Post by sunshineray on May 17, 2013 14:19:13 GMT -5
But I'm not going to comment on FB because I don't think I can keep my anger in check. A FB friend (read, long lost acquaintance) posted this a minute ago. I guess people have suggested to her that her son has ADHD and she has taken offense to that.
"What my son needs is unconditional love, attention, and patience. Not Ritalin."
I'm all for not medicating children unless it's actually necessary. I also get that doctors and pharmaceutical companies need to make money. I agree that children (and adults for that matter) should be taught other coping mechanisms as well to alter behaviors as needed. As someone recently diagnosed, it's offensive to ME that someone would suggest my condition is not real.
Once I started taking Adderall everything changed for me, and I'm grateful that there are medications available and accessible that help me. I just think it's ignorant for someone (even the guy who "invented" it) to suggest that there aren't people who can absolutely benefit from these types of drugs. And let's be honest, the article even states that he was practically on his death bed when he made that comment. How about a little context here??
INVENTOR OF ADHD'S DEATHBED CONFESSION: "ADHD IS A FICTITIOUS DISEASE"
Fortunately, the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NEK, President: Otfried Höffe) critically commented on the use of the ADHD drug Ritalin in its opinion of 22 November 2011 titled Human enhancement by means of pharmacological agents: The consumption of pharmacological agents altered the child’s behavior without any contribution on his or her part.
That amounted to interference in the child’s freedom and personal rights, because pharmacological agents induced behavioral changes but failed to educate the child on how to achieve these behavioral changes independently. The child was thus deprived of an essential learning experience to act autonomously and emphatically which “considerably curtails children’s freedom and impairs their personality development”, the NEK criticized.
The alarmed critics of the Ritalin disaster are now getting support from an entirely different side. The German weekly Der Spiegel quoted in its cover story on 2 February 2012 the US American psychiatrist Leon Eisenberg, born in 1922 as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, who was the “scientific father of ADHD” and who said at the age of 87, seven months before his death in his last interview: “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease”
Since 1968, however, some 40 years, Leon Eisenberg’s “disease” haunted the diagnostic and statistical manuals, first as “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood”, now called “ADHD”. The use of ADHD medications in Germany rose in only eighteen years from 34 kg (in 1993) to a record of no less than 1760 kg (in 2011) – which is a 51-fold increase in sales! In the United States every tenth boy among ten year-olds already swallows an ADHD medication on a daily basis. With an increasing tendency.
When it comes to the proven repertoire of Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda, to sell the First World War to his people with the help of his uncle’s psychoanalysis and to distort science and the faith in science to increase profits of the industry – what about investigating on whose behalf the “scientific father of ADHD” conducted science? His career was remarkably steep, and his “fictitious disease” led to the best sales increases. And after all, he served in the “Committee for DSM V and ICD XII, American Psychiatric Association” from 2006 to 2009. After all, Leon Eisenberg received “the Ruane Prize for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Research. He has been a leader in child psychiatry for more than 40 years through his work in pharmacological trials, research, teaching, and social policy and for his theories of autism and social medicine”.
And after all, Eisenberg was a member of the “Organizing Committee for Women and Medicine Conference, Bahamas, November 29 – December 3, 2006, Josiah Macy Foundation (2006)”. The Josiah Macy Foundation organized conferences with intelligence agents of the OSS, later CIA, such as Gregory Bateson and Heinz von Foerster during and long after World War II. Have such groups marketed the diagnosis of ADHD in the service of the pharmaceutical market and tailor-made for him with a lot of propaganda and public relations? It is this issue that the American psychologist Lisa Cosgrove and others investigated in their study Financial Ties between DSM-IV Panel Members and the Pharmaceutical Industry7. They found that “Of the 170 DSM panel members 95 (56%) had one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical industry. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘Mood Disorders’ and ‘Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders’ had financial ties to drug companies. The connections are especially strong in those diagnostic areas where drugs are the first line of treatment for mental disorders.” In the next edition of the manual, the situation is unchanged. “Of the 137 DSM-V panel members who have posted disclosure statements, 56% have reported industry ties – no improvement over the percent of DSM-IV members.” “The very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry,” said Dr Irwin Savodnik, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles.
