Re: They can't say no to Ritalin

January 5, 2001

you won't get flamed by me either, i'm sure there are people who perform better while on this drug, but i still say that this childs parents should have the right to take their child off of a drug that they feel is not doing him any good. a drug, is a drug, is a drug--no matter how you look at it and none should ever be taken lightly (i feel this way about all things--even homeopathic remedies), and for these parents to be told that they do not have a say in what their child takes into his body is horrifying--just like us being told we MUST vaccinate our children--ridiculous!!

i think it so, so, sad that because of money/time they'd rather give a child a potentially dangerous drug than follow his parents heartfelt request to allow him to just be himself--sometimes i think we are living in sad times...(

brigit

January 5, 2001

My 18 yo BIL is on Ritalin. Has been for about 4 years. He is either in

one state or another... a zombie that you just can't get through to or he

shakes uncontrollably. Sitting next to him at a family dinner watching him

try to cut something up to eat it is nerve wracking for me.

We homeschool for a number of reasons but one is to keep our kids off the

drugs they would tell us they HAD to have. Our 7 you does have symptoms of

ADD and autism, ticks and compulsive behaviors that no teacher in the world

would deal with. Our 5 yo is just exuberant! We call him the ever bouncing

Noah. Just happy and skipping and running everywhere he goes. I think I'd

kill before letting someone turn that child into a zombie and take the life

out of him.

Children can't be children anymore. They have to be text book and study

raised. Mostly by the loudest " expert " because lord knows the experts can't

even agree... NO, sadly it's the one with the most money to talk for them.

What is this country coming to and why aren't we stopping it?

>

January 5, 2001

Ok, I just can't resist! I will probably get the hell flamed out of me...

just like with my car seat comments, but hey that's what makes this world so

great, we are all individuals.

There is a time and place for drugs in our society. While I will be the

first to say that Ritalin is the most OVER prescribed drug to our children

today, there are some people who respond very well to this that haven't

responded to other things. I am the first to always try a natural source

for a *cure* before anything else, but in our family's case, not being on

the drug did more harm than good. Let's just say that I have known this

person since he was 19, and when I met him he was not on the drug. His

mother allowed him at the age of 14 to go off of it, but then neglected to

introduce other therapies for his ADD. He was bored in school, no one took

notice of it... he didn't know he was graduating from high school until the

day of graduation and in college he barely made it through his first year.

Then a light bulb went on in his brain. He entered himself a study for

families that have ADD, his father, and brother both had this and both

responded well to allopathic treatment. Once his dosage was right he went

from a D student to the top 3% of his class. Graduated with honors from a

private southern college, while working full time and carrying a full class

load. Now at the age of 29 makes more money than any of his peers. Is it

the drug? YES. I have seen this man struggle without it. And while I

TOTALLY agree that other methods should be tried first, there are some,

maybe few, but some success cases from it. I truly believe that parental

involvement is the first step, and parents not willing to be involved and

take care of their children shouldn't be having children to begin with.

That being said... I entered homeopathic school because I wanted to learn

more. I prescribe to natural treatments whenever possible, we don't

vaccinate our kids and we don't run to the doctor when they have a cough or

runny nose. I do however think there is a time and place for both paths of

medicine. While I would not run to an allopath for a cold, I would also not

run to my homeopath for a broken leg. The problem with the two forms of

medicine in this country is that many people are not willing to see both

sides, many of these people are health care practitioners themselves. The

people working as allopathic and alternative medicine doctors are to blame

for this division, while I see more hostility from the allopaths, I have

also seen my share from alt. medicine docs. Both sides have so much to

learn from one another and if we don't put our heads together, and soon the

division will just get worse. In a perfect world both sides would exist

together, learning from one another. Allopaths would have more respect for

the natural ways of healing, and would recognize that diet and nutrition are

often the key to life long health, and alternative med. doctors wouldn't be

so worried about referring patients to allopaths in acute situations. But

of course, this isn't a perfect world, we have to deal with both sides.

While I get irritated at the allopaths that we have seen, I also have to

respect them as they do me. I don't have to agree with them, or their

ideas, but just as I have gone to school and earned a place in society, so

have they. The old saying, you get more flies with honey than you do

vinegar holds so true here.

Melisa

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Did you hear? Breast is Best!

Certified Lactation Counselor

IBCLC Exam Candidate

Homeopathic Counselor in training

www.nurturingmama.com

January 5, 2001

Responding to myself before anyone has a chance to.... I DO think that the

case in that article is way off! The schools need to learn to deal with

children who have disabilities rather than expect them to be medicated all

the time. But that goes with anything. It used to be that schools wouldn't

hold themselves responsible for making sure a child too his or her meds, now

they want to be militant about making sure they are taken. There is a fine

balance between the two, unfortunately most people can't find that balance.

Parents have the right to treat their child's illness however they see fit,

and the school board shouldn't be stepping in. But then that does bring up

another question.... what of the children who don't respond to behavior

modification, or that do need homeschooling but parents refuse? There has

to be a mid point... if these parents took their child off the meds then

what did they do to replace it? are they working on his behavior in other

ways? through diet? and if so did they tell the school? My biggest pet

peeve is parents who say that the school won't help but then also don't know

how to make the schools help. Not saying this is the case here, but we as

parents need to take responsibility for our children.

Melisa

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Did you hear? Breast is Best!

Certified Lactation Counselor

IBCLC Exam Candidate

Homeopathic Counselor in training

www.nurturingmama.com

January 5, 2001

Melisa, You're not going to get blasted from me! I agree with what you

said - the point is to be informed of what the alternatives are, all of

them, and then make decisions. Hopefully the information we receive will be

meaningful and accurate (a bit tough given who pays for most of the

research....), but we can only do the best we can with what is available to

us. It's the one size fits all approach which I find hard to deal with. We

are all individuals, unique psychologically, biologically, etc. We need to

respect the choices of others, as well as their ideas. That includes

allopaths.

