Charles, I have enjoyed reading your blogg on a daily basis. I do however not appreciate your constant slamming on medication for helping ADHD. I have many times attempted to write a comment on so many of your Ritalin bashes but have then decided to erase them before clicking that publish button. I would like to think that I have done massive research on this drug and have weighed the pros and cons of this issue very throughly. Have you ever tried to use the medication yourself? The reason I ask this is becuase Ritalin has no addictive additives nor does it make you "High". Charles the truth is if a parent was given a choice to let her child be medicated for ADHD and have a chance of them living a normal life working and succeeding or do they opt for the non medication route and let them live on welfare and eat at the local soup kitchen? You have to understand, what is good for you is not always good for someone else. They are risks in all medications. From heart pills to cough medicine to astma puffers. You will find that if you research them they will have just as high of risks of side effects as Ritalin. I do hope you post this comment and take some of this information into consideration. You have made your decision to not take this medication and live the way you live. You should let others make their choice!
That's a good post above, however, there are some mistakes in there. Ritalin is a derivative of cocaine and operates in a similar manner-that's why it works. Are you saying cocaine is not addictive? Then why can't I buy some in the store? Of course its addictive, because addictions don't come just from 'additives'. Nothing is 'added' to alcohol to make somebody an alcoholic.
Keep in mind that 'a glass of wine a day' is good for you and there is little chance you will be addicted.
However, the problem is that, just like with alcohol, things get abused-that's the reality.
Thanks for posting that letter because lately things have been pretty hairy at this blog and there's been a shortage of civil discussion on public matters.
So we should go back to exactly what Charles is trying to do, and namely that is to get the government to conduct a study on ritalin use.
As has been extensively noted here and elsewhere, testing for ADHD must be done comprehensively. It is a six month process that requires putting children in different learning environments. I believe somebody quoted the cost of that to be, well, I won't say because I really don't remember, but it was A LOT. And the concern is that IF drug companies and a permissive environment really want more uses of a drug, then IS that proper procedure and cost being paid?
We simply don't know, which, again, is why Charles raises the issue in the way he does to lobby for that public study.
We also know that the way ritalin works isn't even known by the 'manufacturers'. That's a pretty big 'if'. We can add that in other studies, namely ones in europe, schools that have more emphasis on physical activity and more restrictions on diet show markedly lower results of ADHD type behaviours.
But getting schools to get more physical seems to be a political problem for some reason. Kids are simply being 'drugged into submission'. In most cases the drugs are simply counteracts to the horribly sugary and MSG laden diets the kids are under.
So there are numerous alternatives to drugging, and actually many have come down on Charles for being too hard on teachers and the government, and not hard enough on parents themselves.
I know of parents who take their kids to natural food stores and take their kids off gluten or sugar or wheat, and in those cases, I'm serious here, it has COMPLETELY solved the problem. I also know parents who simply won't even discuss it.
So these things need to be addressed. We can add the concern Charles has frequently mentioned, which is that if employers discover a person has ADHD then they may see that as a disability, which will lead to a whole underclass of people who can't find work.
Add also how the pills are distributed, in Ontario teachers have the drugs and administer them to the children. That places a lot of power in one person's hands, but is that even the case in NB? We don't know.
That's the reason for wanting the study and why Charles raises the issue in the way he does. I don't think I've ever seen Charles say 'ban this drug'. But there are dozens of questions and issues which we don't have the answers for, and which are debateable, but which our government is keeping to themselves...and the drug companies.
I just typed a complete post on a response to anonymous but due to a server error it was lost. ERRR! Anyhow to sum it up in a nut shell.. As parents you tell me what we are supose to do...Nothing would make us all happier then to not have to give this highly contriversial medication to our child. When our son takes this medication he has stright A's, popular with his friends and plays sports VERY well. Without it he gets D's and F's, he has no friends becuase he can not control himself and can no longer be part of his sports team because he can not calm down long enough to know that play is going to happen next. I have Celiac Disease which is an allergy to wheat and gluten. Nothing would make me happier than to be told by his doctor that he also has this disease and that if we remove his things from his diet that he will be cured and will no longer have to take this medication. Are we to trust these people behind the counters of the health food stores (that has no medical background) to be able to cure our children? "Just take this eye of neut and 1 tsp of this fish oil and you will be medication free". "Oh and by the way when you need your apendix out come back and we can do the surgery out back in the warehouse". If there is a cure of this dreaded disorder if that is what you call it by all means please share this information with everone. I don't know much about street drugs but I was a teenager once and know what it feels like to be high. You are giddy, hungry and out in another world. I know for a fact this is not the effect that Ritalin has on our son. He explains it as "being able to calm down and gather his thoughts", "being able to know what he is doing". I once again ask you "WHAT ARE WE TO DO AS PARENTS"? If you know how to fix my child I beg of you to please tell me. Nothing would make any of us happier then to not have to see our child on any medication.
I was rather disappointed Charles that you did not comment on my posts above. I was looking forward to hearing your side of it. I would really like to hear from you what I am supose to do as a parent. My childs life depends on it!
