41–50 of 115 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
[deleted]
I don't mean to offend you, nor was it my intention to insinuate that you've been brainwashed, which implies malice, but rather inadvertently indoctrinated, through nobody's fault, to take the "you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it" mantra to it's logical extreme. My personal opinion (take it or leave it) is that if one is unable to pursue an activity without the use of drugs, then likely that is no…
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
I welcome people constructively criticizing the study, but this kind of anecdotal response is really not useful.
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
> Each time a study comes out and people will link it
> to me (I've already had this linked to me three times)
> claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and
> that it is worthless...
One they are probably hippies, but two I'd say they are quite invested in their child.
Which to me could mean they put in enough extra effort to keep their kids grades high.
I'd view the study cautiously.
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
I welcome people constructively criticizing the study, but this kind of anecdotal response is really not useful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"As I alluded to in my original post, my ideological objections to drugging our "broken" children are more than simply pragmatic. " Do you have similar objections to drugging alzheimers patients? I'm trying to understand where you draw the line. Given that actually diagnosed ADHD people have brain chemistry differences that various drugs are meant to control, i have trouble seeing a difference between the two cases.…
I don't remember ever being afflicted with Alzheimer's, so I can't speak to that case. But what is evident is that ADHD affliction is a broad, very continuous spectrum and not a black/white "disease" in the traditional sense. It's largely based on subjective factors. The hypochondriac parent will very easily convince a doctor to prescribe ADHD medication for his/her child. This reality, in addition to my own personal…
A lot of people need glasses, and a lot of people always have, because for at least the last few thousand years (since the advent of agriculture), distance-vision hasn't had any particular selective pressure on it one way or another--it didn't increase your chance of successfully reproducing to be able to see farther into your own farmland. We don't really think of near/farsightedness as a "disease", per se; parents don't worry about passing bad vision onto their kids, they just assume they'll get glasses too.
But it is useful to be able to see things that are very close up and very far away--and we structure our society assuming that people can do these things. We print relatively small text in books, and expect kids to be able to read a blackboard from the back of a classroom. We have a system of transportation that expects drivers to be able to see, interpret, and react to road signs from a distance. And so forth.
In the same way, it is useful to be able to summon focus and motivation and single-mindedness to a possibly-boring task, and we structure our society assuming people can do this, as well.
You likely could find a place--a French vinyard, perhaps--where nearsightedness was irrelevant. And you likely could create a little pocket of our own society that permits you to live productively without glasses (live in a city, work as a jazz musician, and take cabs everywhere, for example.) But this is extremely limiting, when the other alternative--just wearing glasses--is freeing. The choice is between letting a quirk of your genetics dictate your path in life, and taking control of your own body and thus taking any path you please.
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Postscript: all this relatively ignores the question of whether a parent should seek treatment their child, who is not yet formed in their own will enough to say what they would like out of life.
I think the answer to that is simple: if and when we have the medical equivalent to glasses, something that can be put on and taken off, and doesn't affect the wearer except to allow them to experience what is "standard" (i.e. doesn't give them any extra boost above that "standard", doesn't give them a "rush", etc.) then there is no reason to not supply that item to the child, and allow them to decide for themselves the advantages and disadvantages of it.
I, for one, was found to be nearsighted in grade four--and, after getting glasses, never had to be prompted by my parents to put them on. I preferred having them on, for what they allowed me to do.
If we do not yet have a drug that works like that, then, to the degree that the child will be "changed" by the drug, that same degree of consideration will have to be given as to any potentially-harmful course of action parents decide for their child (such as, say, sending them to a boarding school.)
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
> Each time a study comes out and people will link it > to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) > claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and > that it is worthless... Unless any of those people is a licensed psychiatrist you should ignore them and move on.
Each time a study comes out and people will link it to me (I've already had this linked to me three times) claiming that my ADHD medicine doesn't do anything and that it is worthless ... for me it isn't. Without my meds I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I wouldn't be able to get work done. At one point it got so bad at work that I was afraid I was going to get fired since I couldn't focus on any single task at hand…
What many people don't understand is the stress people with ADD are exposed to. Especially when they're smart. Imagine having a porsche in your driveway, but for reasons you can only use the first gear. No matter how hard you push the pedal to the metal, you won't be as fast as you want the car to go. Plus if you keep going full throttle in the first gear eventually you'll break something. Sounds depressing, doesn't…