We are all limited by our assumptions about reality, but the more

open-minded to all ideas we are, the less limited. (That doesn't mean

accepting all ideas, of course.) So, thanks for your opinion. Sandy

January 5, 2001

I agree mostly but I am wondering what did they do about ADD in the old

times?

Or is ADD such a new disorder that they didn't have to bother in former

years?

Is ist maybe vaccine-related?

There seems to be almost an epidemic of ADD cases nowadays.

Am I wrong?

a.

> Ok, I just can't resist! I will probably get the hell flamed out of me...

> just like with my car seat comments, but hey that's what makes this world

so

> great, we are all individuals.

>

> There is a time and place for drugs in our society. While I will be the

> first to say that Ritalin is the most OVER prescribed drug to our children

> today, there are some people who respond very well to this that haven't

> responded to other things. I am the first to always try a natural source

> for a *cure* before anything else, but in our family's case, not being on

> the drug did more harm than good. Let's just say that I have known this

> person since he was 19, and when I met him he was not on the drug. His

> mother allowed him at the age of 14 to go off of it, but then neglected to

> introduce other therapies for his ADD. He was bored in school, no one

took

> notice of it... he didn't know he was graduating from high school until

the

> day of graduation and in college he barely made it through his first year.

> Then a light bulb went on in his brain. He entered himself a study for

> families that have ADD, his father, and brother both had this and both

> responded well to allopathic treatment. Once his dosage was right he went

> from a D student to the top 3% of his class. Graduated with honors from a

> private southern college, while working full time and carrying a full

class

> load. Now at the age of 29 makes more money than any of his peers. Is it

> the drug? YES. I have seen this man struggle without it. And while I

> TOTALLY agree that other methods should be tried first, there are some,

> maybe few, but some success cases from it. I truly believe that parental

> involvement is the first step, and parents not willing to be involved and

> take care of their children shouldn't be having children to begin with.

>

> That being said... I entered homeopathic school because I wanted to learn

> more. I prescribe to natural treatments whenever possible, we don't

> vaccinate our kids and we don't run to the doctor when they have a cough

or

> runny nose. I do however think there is a time and place for both paths

of

> medicine. While I would not run to an allopath for a cold, I would also

not

> run to my homeopath for a broken leg. The problem with the two forms of

> medicine in this country is that many people are not willing to see both

> sides, many of these people are health care practitioners themselves. The

> people working as allopathic and alternative medicine doctors are to blame

> for this division, while I see more hostility from the allopaths, I have

> also seen my share from alt. medicine docs. Both sides have so much to

> learn from one another and if we don't put our heads together, and soon

the

> division will just get worse. In a perfect world both sides would exist

> together, learning from one another. Allopaths would have more respect

for

> the natural ways of healing, and would recognize that diet and nutrition

are

> often the key to life long health, and alternative med. doctors wouldn't

be

> so worried about referring patients to allopaths in acute situations. But

> of course, this isn't a perfect world, we have to deal with both sides.

> While I get irritated at the allopaths that we have seen, I also have to

> respect them as they do me. I don't have to agree with them, or their

> ideas, but just as I have gone to school and earned a place in society, so

> have they. The old saying, you get more flies with honey than you do

> vinegar holds so true here.

>

> Melisa

> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

> Did you hear? Breast is Best!

> Certified Lactation Counselor

> IBCLC Exam Candidate

> Homeopathic Counselor in training

> www.nurturingmama.com

>

January 5, 2001

>There seems to be almost an epidemic of ADD cases nowadays.

You hit the nail on the head right there! I am a firm believer that there

are parents out there that are just not willing to do their parenting roll.

They think their kids are out of hand and rather than taking a different

parental approach they start thinking there is something WRONG with their

kid. They run to their ped. who prescribes Ritalin. First and foremost...

in my opinion, since this does hit VERY close to home with us... a regular

doctor should not be allowed to prescribe mood altering drugs. I feel that

many of them do not have the training in the psychology field and therefore

shouldn't be able to give a drug that alters the mind's state. I feel this

is true for many drugs, not just Ritalin, Prozac for instance. A good

friend of mine with a history of bad depression almost went off the deep end

a while back. And of course instead of referring her to a psychologist. her

family doctor just chose a new depression med. and gave it to her. In her

case she needs as much counseling as she does the drug (or some kind of

therapy). My point is... in our case entering the case study was the best

because it was run by psychiatry doctors, not just family doctors. Docs

that actually see this everyday and know who needs the therapy and who could

go down a more natural or different route. The docs were very interested in

our family situation, how we functioned with each other, what our diets

were, etc. ADD and ADHD imho are VERY over diagnosed in our country. And

while I am a FIRM believer in vaccine injury (duh, that's why I'm here!),

all of these cases are not vaccine related. Brain patterns run in families.

In our case this was a two generation situation, with all the males being

affected (which btw.. more males than females suffer from ADD & ADHD).

Medicating is NOT always the answer, I prefer a wait and see and better

parenting approach, especially when they are young children, however in our

case medicating was the answer and made the difference between a successful

adult and one who is still dependant on mommy and daddy for his day to day

routine.

Melisa

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Did you hear? Breast is Best!

Certified Lactation Counselor

IBCLC Exam Candidate

Homeopathic Counselor in training

www.nurturingmama.com

January 5, 2001

I think that there are very few instances in life where there is only one

" right " method, way of thinking, etc. I believe that allopathy and

homeopathy both have their moments when best used, and it is up to us to be

able to be informed enough to make the proper choices. I once saw a really

cool bumper sticker that said, God is too big for any one religion...Sharon