Do you think too many kids are diagnosed with ADD or hyperactivity? Do you think Ritalin is any fix for overworked teachers and parents? And did anything about that article bug you? If so, please tell me what it was, because I can't quite pinpoint what bugged me.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Answers

I don't know about the article, but a friend of mine started taking Ritalin in high school.

In some ways, it made things better. It made it easier for him to concentrate during class.. it made middle school make sense, because in middle school, he couldn't keep a conversation without his eyes wandering around looking for something different or better to be doing.

But he's different.. he's not the same Mike anymore. I don't know how to explain it, but my friend Jess who has known him as long as I have sees it too. When he doesn't take his Ritalin, yeah, he's hyper, but he's also more of the Mike that we know and love.. when he takes it, it seems like he's a totally different person.

I don't know, tho, how to explain it.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Well, one thing that struck me was that despite the author's good intentions, she really did seem to be an ineffective parent.

I grew up in a community where there were a lot of parents like this woman: reluctant to stifle their children's "creativity" through traditional parenting techniques, and I saw quite a few boys with this kind of upbringing acting out in the same way as the author's son.

I think most kids feel most secure with some kind of structure in their lives, and it sounds like this kid probably needed it more than most, and he wasn't getting it either at home or in school (maybe by the time he got to Catholic School, his behavior problems were already ingrained).

This is not to say that this boy doesn't have neurophysiological problems for which ritalin is beneficial, but I also don't think that this woman necessarily put her son in the best possible environment for him.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Our son was diagnosed as being borderline-AD&D, and the doctor wanted to prescribe Ritalin. My wife researched it and found enough negative things about it to keep the doctors at bay--something about it makes a permanent change in brain chemistry, they're not really sure what that change is or how it affects things, and it might not work.

Instead, we spoke with an herbalist and have (all) been taking various herbal medicines and multivitamins; he has improved drastically over a couple years. I'll post again when I find out from my wife which of them is the ritalin-substitute.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I think too many people are on mood-altering drugs, period, both the legal kind and the illegal kind, both prescribed by doctors and the self-medicating variety. At least adults do it to themselves, but kids don't have much say in the matter when they get put on drugs to change their behavior.

And I don't think it's jus the fault of over-burdened schools and over-booked parents. I think there are so many factors for why people (not just kids) are mentally / emotionally dysfunctional, it's impossible to point the finger at one or two things.

If class size was *the* problem, then all of us boomers who were in huge classes by today's standards would have had a much lousier education, and the fact is, we got a much better education than anyone in the 70's, 80's and 90's did, and those kids were/are in smaller classes for the most part (private schools excepted).

If screwed up or absent parents were *the* problem, then I should definitely be on some kind of prescribed mood-altering drugs, and I never have been. Same goes for most people I know.

If a bad diet, especially as a child, was *the* problem, same story.

If watching too much crappy TV and other demented media was *the* problem, same story.

But I really should go read that article...

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I think that was it, Jen. One thing I kept coming back to: she pulled her kid out of the Catholic school because the nuns rang a cow bell at kids who misbehaved, which is apparently an awful thing to do. (Doesn't sound as bad as some other behavior modification techniques I can think of, but whatever.) However, later she says something about seeing a kid and thinking that he really deserved the cow bell -- I guess until she realized that the rotten kid was her own? I couldn't tell if she had caught the irony there or not. And she pulled her kid out of the school anyway.

I don't know ... if your kid is pooping on the playground and you want to excuse it because he was pretending to be an armadillo, maybe you are the problem. I don't think it would constitute a terrible stifling of his creativity to tell him to pretend to be a housebroken armadillo.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Okay, here's the list. Gotta keep those posts going so we qualify for the next surprise sweepstakes, don't we?

The basic theory is that kids who get ear infections get The Pink Stuff (parents, you know what this is), which is a broad-band antibiotic (our kids had chronic ear infections for 5 straight winters). This kills the ear infection and a significant amount of stomach flora. This stomach flora is needed to absorb some trace minerals from the food we eat, so later in life these kids have problems digesting all their food. Just taking more minerals doesn't help; if you can't digest it, more doesn't help.

