I would like to respond to the assertion that ADD is over diagnosed and Ritalin and other medications are over prescribed. Many people who believe this also believe that this is only the modern way of discipline and that 200 years ago nobody was on Ritalin and they all got along fine.
If you believe that, then I ask you to go and read some history books. Take off your rose colored glasses and look at the past in a real light. Things were not so rosy back then. ADD has always existed. There were always fidgety, hyperactive children, or daydreamers who never seemed to listen. What happened to these children? More often than not, they simply did not last in school. Society was not kind to such children. They judged them as “lazy” or “rebellious” or “irresponsible” or “slow-witted” or “addled”. If they didn’t do their lessons they were taken out to the woodshed and whipped.
The old countries were even worse. If you stole a loaf of bread, you were hanged. Now what person in their right mind, knowing of those punishments would go and steal a loaf of bread? How about a person with poor impulse control— ADD! Pity the poor distracted impulsive person who just couldn’t fit in. Didn’t pay your bills? Then its the workhouse for you!
Those who lived in the U.S. had a little better time of it because we were a young and growing nation. But it depended on the kind of people around you. Then, as Now many people with ADD found their niche in life and managed well enough. But what about the apprentice who never seemed to learn his skills or complete his tasks or chores? If he had a kind master who saw potential in the boy perhaps things wouldn’t be so bad. But most apprentice masters weren’t so kind: the ADD boy would be beaten, sometimes severely, and if he did not mend his ways (which ADD would make it very difficult to mend his ways) he was turned out onto the street to make his own way through life.
Now I ask you a question, mothers and fathers. Which would you rather have: your child beaten for not doing his assignments? Turned out of school as unteachable in the third grade? Made to wear a dunce cap when he could not remember his spelling words? End up in a workhouse because he ran up debts and could not pay them? Or would you rather have what we have now: teachers and doctors and fellow parents who try to see beyond the symptoms and see a child who is trying to be good, who has talents, who has potential? Would you rather he have a diagnosis that helps us understand just why it is difficult for him to pay attention in class, stay on task and stay organized? And understanding that not to excuse it, but to help him overcome those problems?
Of course kids 200 years ago were not put on Ritalin. People back then did not understand the human brain and what made it work. They simply labelled such kids as “willfully disobedient” and let it go at that. They didn’t diagnose and prescribe, they judged and punished.
Take your pick: beatings, the dunce cap, and the workhouse or diagnosis, therapy and medications. Which is really worse?
Sorry about the long post, I just had to get this off my chest.
A request for "lizb"
Please, is it all right if I borrow your message to post on an NG I frequent? What you said is so important that I feel that the posters on that NG need to hear it, too.
Yours truly,
Kathy G.
Re: A request for "lizb"
Sure, go ahead and post it. I wrote it because I get tired of the implications that ADD is not “real” and it is only lazy parents or lazy schools who won’t discipline their children and want to put them on pills. I also get the feeling that many parents on this board sometimes get weary of trying this or that medication, and begin to wonder if they are doing the right thing. I just wanted to put it in perspective. ADD is real, has always been with us and is not a product of our “modern” life or bad parenting. Also, while medication does not work for some ADD children it helps many. I don’t think parents should feel guilty about having their children on medication if it is indeed helping them. They shouldn’t feel bad about having to try several different dosages and types of medication because sometimes it takes quite a bit of adjusting to find what will work.
Re: Then versus Now
Beverly,
commenting on the schizophrenia and being burned at the stake. I read a very interesting article about this. They did research on the Salem Witch hunt phenomina and they concluded that a fungus that grows on the rye seed spoiled bread that the population of this town ate. The symptoms of ingesting the fungus caused LSD type hallucinations and behavior. They actually tracked it down to the very bakery in which the bread was produced! They also found this in other areas where there was mass hysterical behavior. England and France. Anyway,thought it was interesting. Of course I agree with the posting,besides things aren’t always what they appear to be. Always some somewhere willing to judge another
Re: Then versus Now
I read a fiction book on this after the research was done-I believe it was Dean Koontz who wrote it. It is very interesting to look back on how different conditions have been treated in the past.
Re: A request for "lizb"
Guess what?? My parents are both doctors and I get the constant disapproval for the meds. They tell me how he has no symptoms at their home. I have yet to get them to understand that the one on one attention he gets there masks the symptoms. And they don’t listen so I give up and do what I know is right.
Thanks, lizb!
Thanks, lizb!
I’ve posted it and your response to my request on the following NGs:
k12.chat.teacher:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&group=k12.chat.teacher
and misc.education:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=&num=100&as_scoring=relevance&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=misc.education&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=&as_umsgid=&lr=&as_drrb=quick&as_qdr=&as_mind=29&as_minm=3&as_miny=1995&as_maxd=28&as_maxm=4&as_maxy=2001
Yours truly,
Kathy G.
lizb wrote:
>
> Sure, go ahead and post it. I wrote it because I get tired
> of the implications that ADD is not “real” and it is only
> lazy parents or lazy schools who won’t discipline their
> children and want to put them on pills. I also get the
> feeling that many parents on this board sometimes get weary
> of trying this or that medication, and begin to wonder if
> they are doing the right thing. I just wanted to put it in
> perspective. ADD is real, has always been with us and is not
> a product of our “modern” life or bad parenting. Also, while
> medication does not work for some ADD children it helps
> many. I don’t think parents should feel guilty about having
> their children on medication if it is indeed helping them.
> They shouldn’t feel bad about having to try several different
> dosages and types of medication because sometimes it takes
> quite a bit of adjusting to find what will work.
Another article on how ADD isn't "real"
There was an article in the opinionjournal.com by Tunku Varadarjan. In it he says he would never let a psychiatrist near his son. He complaind that the psychiatrists are just inventing disorders right and left. He thinks good old fashioned discipline would cure ADD. He calls Aspergers Syndrome just “excessive shyness.” The opinionjournal.com website allows for reader responses and many people wrote in to explain about Aspergers Syndrome, but not many had much to offer on ADD. There were quite a few who said ADD was “boys will be boys” and went along that line. ADD is normal “boy behavior”. I thought that maybe it would help if some people from here could put their two cents in. Nobody in our family has been officially diagnosed yet, and we haven’t tried medication, and I think that people who have had personal experience with it might want to explain what ADD is really like. I think half the battle is educating the public as to the true nature of ADD and how and why medication can work.
There also were not any people taking blood pressure meds, or cholesterol reducing meds, and people often lost all their teeth before 20 and the average life span was around 40. Women dies in childbirth while having their 9th child, but only 4 of those children had lived to see their 1st birthday. People with Schizophrenia were burned at the stake for being witches, etc. Yes we have come a long way, but there are always going tobe those who want us to go back.