recently diagnosed LD or ADD

Everyone is “ADD” don’t believe it. DOn’t take drugs to treat it. Just pray that the crooks running NOVARTIS get cancer.

Talk to the Ball. His knowledge on the subject is encyclopedic.

KATHI

Ball was a poster who has been banned from this board. You’ll have to let sue’s comment pass.

Barb

.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and LD in February. I am a 22yr old college student working on my bachelors degree in occupational therapy. Any specific questions you would want to know just email and ask. I dont even know where to start about my experiences.
ash

10. Then there’s 14-year-old Rod Mathews who had been prescribed Ritalin since the third grade and beat a classmate to death with a bat.

Hi Kathy;
My name is neil I am a 38 yr old with adhd and ld problems „„, I was diagonosed about7 yrs ago now.
I recently just started to understand the impact these have had on my life.
I also have done some intense research about this subject.
I have a wide verity of experiences….. I have live’d in 12 foreign countries and speak 6 languages.
as well as many other assetts : Now I am rebuilding my life after wreaking it.
Partly to blame on these problems, and life style.
My unaware brain chose for me the very best and worse that Adhd /Ld has to offer.
Feel free to write I would gladly enjoy helping you out.
Neil

Case Studies in Violence
Many of the child-killers in the Littleton-style incidents were taking mind-altering psychiatric drugs, which had been prescribed by doctors. T.J. Solomon, the 15-year-old from Conyers, Georgia, who shot six classmates in May 1999, was on Ritalin; Eric Harris, 18, one of the two Columbine killers, was taking the anti-depressant Luvox; and Kip Kinkel, the 15-year-old from Springfield, Oregon, who killed both his parents and two schoolmates, and wounded 20 other students in May 1998, had been prescribed the anti-depressant Prozac, one of the most widely prescribed drugs.

These are not isolated cases. Of more than 6 million kids under 18 years of age in America, who have been prescribed Ritalin, Luvox, Prozac, Paxil, and other anti-depressants and psychiatric drugs, for emotional and behaviorial problems, many have committed violent acts, even killings. Many others are walking time-bombs.

On March 6, U.S. News & World Report documented these less-known cases: In California, 16-year-old Jarred Viktor was convicted of murder for stabbing his grandmother 61 times. Ten days earlier, Jarred had been prescribed the anti-depressant Paxil, for preexisting problems. In Kansas, 13-year-old Matt Miller committed suicide (he was found hanging in his closet) after taking the anti-depressant Zoloft for a week. The Miller family has sued Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft.

But the most horrible revelation to date is the documentation that increasing numbers of infants, toddlers, and pre-school children are being zombified with psychiatric drugs produced for adults, before they can even learn to talk, let alone read.

According to JAMA’s Feb. 23 article, “Trends in the Prescribing of Psychotropic Medications to Pre-Schoolers,” children from poor families, especially African-American children, are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AHDH) and prescribed the stimulant Ritalin (methylphenidate) at younger and younger ages, with the number of prescriptions in two study groups having increased more than 300% during 1991-95. The anti-depressant Prozac is just as abused; the article reports that a psychiatric newsletter, citing marketing data compiled by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994, reported some 3,000 prescriptions for fluoxetine hydrochloride (the generic name for Prozac) written for children younger than one year old!

The findings, written by a group of doctors from the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, in Portland, Oregon, were presented in May 1999, at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington, D.C. But the dangerous practices haven’t stopped.

The team studied ambulatory care prescription records from 1991 to 1995 from two Medicaid programs (a Midwest state and a Mid-Atlantic state), and from one HMO (health maintenance organization) in the Northwest. Records were checked for enrollees between two and four years old, during those years.

The results should shock the nation: In all three programs, psychotropic medications prescribed for pre-schoolers increased dramatically. The use of methylphenidate increased in all three sites: threefold for the Midwest database, 1.7-fold for the Mid-Atlantic group, and 3.1-fold at the HMO. These records involved over 200,000—more than 158,000 enrolled in the Midwestern state, 54,237 in the Mid-Atlantic state, and 19,322 enrolled in the HMO.

One noticeable pattern is the prevalence of poor children. The Medicaid youth were almost entirely eligible under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC, the former Federal welfare program), and, within the Medicaid groups, “non-whites were over-represented,” i.e., a greater number than in the general population.

