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The Drugging Of The American Boy

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61–70 of 106 posts

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#61
ADHD isn't real. It didn't exist in many previous generations. Surely, the behavior of children hasn't changed much over the last few generations so how come this "disease" didn't exist previous to the current couple of generations and how come it still doesn't exist in many places on the planet? Could foreign kids somehow be better? Of course not. As the article points out, this is a ploy by pharmaceutical companies to get children hooked not only on ADHD drugs but on drugs in the future.

What do these kids do when they turn 18? I asked on pediatrician I respected what she does for the children. Does she taper them off? Does she transition them to other doctors? Does she transition them to other medicines? Nope. "That's not my problem," she said. Of course not. In a culture where doctors are not responsible, where making hundreds of dollars an hour is "not enough" to have them actually perform their duties in full, duties such as making a full investigation into their patients' cases, and spending more than 10 or 15 minutes before "diagnosing" them with a condition they do not have and putting them on drugs for essentially the rest of their lives, only in such a culture is ADHD real.

When it comes down to it, it's the responsibility of the parents to keep their kids off drugs. The body doesn't care wether you're snorting amphetamine or Adderall because Adderall is amphetamine. Parents who allow their kids to be "diagnosed" with ADHD and allow them to take drugs are encouraging their children to take drugs. They are unconscionable parents. Any child can make a mistake and start doing drugs, but now we have whole classes of drugs that are encouraged. Some drug abuse and addictions have become ingrained in life. Do you think the children will stop because they've now turned 18? Do you think they'll stop at Ritalin or Adderall when those things stop working? Addiction knows no bounds.

How many more lives will have to be ruined before people realize the psychiatric industry and the doctors pushing these drugs are only doing it for the money, money they do not need? Talk about about scummy drug dealers. Yeah, we're looking at the multi-billion dollar corporations, the "psychiatrists," the DSM writers, and the rest of the doctors who can't even be bothered to spend ten minutes with a patient before deciding on a horrific fate for them. When will people learn that the medical industry cannot be trusted, that the hippocratic oath is bullshit, and they need to be responsible for their own selves and their own children? Those parents allowing their kids to be put on this should be put in jail next to the child murderers they irresponsibly strive to be.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#62
post #23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it's worth pointing out that if 1 in 5 boys have it, it's not a disorder. It's part of the normal range.

three-quarters of Americans need vision correction, does that make it 'normal'?

We need vision correction to meet a universal standard of visual acuity in the modern world - so that we can all read the same road signs, etc.

Normal vision could be interpreted as a range much larger than our arbitrary standard of "perfect", 20/20 vision.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#63
post #61

ADHD isn't real. It didn't exist in many previous generations. Surely, the behavior of children hasn't changed much over the last few generations so how come this "disease" didn't exist previous to the current couple of generations and how come it still doesn't exist in many places on the planet? Could foreign kids somehow be better? Of course not. As the article points out, this is a ploy by pharmaceutical companies…

PTSD didn't exist in previous generations either.

Well, except it did- but our name/diagnosis has changed.

Shell shocked, battle fatigue, combat exhaustion, stress response, hysteria, ...

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#64
post #46

To me, as an adult, getting a diagnosis on ADHD was a godsend. However, after a couple of years, I see the drug's affects waning. I can also see how damaging this dependency creation can be for children. Fortunately, when I was a child back in India, ADHD was virtually unknown (probably the case today as well). Most of the time, my parents chalked off my inattention to "lack of discipline" and were happy as long as m…

I actually was never diagnosed with ADHD as a child or an adult. I exhibit a similar coding pattern as you did, and still do, since high school. I get bored very, very quickly and kind of live off of the "aha" moments, from one to the next. It's not that it's not genuinely challenging or interesting to me, but I just can't focus much of the time. This is true for just about everything I do these days. Thoughts and id…

Any stimulant will increase your perceived ability to concentrate while it's active. That doesn't mean that it's curing anything or that you have any sort of condition. It doesn't even mean that your perception is correct, though it can be. It just means you're having a normal reaction to the stimulant.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#65
post #61

ADHD isn't real. It didn't exist in many previous generations. Surely, the behavior of children hasn't changed much over the last few generations so how come this "disease" didn't exist previous to the current couple of generations and how come it still doesn't exist in many places on the planet? Could foreign kids somehow be better? Of course not. As the article points out, this is a ploy by pharmaceutical companies…

PTSD didn't exist in previous generations either. Well, except it did- but our name/diagnosis has changed. Shell shocked, battle fatigue, combat exhaustion, stress response, hysteria, ...

Likewise, ADHD used to be called "being a child," and still is in most parts of the world.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#66
post #53
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds an awful lot like imposter syndrome, but with your own health instead of programming ability. See a doctor. Be honest. Let them do their job and then trust their diagnosis.

Honestly, I had to look that one up and I do recall reading about that last week via a post linked on HN actually and telling my coworker that that didn't describe me much at all. In both my health (physical fitness) and other accomplishments , I can say I take them very well, and have an ego a large portion of the time because of them. I should definitely go see a doctor anyway, if not just to make sure that this is…

> I'm still debating going to see a doctor but I think they might write me off as an addict since I'm in my 20s...