So the first supplement is called Digestin ("A Homeopathic Nutraceutical for Digestive Enzyme Deficiencies, Acid Reflux, Heartburn, restoring normal Digestive Processes"), basically a turbo-charger for the stomach, which helps it to absorb those trace minerals. Second, take B6, zinc, and magnesium. These treat the same batch of symptoms for which Ritalin are traditionally prescribed, without turning the kid into a drooling zombie. Third, take Pycnogenol, which cleans the heavy metals out of your system and does all sorts of neat stuff. Do a Yahoo search on digestin and pycnogenol if you want to get bombarded with too much information from really badly written web pages.

Unless, of course, you don't buy into this herbal medicine junk, in which case you're at the mercy of the AMA.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I think there were several things about the article that bothered me. First, I agree with Jen that this woman seemed to be an ineffective parent. It also seemed that there were discipline problems at home, at one point she mentioned that the school asked her that (implying that it was due to a relationship with another woman?) but then went on to state that she and (name?) had different ideas about discipline and had had disagreements about it.

However, having counseled very young children diagnosed with ADHD (only about 1/2 of whom were on Ritalin), I will say that the symtoms do not include calling a teacher an "ass", or an "idiot". That is a matter of teaching a child to have respect for others, and a respect for rules that have to be followed, in a classroom for example. Children definitely need to have limits on their behavior, and if discipline and rules are inconsistent, then the limits become unclear.

One thing I did wonder is, if, after he started to take the Ritalin, and it made his behavior seem more "manageable", she also changed her parenting style and began to expect more appropriate behavior from him. I think that it can be a vicious cycle...

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about ADHD or Ritalin.

It struck me while reading the Ritalin article that the mother's description of her son's behavior was not reconcilable with the descriptions she received from his teachers. She only saw high spirits, while the teachers saw objective misbehavior, like the armadillo poop incident and the Montessouri breakout.

If you rely on the teachers' version, they appear to have responded appropriately to really disruptive behavior, which needed modification.

If you rely on the mother, the son's high spirits have been chemically dampened. This dissonance didn't seem to bother her, so I assume that she knew the facts were closer to the teachers' version, but she didn't want to admit it in a signed article that her son could read later.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Beth -- thanks for your questions and linking to the Salon article. I wrote an answer... and then realized it was the length of a journal entry. I'm so glad to finally have something other than writing to post about (grin), so much thanks. (And forgive my linking it here, but I hope you don't mind since you're forum was the jumping off point for the entry: http://www.la-lagniappe.com ... titled "Ritalin and consequences")

--thanks

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I have a brother who is 6 yrs. younger than me and is diagnosed ADD. When he was on Ritalin from age 6-15. I grew up with someone who had difficulty control his impulses. This creates very disruptive behavior in every kind of situations. There were times when I wanted to kill him b/c he was being so annoying - constantly babbling, not sitting still, interrupting conversations, etc. When he took the Ritalin it helped him to control his impluses, made him a better student, and a more livable kid.

I truly beleive that my brother's life was made better because he took Ritalin. Because his behavior was modified in a positive way it made life easier for all of his. There wasnt as much tension, anger and yelling in the house and we (my parents and I) enjoyed his company much more. It is very difficult to spend time with someone who cant concentrate long enough to carry a simple conversation without singing, making noises, moving about the room, etc.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I have seen ADHD kids do moderately better with Ritalin and then others who do better when off the Ritalin and in a very structured home environment. My biggest concern with Ritalin (and I don't know if many children have these side effects or not) was the fact that it caused insomnia and lack of appetite in a nephew of mine which was much more damaging (and causing it's own cycle of nervous behavior) then learning to deal with the ADHD.

There's seldom a clear black or white solution to be found. I know I would exhaust every other option before turning to Ritalin and even then I would look to it only as a temporary solution. I've seen that work well.

As for the article, my first reaction was BLEACH??? What the?? I mean, you just don't have bleach down where children can get to it - up and locked. I really am a believer in structure and consistency, there's nothing wrong with teaching limits and how to appropriately. I'm with you, Beth, house-break the armidillo.

Also, there's a lot to be said for the parental/child interaction factor when dealing with a child who has poor impulse control. Lot of codependent interaction that goes on (survival for the parent who's usually exhausted) and children learn what's effective and then rely upon that.

I think that often combines with the initial impulse control problem to create a tiresome cycle between parent and child. This happens with all children but is heightened for ADHD kids because the parent is put in a position of feeling as if all their energies are being used up in reactions to everything this child is doing at breakneck speed.