There’s no question that the poorest children are being abused. The article says that in 1998, “Pediatric researchers noted that 57% of 223 Michigan Medicaid enrollees aged younger than four years with a diagnosis of ADHD, received at least one psychotropic medication to treat this condition.” Methylphenidate was one of the two most prescribed.

These results show a pattern of premeditated medical abuse. At a March 3 press conference, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) addressed the concerns posed by the JAMA article. He showed the warnings printed with every bottle of Ritalin. In large type, one says: “Warning: Ritalin should not be used in children under six years, since safety and efficacy in this age group have not been established.” A second warning says: “Precautions: Long-term effects of Ritalin in children have not been well-established.” Sen. Dodd demanded that more tests be conducted to test psychiatric drugs on children before they are given out so widely. But the scope of the problem, and the fact that drugs like Ritalin have already killed children in normal doses, and that Ritalin is one of the top ten most abused drugs in the U.S., shows that Sen. Dodd, and others, though well-meaning, are refusing to go beyond “business as usual,” against a phenomenon that is escalating the occurrence of the new violence.

The HMOs—Nazi Drug Dispensaries
In 1998 and 1999, the United Nations’ report on international drug trends, sounded the warning that 85 to 90% of the MPD (methylphenidate, or Ritalin), produced in the world, is consumed in the United States.

On June 22, Pennsylvania State Rep. LeAnna Washington (D-Phila.), testified at Ad Hoc Democratic Party Platform Hearings, facilitated by Lyndon LaRouche’s Presidential campaign committee, in Washington, D.C. Rep. Washington stated:

“In 1987, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was literally voted into existence by the American Psychiatric Association. Within one year, 500,000 children in the United States were diagnosed with this affliction.

“In 1990, the lucrative doors were opened to a cash welfare program to low-income parents whose children were diagnosed with ADHD. A family could get more than $450 a month for each child. In 1989, children with ADHD made up 5% of the disabled population. In 1995, it rose to 25%. In 1991, education grants also funded schools an additional $400 in annual grants money for each child. The same year, the Department of Education recognized it as a handicap, providing children with special services. In 1997, some 4.4 million children were diagnosed with ADHD. In 1996, some $15 billion was spent annually on the diagnosis, treatment, and study of these so-called disorders.

“Ritalin and similar drugs are prescribed to an estimated 6 million to 9 million children and adolescents in the United States. This reflects why Ritalin production has increased an incredible 700% since 1990.”

In fact, studies cited in JAMA and the Journal of Public Health, surveying school nurses in two districts of Virginia in 1998, show that among white male students in the fifth grade, 18% and 20%, respectively, were being given Ritalin for “behavioral problems.”

But a major reason for this catastrophic rise in rates of psychiatric drug use is the Nazi policy known as “managed health care,” through the HMOs that have taken over most health plans today, including Medicaid for the poor, according to Family Therapy Networker an on-line magazine.

The runaway prescribing of anti-depressant drugs for children—with almost 3 million prescriptions written in 1999—is due, in large part, to pressure from managed-care companies that will not pay for therapy or other treatments for children, says an article titled “Generation Rx,” by Rob Waters in Family Therapy Networker. This prescribing of drugs as a substitute for therapy, means that children “are being given unproven threatments more haphazardly, and with fewer practical and legal protections, than adults who volunteer to be paid subjects in the clinical trials of new drugs,” the article says. In fact, many of the drugs being given to children have not been approved for use in children, and have severe physical and psychological side effects.

“Some doctors say they are uneasy about prescribing psychoactive drugs to kids,” the article notes, “but they do so because they doubt that the child’s family can get around managed care’s barrier to therapy,” in which a health plan may refuse to pay, or create months of delays. The situation is even worse for children in poor families. Child psychiatrist Joseph Woolston, the medical director of the children’s psychiatric unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital, says the practice of giving psychoactive medication to children has skyrocketed under managed care. “The pressure to medicate children has increased enormously,” Woolston says. “Every single day we have at least one case where the managed-care reviewer says to us, ‘If you don’t start the child on medications within 24 hours after admission, we will not fund another day of hospital.”

Woolston says that even more alarming, is the practice of putting “probably tens of thousands of kids” on random combinations of psychoactive medications. “We’re using them as guinea pigs, and not even keeping track of them,” he says.

