Quote From: patkenowwhen our now 23 year old son was nine, he was "diagnosed" by his teacher as "hyperactive"! The school social worker, without consulting us, had decided he had ADD and wanted to place him on ritalin. My husband and I were called in for a meeting and told this. We chose not to medicate, and instead completely changed his diet. Two weeks later, I was called by his teacher and asked what had we done because he was a totally different child. We were told by the social worker, we were abusive parents because we refused to medicate. I look at the many teenagers who are two and three medications, which started with ritalin. People...it does not work. It may subdue the child, but it only leads to other problems later. Many teens suffer from depression and social issues because they have been overmedicated. The average American is on eight prescriptions!
How can this be???? Because instead of dealing with issues, we take the easy path, and take a pill. But this is not a solution, it only creates another problem!!
While I agree that some people do jump the gun on medicating their children, my son is proof that they do work when correctly diagnosed. My husband and had heard all of the horor stories about kids being missed diagnoed and put on meds at teachers urging. However with our some we were talking with his teachers and doctors and tried many thing from the time he was three until he was six. He started school early due to a speech problem and his Dr said alot of it was probavly due to frustration so we tried the alternative treatments. Changing his diet did not help, neither did natural remedies. Finally we took him to a child psychiatrist and he diagnosed him. He said the medication should start working immediatly. It did the teacher said he was a different kid. He sat still, was participating in class and actually coming home telling me what he learned that day. And it is not a life sentence either. I have four friends who have had children on meds only to say by high school they no longer needed them and DID NOT lead to problems later. what has lead to problems are kids needing the medication and not getting it only to find ways to medicate themselves because the tried it somewhere and found they could concentate with it then getting hooked. So it is much better to get the meds your children need with the supervision of a doctor then for them to get the wrong ones later in life on their own. If a person is midiagnosed it can lead to problems, but it is not always the easy path. It can be but I can say for myself it was not. It tokk a lot of time soul searching and prayer . My son now gets upset if he misses his medication because he just cannot concentrate on his school work. Do this just imagine yourself in a room with a strobe light flashing. that is exactly what ADHD feel like there is just so much movement you just can't stay still or concentrate on anything. My son has been on different meds in the last two years. But he has been on the same one for a year now with no stunt in his growth and none of the other side effects that can happen. Now I know as he gets older I will have to watch him and communicate with him and his doctor but it is worth it for him to be learning. I have dealt with the issue and it is working. You have misdiagnosed the whole country, just because your son was misdiagnoesed by his teacher(neither one of you are qualifyed to do so!!). It does work if properly done.
SLTELL