This is well paid. Just one example: The Assistant Director of the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School received “$1 million in earnings from drug companies between 2000 and 2007”. In any case, no one can easily get around the testimony of the father of ADHD: “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.”
The task of psychologists, educators and doctors is not to put children on the “chemical lead” because the entire society cannot handle the products of its misguided theories of man and raising children, and instead hands over our children to the free pharmaceutical market. Let us return to the basic matter of personal psychology and education: The child is to acquire personal responsibility and emphatic behavior under expert guidance – and that takes the family and the school: In these fields, the child should be able to lead off mentally. This constitutes the core of the human person.
There's some article going around my Facebook that's about how French kids don't get ADHD because their parents discipline them. I get all eye-rolly. I'm sure that ADHD is sometimes over-diagnosed, but there's such judginess in the idea that kids just need more spanking and set mealtimes, gosh-darnit, and they'll be fine.
Sorry you have to deal with that crap. I agree that it is overly diagnosed, but it is definitely very real. Parents should at the very least, give the meds a try to see how they work for their child.
Post by sunshineray on May 17, 2013 14:57:19 GMT -5
The thing is, any (sane) parent would give their kid meds for any other illness or condition, so why the hell is this any different?? I mean, it's not like anyone on FB knows I take anything, but I can't imagine I'm the only one that took offense to the post.
I just went back to see if anyone else commented and they're all going off on how you just need to change the kids diet, not give them sugar, food dyes, blahblahblah.
ADHD is severely over diagnosed, but to suggest that it's not REAL is a whole other realm entirely.
bluelily, I saw that same article and definitely gave it a hard core eye roll.
ijack, for serious. I know for a fact that people who don't know I'm taking Adderall have noticed a positive difference in me. I really just want to go off on this girl, but I'm biting my tongue.
I think this type of thinking is bullshit. My nephew has been diagnosed ADHD, cannot read, and has been held back once already. His mom won't medicate him, but believes in diet and taking him to the chiropractor. My heart breaks for the poor kid. I'm sorry you feel defensive about this. There is so much pseudo-medical crap on Facebook. Just yesterday a friend posted about how honey and cinnamon can cure all sorts of diseases including cancer. They are the crazies - not you.
Post by sunshineray on May 17, 2013 15:18:22 GMT -5
I have no concerns about being the crazy one here. Not to be a conceited asshole, but I feel like I'm one of the most rational and logical people I know. I just can't wrap my head around not wanting to give your child the best, most fulfilling life possible, even if that means setting aside your own personal agenda and putting them on medication.
My mother was told by a teacher of mine in HS that she needed to get me tested for ADHD. She didn't, because she was defensive, just like this particular FB mom is. Get over your damn self and do what's right for your child.
It's idiotic to presume that just because something doesn't fit into your limited worldview that it doesn't exist.
This is like my grandma telling me that my daughter doesn't have bipolar but just needs love. Right grandma ok. I guess I just don't love her enough.
Yeah, ok. Ugh.
The thing is, I expect this from older people. My grandma was initially weirded out when I told her I was seeing a doctor and was prescribed Adderall. She literally said to me "Well, can't you just try paying more attention, a little bit at a time?" .... Yeah, not exactly how that works grandma, but thanks for that.
People are scared of things they don't understand.
It's really fucking ignorant. Hopefully someone comments on it so you don't have to!
I fucking wish. Based on the current trend of comments, anyone with a dissenting opinion probably won't speak up. Some examples:
"I find it disgusting that anyone would make up a diagnosis to put people, especially children drugs that have the serious, even fatal side affects all for $$."
"Michael was given medicines only because the teacher said he needed them. MY doctor said she was really too lazy to handle him the proper way... I ended up putting his meds in the toilet.."
I also get (from just about everybody), maybe you need to try time out, reward charts, rewarding good behavior, etc. geez thanks! I'm so glad you're here because I would have never thought of that.
Exactly. Because my child was having behavioral issues and my first thought was "Let's just drug him up!" Fucking idiots.
Well, diabetic kids also need "unconditional love, attention, and patience".
And sometimes they need insulin injections to keep them healthy and out of diabetic shock. I understand her point, but don't ALL children need 'unconditional love, attention, and patience'?