Therapists in private practice say that managed-care reviewers almost always suggest referring children for medication after four to six sessions, even when a child’s distress is clearly related to a parental divorce or some other identifiable interpersonal problem. “Managed care sees this as a cheap way to get rid of the problem,” says one child psychologist.

Heart attacks have felled some children on Ritalin, including a 14-year-old boy in Michigan, and an 11-year-old girl from Ohio. The physical side effects are bad enough, but the psychological ramificiations is nothing short of menticide—America’s “opium war” against her own children.

Hi Kathi!

I am a 24 unemployed female that was diagonsed with ADHD about two weeks ago.

When I was diagnosed, I felt so relieved. All my life I have had problems finishing stuff, not focusing, and just not being able to pay attention, no matter how badly I wanted to be that way. To know that there is an actual reason, other than me “being lazy” made me feel so much better about myself.

If there is anything else you would like to know, just ask :)

Angela

ADD, ADHD, LD, Depression, all pretty tough. My best assest are my family. My son has ADHD. He has the best heart in the world for a guy his age.

I do OK. Whenever I get downgraded, I make it a point to drive it home to MR Perfect how well I’ve done with what I have. Sometimes I over do it, but who cares, I feel better about myself afterwards.

I’m in too many search engines to give my email address. I am sorry.

i was never diagnosed but recently my kids were and learning about them has helped me so much! medicade pays for their docs and meds but wont for me unless i get pregnant! ugh! (tempting but i dont need to raise anymore! specually since they get my a.d.h.d. problem). i took my kidz adderal for about 3 days to see the difference and it is a whole new world!!! usually i hear static in my head and it confusses me from hearing my thoughts is the best way i can put it and when i was on the meds it was like i didnt have to sit and figure my thought and decifer what to do… things just got done that i needed to do and i got more housework done in those 3 days than i do in a month! and my kids loved that i was organized! and my husband liked that we were intimate 3 nights in a row! i dont know what it was, i didnt feel more physical… just a sence of accomplishment and normalty. but like i said i cant afford the meds. but thought you might be interested in the 3 day experience!!! it was great!!! shannon

20 years old. Diagnosed at 16. Think A.D.D is a nice word for “lazy person”. I’d be glad to participate.

I was first diagniosed at 5

I have recently been diagnosed with ADD. What college are you attending? What is your major. I am new to chat rooms. Is this for real?

I am a 48 yr old nursing student that was diagnosed with ADHD May 03. I was relieved to find out that I was not retarded because I have felt that way many times in my life. Fortunately I had an instructor that noticed that I had a problem getting started with some of my work and suggested that I go to the hospitals free psychological evaluation service who recommended that I get tested for ADHD. Which I did, and it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
After I was diagnosed the doctor prescribed Adderall xr which has worked very well for me. It has increased my ability to concentrate and reduced my tendency to constantly want to move around. I can now sit in a class and actually listen to a lecture for more than a few minutes and take decent notes.

I was recently diagnosis (actually I figured it out and had it confirmed at the Hallowell Center) while I was doing grad school research. It has been a relief and nightmare all at the same time.

Hi Kathi,

Please let me know if you are still interested in hearing from adults who have recently been dxed.

I have some stories for you.

Deb

I found it a revelatory experience - the big “Aha!” so that’s why I flunked that test in Mrs. Stremba’s room. That’s why 7th grade geography was so hard and why I can’t find anything or sit still for very long.

It offered a rational explanation for the difficulties I’ve had in certain situations. Past that, it didn’t change much if anything.

I’ve just come back to this site after having lost it for months. I got distracted with school stuff., I guess; must be the ADD.Thanks to those who responded. I’m at New York University in New York City working on my doctorate in clinical social work and getting ready to start my dissertation research. I am doing a study with adults to learn more about effects of growing up with undiagnosed ADD and/or LD. If there is anyone who is interested in being in the study, please let me know. It would entail being interviewed a couple of times. Though I’m focusing on the metropolitan NY area, I do plan on seeking out people in other states as well. Look forward to hearing from you.

Hi Kathi…

My child has been Dx’ed with LD and I have the same profile as him so I assume I am LD. The few professionals that I have talked to have agreed that my unedited writing combined with my precieved intelligence would strongly suggest an undiagnoised LD.

