general neighbours tend to be less social with each other than before, though I've noticed that this is generally the case more in ranges of the middle and upper middle classes. People in poor neighborhoods tend to know and socialize with those around them, and the same is often true of people who live in more affluent areas (albeit for very different reasons). Somehow I doubt the average American moves 30 times during a lifetime. I'm come from a military family and I'm nowhere near that number yet (based on my average life expectancy). If one were to live to the age of 90, they would have to move every 3 years to average that number of moves.

Back on topic, while I think ADHD is probably a real condition, it is similar to many others, and is often misdiagnosed, partially due to it being a fad topic among yuppie parents. I truly believe that when you treat a person differently, they feel more different, and are farther away from blending in to become "normal," so kids who are misdiagnosed find in ADHD a magic crutch for antisocial behavior which they could be normally trained out of by social interaction and exercise. This creates a problem where none really existed.

Now, what I am talking about here are many cases, not all, so kids like the one Sasq knows or that German maniac may truly have a problem, which I am not all too sure could not be lessened with corporal punishment. The wimpy attitude against spanking in early childhood has probably increased the incidence of kids that are just undisciplined being categorized as ADHD. Kids still need to be taught how to behave at a YOUNG age. I can't even begin to express the disgust I feel for parents whose 3yo is acting out in public when they do absolutely nothing to stop it. Kids are intelligent mammals, and at that age go on instinct more than thought.. if they can be trained to behave at this point, they will be trained for life. On the other hand, if some wussy yuppie parent threatens him in a weakling voice that he will get a "time out" if this behavior continues, this wimpified response to his challenge will trigger the same response in his instinctive mind that seeing a wounded wildebeest triggers in the mind of a hunting lion. Weakness is exploited in nature. Always. And most weakness is psychological, not factual. No normal 3yo child will respect a weak parent. And there is an epidemic of these weak parents.. conditioned to be such by certain loud, indignant, wrongheaded voices within modern society.

I give my kids a swat on the butt at times, but their reinforcement comes from an explaination of what they did wrong and how they could have handled it better. So I agree that you can't let them just go. That said, I find that you focus too much on one particular group and ignore the rest. Disciplinary problems occur from a lack of reinforcement as well as too much, but more often than not, it comes from a severe lack of attention paid to the child. It has nothing to do with yuppie parents, no more than it has to do with redneck parents. We are complex beings who pick up on the smallest environmental factors as children, and more often than not it seems to be the little things that determine how we are shaped and behave. It's not that our parents were too lenient or too hard on us, it's that there were other deficiencies in our lives that those were heaped upon. And we all react differently, even when the situations are quite similar.

Honestly, unless you've raised children or been around them a considerable amount of time, I doubt you can truly understand what goes into being a parent of a child that may be disturbed in some manner. This may be out of pure desire to act out or it could stem from something more serious. We get too hung up on terms like ADD and ADHD that really are just umbrella terms for problems that vary a great deal. As such each case has to be evaluated on it's own and dealt with as such. Sometimes medication is the best way, sometimes not. But unless we know the circumstances surrounding each case we really can't make judgements on whether the treatment was necessary or not.

[Nowhere]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/2006/03/kids_on_the_mommy_wars.html

Stumbled on this, somewhat related to discussion so I might just as well link it here...

Anyway, adding to initial responses in this thread - poeple must realise that having a child is not something easy, it will change their comfortable up to now life profoundly...and don't ever think about treating your child as an investment.