And while I'm stating the obvious, why isn't she saying he needs a really good, structured behavior mod plan and consistent parenting/teaching/community leadership? I think her point would have been better served if she actually listed the non-Ritalin/medication things that are proven to be really effective with children with issues of hyperactivity and attention. Instead of the generic I-Love-my-kid-so-he-doesn't-need-med patter.
Post by sunshineray on May 17, 2013 15:48:17 GMT -5
I think that's part of why I'm all up in arms about it. Are you saying that I love my kid less if I choose to medicate her? It's basically a "fuck you haters" kind of post. I think she just felt validated that there was an article she could shove in their faces that extols the evils of medicating children. I want to be like, get off your fucking high horse.
Post by mrsukyankee on May 17, 2013 15:52:21 GMT -5
That would piss me off. I've worked with kids whose lives have changed dramatically due to taking meds and kids whose parents wouldn't allow them to have meds who struggled...I've also worked with kids who went on meds and it did nothing. But honestly, I'd rather try and have the potential of a change than not do a thing and have a kid who struggles through life and can't live up to their potential.
Yeah this would piss me off. My son has ADHD and the medication he is on has helped him tremendously. He, himself, has told me he likes himself better when he takes his medicine.
Same for me. I went off of Adderall while I was pregnant and then breastfeeding. It was so hard and I went back on it as soon as I stopped breastfeeding.
Post by open24hours on May 17, 2013 16:02:20 GMT -5
I take medication for depression. Last weekend we had dinner at the IL's and one of their friends started a conversation that too many people are on anti-depressants because as a society we have no tolerance for suffering. I wanted to punch her in the face. I've tolerated suffering through my depression for 20 years because of bullshit beliefs like this. So, yeah, that FB status would make me angry.
This also makes me stabby. My son wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until he moved back in with me after my divorce. By that time there was a lot of damage done because he hadn't had an advocate when he lived with his dad, and his dad wasn't pro-education to begin with. I spent a year and a half trying to "retrain" his brain after ten years of it working under untreated ADHD and it was only with the application of Concerta that he was really able to control his ADHD and really apply himself in school. And DH doesn't want to get GD2 tested because he doesn't want the girls "labeled." Grrrr. It's not a label, it's an educational tool and a means to get necessary treatment and education.
Post by sunshineray on May 17, 2013 17:30:02 GMT -5
The label thing pisses me off. I have definitely struggled with that lately, but have been really working on trusting myself to make the best decision for ME. ExH was very against any kind of therapy or counseling and was livid when I took DD to see a therapist. We were divorcing at the time and she was about 3. She had seen more than she should have and I wanted to make sure she knew whatever she was feeling was ok with me. If the therapist had thought she could use medication I would've done my research and weighed it out. If I thought that was the best choice I would've done it in a heart beat.
WOT?*, I'm really sorry you're dealing with that. Do what you know is best for your child. There will always be people who disagree. Fuck 'em.
sunshineray - thanks. I have the girls both in counseling for other reasons but I do think that more intensive therapy for #2 is warranted and also possibly deeper investigation into ADHD and/or FAS.
I'm not a parent, so I guess maybe my view will change, but I don't get not wanting your kid labeled. I know that as a teacher it is really helpful when students are labeled so that I can more quickly accommodate them. It takes longer to figure out what works for different kids without the label. There are certain tools I use for a kid with ADHD that are different than other things. What is the downside to a label?
kaybee85 I always tell my son's teachers that he has ADHD. I want them to have some insight on any behavior issues he may have. My kid is with them all day, so it just makes sense for me to tell them what to watch for.
kaybee85 I always tell my son's teachers that he has ADHD. I want them to have some insight on any behavior issues he may have. My kid is with them all day, so it just makes sense for me to tell them what to watch for.
I seriously get 10x less frustrated when I know the child is actually struggling with something and not just being a turd.
I actually have told the teacher that she hasn't been tested or diagnosed but her mother and uncle both have ADHD and we work under the assumption that she also has it. She's dealing with other medical issues right now (and honestly I think an ADHD diagnosis and medications might help with the other diagnoses, so I'm having her evaluated despite the rest of the world's opinions.)