I think one of the best tricks a parent can learn (or childcare giver) is calm response to even the most outrageous behavior while consitantly addressing the issue. i.e. the child does not get away with his/her behavior, nor has he/she gained a huge reactionary response.

'course easier said than done. okay sorry, I wrote a book.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

I read the article and agree with everybody whos said it sounds like the parenting had a lot to do with the way this child acted. When she said something like his constant motion and the way his mind darts around are things she treasures about him, well, hes got to have picked that up. Hed be getting mixed messages from her and from his schools his whole life. That scene where she sees the kid under a box and thinks how he really needs to be disciplined, then she saw it was her own child  she sure seemed ambivilent about what she wanted from him.

One of my rants is about how a lot of people dont seem to realize what normal children are like. Maybe most of us havent spent time with children until we have our own. But it amazes me how many people seem to be surprised that children are energetic and have short attention spans and dont want to be quiet or obedient. Its like people who get puppies and are baffled when they dont grow up to be quiet, obedient dogs. They have to learn how. They appreciate limits.

Of course there are some children at the extreme edge of energetic, etc. And apparently there are ways to diagnose ADD, etc. Im slightly skeptical about that, but there may be something to it.

But it seems like Im always around people who say that Adam is ADD or Chelsea is high need or something. Not because a doctor said so, but because the child doesnt want to sit down and listen to a story, but would rather run all around the house, pull out all the crayons and throw them on the floor, run outside and ride the bike, etc. Is this normal annoying child behavior, or something pathological?

I dont have an opinion about Ritalin. If I had one of the unusually active children, Id probably be glad to have a respite. (Intolerance for normal child behavior is one of the reasons I dont have any.)

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

Those last few paragraphs (in my message - ) focus on the sideline issue of how the cycle gets caught and can keep furthering itself negatively.

If you haven't read Toni's entry please do, I thought it was wonderful and appreciated the fact that she shared this with us. I agreed completely with this statement from Toni's entry:

"It worked for us. It's got to be a full effort, though -- meaning, parents who simply give their kid the pill will perhaps calm them down or help them focus, but if they don't instill the other habits, if they don't provide structure in their kids' lives, they're only masking social problems which will show up in other ways."

That's what I've seen when Ritalin is effective, parents who then keep working to help the child learn what he/she has missed.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

What struck me first was this bit:

"...I don't even like antibiotics; my pediatrician practices homeopathy."

Um, and this is a good thing? There are situations where antibiotics *work* (although they may be overprescribed, and many people don't take the full course of antibiotics, which reduces their effectiveness for everyone).

Homeopathy makes no scientific sense whatsoever.

And I'm sure she thinks there's no need to vaccinate her child either.

I agree with those that say there seems to have been an element of failure to discipline; failure to teach the child how to behave in a civilized manner.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

If you had asked that question a year and a half ago, I would have had a very negative response. I was raised in a household where children had to be having a stroke before they were given Tylenol. When my youngest child started school, he was a very energetic, happy, bright, delightful boy. Unfortunately, he had a problem concentrating. In 1st grade, after almost a year of trying every alternative she could think of and I threw at her, his teacher and I came to the end of our ideas. My doctor prescribed 7.5 MG of Ritalin. Today, my son is excelling in school instead of just getting by. There is no zombie-effect. He only takes it at school, and weekends and summer he's off of it. This allows him to not have to continually get his dose upped. It allows him to focus his thoughts enough to concentrate on proper behavior. Now that he's experienced it, his behavior off of the Ritalin is greatly improved also. We talk a lot about making good choices, and do not allow him to think that the pills are what make him "good". We simply tell him that he has the ability to choose his actions, and the Ritalin helps him to think out these actions before he makes them. The good or bad choice is up to him. And we certainly don't do what my cousin does with his child. "Oh, sorry. Tee hee! He has ADD you know."

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

This is a peripheral point, but I'm made rather uncomfortable by the assumption on some parts that lax parenting was obviously involved... this is what really struck me: "I mean, you just don't have bleach down where children can get to it - up and locked." I had assumed, myself, that the author's reference to massive childproofing efforts either meant 'up and locked' or 'I was cleaning the toilet, he was 4 rooms away with Lisa, and before I knew it he'd run off with the bleach bottle'. I was a very clever and agile child. If I wanted something, from about the age of 3 on (for that matter, my earliest memories are of crib escapes before I turned a year old - should my parents have sat next to the crib 24 hours a day to make sure that I couldn't figure out the newest '100 percent childproof system'?) nothing short of a safe would really serve to block me from it... 'up and locked' won't necessarily do the trick if the kid is bright and overly inquistive.

