Topic : 09/28 Overmedicating America: The Cruise Controversy

Sure, is anyone really surprised by that?  People slap their inconvenient kids on meds at 3 years old.  Does that mean that no meds are ever called for in children?  Of course not. 

I blame the parents, I do.  I think you have a responsibility to educate yourself about medications and "disorders" before merrily drugging your child.  I blame doctors, too.  Too many physicians out there willing to prescribe without justification.  As the former friend of parents who slammed their 3 year old on Cylert because they'd decided she was ADHD (child seemed perfectly normal to me, and I was providing daily child care), I feel comfortable saying that children are often medicated to compensate for inept parenting and inadequate medical advice.  Sadly, those parents whose children really do need medication probably find themselves on the defensive because of the unnecessary medicating going on in so many families. 

That said, I think Tom Cruise is a grandstanding kid with a religion to push.  His "understanding" of psychology and mental disturbances appears to come straight from a Scientology handbook.  Hate to break it to him, but Scientology is perhaps not the best source of unbiased information concerning mental illness.  After all, Scientology benefits, both financially and in terms of membership, from convincing people that their methods are better than traditional treatments. 

I believe that medicating for depression should be, whenever possible, a temporary step up.  A way of stabilizing a patient until such time as counseling and behavioral changes can effect long term benefits.  Certainly, some folks do need these medications long term, but many don't.   I think our medical community has a duty to put forth the effort necessary to figure out which is which, and act accordingly.   

Thank you for your suggestion but #1 ... I know my kid.,.. I know it is NOT normal for a 14 year old girl to choke her sister for no reason other than she feels like it. I also know it is NOT normal for my child to cut herself only because dealing with physical pain is much more easier for her than dealing with emotional pain. 

So please do not tell me what I need to do. You need to educate yourself on what childhood bipolar is and looks like. Then live with it day in and day out and THEN tell me what I need to do with my life. 

Tammy 

. . . but reflux/GERD is a condition which, in infants, is most often associated with a lack of breastfeeding.  When an infant doesn't receive proper nutrition (and formula is a lacking second to breast milk), problems result--sometimes including GERD and learning disabilities (and ear infections, compromised eyesight, dental caries, asthma, diabetes, etc.).   

I'm not trying to hack on you, but I find your post absolutely illuminating and completely appropriate to the subject--perhaps, instead of figuring out what medications to give to children to make their tummies feel better or make them better attend at school, we should be figuring out why there are so many sore bellies and hyper kids and do what's necessary to prevent it. 

I just wanted to say thank you for jumping in for me. 

Tammy 

Tammy, I just read the quote from your post, but can't find your post.  I just wanted to say that you're absolutely right--the violence, and especially the self-directed violence, are serious, serious things, and that both medication and therapy would seem to be called for.  It seems you're on top of things, and I just wanted to let you know I think you're terrific. 

Mary if you have never been around a child with severe adhd or other behavioral problems then how do you know it didn't exist 20,30 or 40 yrs ago? Also I will tell you this I and my friends are not lazy parents we take our kids to parks,camping,fishing and the beach and I go to concerts with my daughter and races every week on the weekends. You may have your opinion but you are practically accusing parents of being lazy and you don't even know the people. How can you accuse a parent of being lazy if you've never ever seen them? How do you know what other parents show there kids? Let me tell you this I slapped my sons hand in a grocery store one time for knocking all the jars off of the shelf and I had a lady come up to me and read me the riot act because I slapped his hand and he wasn't even crying. You know what she said to me, she said its not proper to discipline and slap your childs hand in public you should wait till you get home and you know what I said. I said this to her "If it was okay for my mom and dad to give me and my brothers a good swift slap for doing something in a store then its okay for my kids unless of course you want to take over raising them. She got mad and walked away, and I didn't care because I don't appreciate some stranger criticizing my disciplining my kids when they don't know the situation. Oh and by the way almost 30 yrs ago I can assure you that Ritalin was out as I was in school and I had a couple of friends in high school who took it and that was back in 1976 when I was a sophomore. They didn't have it out or do much diagnosing of adhd when my one brother and I were only like 6 and 9 which would give ya the early 70's as I was nine in 1971.  Don't blame the kids for the world going bad they didn't cause that. 

While I agree with much of what you are saying about society needing to dicipline more you have to understand that a child that really does have ADHD will not be effected by a spanking.  No form of *punishment* will work if the child has uncontrolled impulses.   ADHD is real and the child does need a strong dicipline but you can't spank a child because their mind wonders and they can't get the homework done or pay attention in class.    If you watch TV you may have seen a commercial where they show a TV and change the channel after channel after channel, this is what is going on inside a person's head with ADHD.    Meds help the child be able to focus so they can *stay on one channel* and get things done. 

So I do agree that a LOT of people don't need to medicate but do need to dicipline but there ARE children that really do have ADHD.   If the child is not ADHD the meds will NOT work right.   The child will be zombie like.  My son has been on meds since he was 3 yrs old and has continued to be a happy outgoing child, the difference is that he can pay attention and do things now instead of bounce off walls, cars or anything else that gets in his way. 

RR