> Honestly, I had to look that one up...that didn't describe me much at all

When I was 18 and two years into college, I started to realize that everything non-drug-related I had done with my parents and therapists in the past wasn't working as well as it used to. Not quite a couple years later I was super tired from having bronchitis for six months, and everything imploded around me because I had no energy left to do anything. The new therapist I saw during then thought that I was being ridiculous by thinking of myself as a drug-seeking addict when drugs I had never actually tried before were the one thing I really needed at that point. I was so convinced I was in the wrong that I had been crying for over thirty minutes straight about it to her.

tl;dr impostor syndrome with my own mental health.

I'm in my mid-20s now and nobody that knows me thinks of me as an addict. I don't know what I would do without Adderall at this point - and that's in combination with a decent amount of behavioral strategies/techniques too. Sure, there are lots of people out there that abuse it, but I am just a total mess without and there's no way I'm making excuses up to keep on being a mess because of what other people do. Seek help because maybe you do have a problem, and you may come to realize that dealing with a known problem (or knowing that you don't have one) is like night and day compared to what's going on right now.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#67
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PTSD didn't exist in previous generations either. Well, except it did- but our name/diagnosis has changed. Shell shocked, battle fatigue, combat exhaustion, stress response, hysteria, ...

Likewise, ADHD used to be called "being a child," and still is in most parts of the world.

Similarly, ergot poisoning used to be called "witchcraft".

Anyone with half a brain should understand that Big Pharma is just trying to cover up the existence of witches. Clearly all this "medical" stuff is bullshit, especially anything that has anything to do with the mind.

Oh, and brain damage from syphilis is another interesting one. Once upon a time we still understood that some people just go crazy with age. Now doctors are trying to spread this bullshit about how a sexually transmitted virus can destroy your brain- just proof that the doctors are being paid of by the Church, I say.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#68
post #6

A few years ago teachers complained that both my boys were too intense on the playground, 'diagnosed' with ADHD. Docs were eager to prescribe meds to make them conform. There is something in our society wants to redefine normal behavior as pathology. Maybe to get you hooked and build revenue streams, maybe just to make you more pliable. Fuck that. Yes there are legitimate cases. But I've only experienced people who w…

My girlfriend is a psychiatrist and we've had discussions about over medication. One thing she said to me stuck with me and may be of help to you in your current situation. She says stimulants work right away (unlike medication for depression) and she said that if the drugs do work you'll see this within a few days. If they do work then talk with a psychiatrist about long term plans and long term health affects of th…

but what is "work"? Seems to hit the point of 'make conform'

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#69
post #61

ADHD isn't real. It didn't exist in many previous generations. Surely, the behavior of children hasn't changed much over the last few generations so how come this "disease" didn't exist previous to the current couple of generations and how come it still doesn't exist in many places on the planet? Could foreign kids somehow be better? Of course not. As the article points out, this is a ploy by pharmaceutical companies…

My parents didn't want me on ADHD meds - which is hysterical because my father very obviously has undiagnosed symptoms of ADHD too - so I didn't get any and had to rely solely on behavioral techniques and societal pressure until I picked my own damn therapist. Me at 16 in college with dinky checklists compared to me at 25 right now with the same checklists and Adderall is like night and day.

As much as I love my parents, I occasionally get angry when I think about what could have been compared to what happened because they didn't like the idea of me being on drugs (like I wasn't on other drugs). Not missed opportunities that were impossible to begin with, but a lot of reachable goals and dreams I had that I tried working my ass off towards and it just wasn't happening because I spent just as much time struggling with myself as I did working towards said goals. I'm trying to play catchup still, years later. I suspect there are some goals that I will never be able to do anything about now because there was some age/time component to it.

Speaking of other drugs, there are plenty of them - yes, maybe even "dealt" by "drug dealer" doctors that are actually terrible - that significantly improve quality of life. Drugs are not inherently bad. It's a constant balance of whether or not the tradeoffs are worth it, that's all. Like right now I'm juggling 6-7 different meds and their side effects to fix my bronchitis+asthma right now because I do not want to end up in the ER or worse, dead. Is that so terrible? Am I a drug addict for not wanting to suffer when I have a choice to not suffer? Even if you want to label me as such, what, are you a firm believer in survival of the fittest? Because if we can keep people from suffering and dying, I would do it. Screw that fittest bullshit.

Re: The Drugging Of The American Boy

#70
My third grade teacher apparently had every boy in her class tested. As a boy, and frankly as a boy who was independent, mouthy and unlikely to do work in school unless I wanted to, I'm glad I had great parents and a great pediatrician. My pediatrician had my parents and teacher run an experiment: my mom would choose a pill with active ingredient or a pill with nothing in it, and my teacher, without knowing which I took that day, would record notes on my behavior. Turns out, no correlation between the two.

I don't doubt there are people in this world for who ADHD is a real thing. But I think we are too quick in the modern age to drug without thinking. Parents demand antibiotics for illnesses which are just small bugs... guess what, now we are having problems with drug resistant bacteria. Lawmakers, administrators, and teachers (in that order) want to turn classrooms in to machines which churn out educated people like clockwork. Turns out, humans are animals, not machines, so we load everybody with some stimulants to make children just sit still.

I'm not anti-medicine in any way. I have personally seen Ritalin work on a friend who actually had ADHD growing up. And I have also seen another friend buy Vyvanse illegally so he could study for 15 hours a day. I believe in prescription drugs. I just don't always believe in the prescription.

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