What bugged me about the article is what bugs me about Ritalin. What bugs me about Prozac. What bugs me about lithium, for that matter. I don't, and won't, trust psychoactive drugs. But sometimes they help. One can accept the usefulness of a substance while keeping a wary eye on it. Heck, if we hadn't been so uncritically overjoyed about antibiotics (they have, often, been prescribed preventatively, even), there probably wouldn't be so many drug-resistant pathogens out there. bleh, this is all scattered. but might that be the bug? A healthy wariness in the face of something that is not unqualifiedly a Good Thing?

-- Anonymous, November 30, 1999

The kid does sound like he had real problems, above and beyond the wishy-washy parenting he seems to have had. But when every misbehavior is excused by his mother as part of his creativity, that can't be helping. It sounded to me like his mother saw the schools as the enemy, and wasn't going to try to help her kid learn how to function in the system (or at least not make the adults mad enough to threaten him). I think the Ritalin helped, but maybe in a more stable and structured environment it might not have been neccessary. How is the kid supposed to know what he is supposed to do when his mother seems to think anything done in make-believe is okay?

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999

I think massive childproofing where the child manages to get ahold of the olive oil is one thing as compared to massive childproofing and getting ahold of the bleach, which can be fatal. But I do understand you're point and all eventualities cannot be prevented.

That and the armidillo situation did bother me, when reading the article. At the same time, I don't think a few examples ineffective parenting caused this problem nor do I think it nullifies the help Ritalin gave.

And all of this opinion is humbled when I read entries like Toni's (URL is a few messages up) who is obviously a very conscientious, responsible parent who speaks from experience.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999

Ritalin is the answer sometimes, but I do think it's overprescribed. As Lizzie says, some people don't seem to know what a "normal" child is. (As a side note, I just saw "Big River" again, and nowadays Tom Sawyer and his gang of "murderers and robbers" would be stuck in jail so fast, seeing psychiatrists, etc.)

My CASA kid, "Sam", is supposed to be evaluated for ADHD. There's a lot of wiggling and inappropriate behavior in class, but Sam is also struggling along with 1st grade (or Kindergarten) reading ability in third grade. I got proof the other day though that it isn't ADHD, when the child started a project for a Christmas present. There was a 45-minute period of intense concentration. A hyperactive child couldn't have done that.

When I was teaching homeless kids, though, there was one little boy who really was all over the place, and simply could NOT stop long enough to get any control over himself. His dad told me that HE had been the same, and was still, and when the doctor explained that he, too, was hyperactive, it was a great load off his mind. I don't know what became of the family after they got an apartment and went to regular school, but I think about them often.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999

Gee, I was going to post yestersay, but couldn't articulate it thoroughly. I guess my problem with the article was, well, she just didn't seem to try hard enough. I'm all for not stifling creativity, but there has to be some sort of framework set up within the household. To me it was obvious he could control himself when it was to his benefit. re: lemonade stand. My background on it comes from my brother being diagnosed as hyperactive about 12 years ago. My mother *loved* the idea of pumping a pill into a boy who, for all intents and purposes, just didn't want to listen to her yelling and screaming at him. I don't blame him. If there ever was a case of someone who needed more parenting and less drugs, my brother was it. And again, with all things, I'm sure there are plenty kids out there who need it and benefit from it. Just not as many as there are getting it. We're living too entrenched in a society where the Magic Pill (TM) will fix everything. It really sicken me when I hear time and time again of children who are drugged *when they don't really need it*. I can cite countless examples of friends/family who like to fill my ear of how horribly sick there child is so they can't go to school, but they can lug them around shopping, and hey, the kid didn't look or sound sick to me. "She had a little cough so I'm keeping her home and pumping her full of medicine."
Shoot, I've digresed into regular childhood illnesses... but my point still applies. I may be a rampant homeschooler :-) and the same attitude applies to medicine for kids. I'd just like to add that my kids (precious darlings they are ;-) ) hardly ever get sick enough to medicate or send running to the doctor twice a week.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999

I work as a temporary live-in nanny for parents who travel without their children for short periods of time, or when the primary caregiver (ie. the mother usually) goes away for work. This year I experienced my first ADD child. She is 6, medicated (Ritalin) and has been for almost a year.