I don’t know if I meet your needs (since I am undiagnoised) but if I do, I would happy to be interviewed.

Kathi,

I was diagnosed with ADHD at 15. I had been tested in third grade but the school psychologist decided that it wasn’t a viable dx because I was female, exhibited mostly innatentive symptoms, and my IQ and ISTEP(Indiana’s annual test for student comprehension) scores were to high. If you need any subjects with this experience(and many more, let me tell ya!) Please let me know. I would be more than happy to aid you with your research.

Jennifer

Hello Neil,

I’m 26 and Dx with LD and ADD just recently. Would like to know more on how you cope with it. My e-mail is [email protected]

-sunshine:)

[quote=”Neil”]Hi Kathy;
My name is neil I am a 38 yr old with adhd and ld problems „„, I was diagonosed about7 yrs ago now.
I recently just started to understand the impact these have had on my life.
I also have done some intense research about this subject.
I have a wide verity of experiences….. I have live’d in 12 foreign countries and speak 6 languages.
as well as many other assetts : Now I am rebuilding my life after wreaking it.
Partly to blame on these problems, and life style.
My unaware brain chose for me the very best and worse that Adhd /Ld has to offer.
Feel free to write I would gladly enjoy helping you out.
Neil[/quote]

I was diagnosed w/A.D.D. at the age of 25. I am now 32 and taking Ritalin and Paxil
I had ld all my life..
Kris N.

Thanks to those who have replied to my research interest in those recently diagnosed with LD and/or ADD. I would be interested in talking to anyone who is interested in participating in my study. I am a doctoral student at New York Univerity in New York City. Please e-mail me at [email protected]
Thanks,

I was diagnosed at age 42 (8 years ago) I would be happy to discuss this
with you….e-mail me at [email protected]
www.addcorridorcoaching.com PAT

I am 31 and was just dx a few months ago although I’ve known for years..I just thought I was “a worthless piece of **** that didn’t deserve to breath. Oncw again, I am not working…can’t handle the stress of dealing with myself…and an ADHD child…wow it’s hard…Along with ADHD , I also have and Anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression…also, my son who is 10 with an IQ of 116, has ADHD and an Anxiety disorder….I would like to help out in any way I can… Thank you for your time…Tanya [email protected]

I’m a 32 year-old woman from Vancouver, Canada. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD when he was six. On the other hand, I was a relatively good student, and was regarded as a “good, responsible daughter.”

However, at school, I was constantly bullied because I could hardly pay attention during classes, follow the teacher’s instructions, and play sports. I was also always quiet, “kind of lost in my world” and very, very sensitive to the criticism of others. I had to study twice as hard as my peers to get the same marks, and couldn’t have any social life while studying. Then the war broke out in my homeland. While in the refugee camp, alone with my brother, I became depressed and even suicidal. But I still managed to attend university.

After emigrating to Canada, I had a very promising start. In just three months I’ve got English 12 and then managed to finish college — accounting program. Then I entered the work force. At work, I couldn’t focus well, prioritize, finish tasks…very often I appeared to be mixed up, confused as to what I’m supposed to do next, not being able to understand my co-workers (nothing to do with the language, that’s for sure). Don’t even ask me how many times I entered wrong things in the computer, or misplaced things, or blurted out some things to the clients I wasn’t supposed to! I quit the job because I was completely burned out. Nobody was surprised. In the meantime, I’ve got myself into an abusive relationship, too. But I stayed because I believed I didn’t deserve anything better.

I’ve got jobs and was fired so many times I can’t even count. Dammit, what has become from a girl who was sometimes the best student in a class?!

I’ve taken almost all kinds of antidepressants, as well as Ritalin and Dexedrine. The depression was reduced, but not the ability to focus. I wouldn’t say that my brain is “bursting with thoughts and ideas all the time”, but rather, I tend to obsess with one thought for a long time and can’t seem to get rid of it. I’ve been diagnosed with ADD by a doctor who’s using biofeedback, though, and I’m very suspicious about his method. The least what I need now is to spend a fortune on something that might not work!

So, that’s my story. I’ve got fired from work again yesteday because I “didn’t satisfy”. Sometimes I just wish I was never born!