4 comments:
Charles, I have enjoyed reading your blogg on a daily basis. I do however not appreciate your constant slamming on medication for helping ADHD. I have many times attempted to write a comment on so many of your Ritalin bashes but have then decided to erase them before clicking that publish button.
I would like to think that I have done massive research on this drug and have weighed the pros and cons of this issue very throughly.
Have you ever tried to use the medication yourself? The reason I ask this is becuase Ritalin has no addictive additives nor does it make you "High".
Charles the truth is if a parent was given a choice to let her child be medicated for ADHD and have a chance of them living a normal life working and succeeding or do they opt for the non medication route and let them live on welfare and eat at the local soup kitchen?
You have to understand, what is good for you is not always good for someone else. They are risks in all medications. From heart pills to cough medicine to astma puffers. You will find that if you research them they will have just as high of risks of side effects as Ritalin.
I do hope you post this comment and take some of this information into consideration.
You have made your decision to not take this medication and live the way you live. You should let others make their choice!
That's a good post above, however, there are some mistakes in there. Ritalin is a derivative of cocaine and operates in a similar manner-that's why it works. Are you saying cocaine is not addictive? Then why can't I buy some in the store? Of course its addictive, because addictions don't come just from 'additives'. Nothing is 'added' to alcohol to make somebody an alcoholic.
Keep in mind that 'a glass of wine a day' is good for you and there is little chance you will be addicted.
However, the problem is that, just like with alcohol, things get abused-that's the reality.
Thanks for posting that letter because lately things have been pretty hairy at this blog and there's been a shortage of civil discussion on public matters.
So we should go back to exactly what Charles is trying to do, and namely that is to get the government to conduct a study on ritalin use.
As has been extensively noted here and elsewhere, testing for ADHD must be done comprehensively. It is a six month process that requires putting children in different learning environments. I believe somebody quoted the cost of that to be, well, I won't say because I really don't remember, but it was A LOT. And the concern is that IF drug companies and a permissive environment really want more uses of a drug, then IS that proper procedure and cost being paid?
We simply don't know, which, again, is why Charles raises the issue in the way he does to lobby for that public study.
We also know that the way ritalin works isn't even known by the 'manufacturers'. That's a pretty big 'if'. We can add that in other studies, namely ones in europe, schools that have more emphasis on physical activity and more restrictions on diet show markedly lower results of ADHD type behaviours.
But getting schools to get more physical seems to be a political problem for some reason. Kids are simply being 'drugged into submission'. In most cases the drugs are simply counteracts to the horribly sugary and MSG laden diets the kids are under.
So there are numerous alternatives to drugging, and actually many have come down on Charles for being too hard on teachers and the government, and not hard enough on parents themselves.
I know of parents who take their kids to natural food stores and take their kids off gluten or sugar or wheat, and in those cases, I'm serious here, it has COMPLETELY solved the problem. I also know parents who simply won't even discuss it.
So these things need to be addressed. We can add the concern Charles has frequently mentioned, which is that if employers discover a person has ADHD then they may see that as a disability, which will lead to a whole underclass of people who can't find work.
Add also how the pills are distributed, in Ontario teachers have the drugs and administer them to the children. That places a lot of power in one person's hands, but is that even the case in NB? We don't know.
That's the reason for wanting the study and why Charles raises the issue in the way he does. I don't think I've ever seen Charles say 'ban this drug'. But there are dozens of questions and issues which we don't have the answers for, and which are debateable, but which our government is keeping to themselves...and the drug companies.
I just typed a complete post on a response to anonymous but due to a server error it was lost. ERRR!
Anyhow to sum it up in a nut shell..
As parents you tell me what we are supose to do...Nothing would make us all happier then to not have to give this highly contriversial medication to our child.
When our son takes this medication he has stright A's, popular with his friends and plays sports VERY well.
Without it he gets D's and F's, he has no friends becuase he can not control himself and can no longer be part of his sports team because he can not calm down long enough to know that play is going to happen next.
I have Celiac Disease which is an allergy to wheat and gluten. Nothing would make me happier than to be told by his doctor that he also has this disease and that if we remove his things from his diet that he will be cured and will no longer have to take this medication.
Are we to trust these people behind the counters of the health food stores (that has no medical background) to be able to cure our children? "Just take this eye of neut and 1 tsp of this fish oil and you will be medication free". "Oh and by the way when you need your apendix out come back and we can do the surgery out back in the warehouse".
If there is a cure of this dreaded disorder if that is what you call it by all means please share this information with everone.
I don't know much about street drugs but I was a teenager once and know what it feels like to be high. You are giddy, hungry and out in another world. I know for a fact this is not the effect that Ritalin has on our son. He explains it as "being able to calm down and gather his thoughts", "being able to know what he is doing".
I once again ask you "WHAT ARE WE TO DO AS PARENTS"? If you know how to fix my child I beg of you to please tell me. Nothing would make any of us happier then to not have to see our child on any medication.
I was rather disappointed Charles that you did not comment on my posts above. I was looking forward to hearing your side of it.
I would really like to hear from you what I am supose to do as a parent. My childs life depends on it!
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