My problem with the situation, stems not necessarily from her being medicated, or the issue some people have with whether or not ADD exists or not, but with the followup care or lack of it.

Essentially, depending on when a child is diagnosed (usually early school age from what I can tell, 5 to 7), they have missed out on a lot of normal childhood development and socialisation because other children's parents learn early on what they are like and will not have them over to play with their children, and the other kids basically will not befriend them either. So they miss out on learning about sharing, not hurting other children, and a range of other things mentioned in that article. They miss out on those things, and they get a lot of bad reinforcement of their behaviours at times from parents who are at their end of their ropes, not coping very well - overstressed, sleep deprived, and lacking support.

So, its not surprising in a lot of ways that Ritalin is embraced, in many cases, as a wonder drug/messiah. Putting aside the issue of should it or should it not be used, and how to determine if a child has ADD or not, just getting them on Ritalin is never going to be enough.

This child still has what I would term serious behavioural problems (and I have experienced a lot of children, some very naughty ones). The problem in this case is not whether or not she is medicated - some of her most severe "episodes" occured while medicated. Her schoolwork has improved, but the price being paid is still at the expense of completely inappropriate behaviour. She still has trouble making friendships because she has not learnt the social skills most children learn at 4 or 5. However, while lacking these skills is somewhat understandable in the circumstances, the parents have made no moves to do anything about helping her catch up. Worse, they still excuse her behaviour. She needs to see a behavioural therapist - at least the woman in the article was having her child see a therapist.

All children need some structure and routine, these children more than most it seems. By this age, children are well aware what buttons they can use to manipulate their parents - its a fact of life, one that having the distance of an outsider allows you to see more clearly than a parent would. I watched, on at least two occasions, this child throw a complete screaming punching tantrum, purely for my benefit. Afterwards she would look at me, and the look on her face said - "see, you may not give me everything I want, but I can still make Dad give it to me". They are so used to getting what they want, because the parents could not cope with the behaviours anymore, so the message the child has is tantrum = what you want.

My concern with these cases is, medicated or not, the behaviours that have evolved need to be changed, or the children will never find that they "fit" with other children - they will grow up "not fitting". Then there will be the problem of what to do then. Being medicated for life seems a horrific option, but even worse if their behavioural problems are never dealt with.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 1999

What bugged me is that the child seemed to be allowed to be too *free* like a flower child or something. If you don't tell your kid that a behavior isn't okay, then they won't know. Setting fair and intelligent boundaries for your child is the singlemost important thing you can do for them as a parent. And it's not easy. Even an ADD child knows whether or not s/he's when they've overstepped their boundaries, even if they can't control it. But if there are no boundaries to begin with, then what do they draw on for a frame of reference? Additionally, she seems like she made a series of excuses for him, rather than address the possibility that there was a problem early on when it was brought to her attention. After school #2 or #3, as a parent, I'd be taking it up with the kid's doctor, just to eliminate the medical causes. That's just common sense. If there didn't appear to be medical causes, I'd be going to family therapy to address problems.

I think anything can be abused, including prescribing Ritalin, but I also think, there is too much fear associated with giving a kid medication s/he may need.

-- Anonymous, December 02, 1999

I'd like to respond to Jan's comment that a kid who was ADD couldn't spend 45 minutes concentrating on a Christmas project. In fact, many of the kids who are ADD (who have trouble with concentration and organization in school) don't exhibit any of the hyperactive symptoms that people usually associate with ADD. I had my son tested when he was in the 3rd grade after listening to a description on a radio program of kids who just couldn't focus, who were so distractable, that they couldn't remember instructions, or keep their mind on what they were doing. My son never misbehaved or acted out, he just seemed to be lost. And I believe that there are many kids like this, who fall through the cracks because they don't create a lot of ruckus.

I had the reaction of many parents - horrified at the idea of having to medicate my son so he could succeed in school - but the truth is that it did help him. His doctor is careful about dosage, in fact he switched to Adderall, which is supposed to be better for adolescents to take. He doesn't take the medicine on the weekends or during the summer, and has cut himself back to only taking it on days when he knows he needs to concentrate extra hard (a concession to adolescent independence). He also gets access to the LD counsellors who help him with organization and concentration strategies, which are wonderful for him.

There probably are lots of kids who take Ritalin to make them more palatable to grown-ups, who dono't really need it. I think there are also many kids (non-hyper but still ADD) whose school life would be easier if they had access to not just Ritalin but all the resources available to kids with more diagnosable and "accepted" learning disabilities.

Oh, and to my original point. When he was *-interested-* in something, like working on a project, he could concentrate and focus just fine for however long he needed to. There's plenty of examples of this in literature on ADD kids. When their interest is peaked, the distractability disappears. Beth

-- Anonymous, December 03, 1999

Wait a minute ... wouldn't that seem to disprove the idea that it's a medical problem? If the kid can concentrate when he's working on something interesting, isn't the problem then that school isn't interesting, that we're trying to fit kids into niches where they don't fit, and that instead of practicing that traditional human trait of adapting our environments to fit our needs, we're forcing our kids to adapt to an unsuitable environment?

Okay, sometimes I have to concentrate on boring things, and I'm not very good at doing that. I try to take that as a clue to examine whether those things are really worth doing, and very often, the answer is no.

This is exactly what bothers me about the ADD diagnosis.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 1999

Beth,

I don't think the fact that ADHD can sometimes be overcome disproves the fact that it is a medical problem. Most mental disorders can be temporarily overcome under certain circumstances: even untreated people suffering from major depression will occasionally experience moments of happiness, and most dyslexic kids can learn to read well if they're sufficiently motivated (though it's still harder for them to do so). This doesn't mean that these disorders aren't biological, it only means that they are complex disorders with many factors controlling the symptoms.

Kids with ADHD don't just have trouble concentrating in a couple of classes--for them, the inability to focus and succeed is the rule rather than the exception.

Further, justifying these kids' failure in school by saying that it's just not their thing is going to jeopardize their futures in a big way, something that many parents are loath to do, especially when the kids are smart and can take a drug which will enable them to achieve academically.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 1999

Hmm.. I think it isn't that 'kids with ADD can sometimes pay attention so they don't have a problem', rather that 'everybody will probably have a hard time paying attention to something that is really boring'. Or at least that's what I got out of it. It's not that ADD doesn't exist as a medical problem, rather that it can be easier to diagnose half the kids in a class with ADD and put them on medication than to look at whether the class is poorly structured and try to make it more interesting and accessible.

And I don't think anyone was saying that kids who can't pay attention should just fail, but that maybe there should be more diverse options for schools, so that the kids who don't actually have ADD (but are just bored out of their skulls) can learn and succeed and pay attention _without_ being on drugs. Sometimes the kid isn't the problem, they're just in the wrong situation.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 1999

From the New York Times today....you need a subscription to read but it is FREE! :-)

Study Backs a Drug for Hyperactive Children By HOLCOMB B. NOBLE n one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted, researchers have found that the drug Ritalin, the subject of sharp debate for three decades, was more effective than behavior-modification therapy in treating children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 1999

Instead, we spoke with an herbalist and have (all) been taking various herbal medicines and multivitamins; he has improved drastically over a couple years. I'll post again when I find out from my wife which of them is the ritalin-substitute.

This has long been a pet peeve of mine. It makes no difference whether a drug is manufactured in a laboratory or in a complex biochemical system. A drug is a drug, and needs to be evaluated on its merits, not on how it was produced. In general terms herbal drugs are no more or less safe than manufactured drugs, simply by their process of manufacture.

It just shows people's prejudices when they look with suspicion on pills, and embrace herbs without a second thought.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2000

I just caught this thread, so forgive me if I repeat anything anyone has said...

Soon before I graduated from high school, I was diagnosed with ADD. This made a helluva lot of sense to me and my parents since I had struggled through school since elementary school and almost didn't graduate from high school (although I skipped my senior year to start college early). The only problem I found was this: I was put on Ritalin at 18 years of age. I didn't even stay on the drug for six months due to the fact that it turned me into a zombie.

My problem with that was that I have since found out that Ritalin should not be prescribed to persons in or past puberty. Uhm, excuse me? I was 18 and definately in or past puberty. But I digress...

Since finding out that I have ADD, I have been able to focus on things more, although I do get sidetracked sometimes. But that's because the problem seems to dissipate as a person ages. Maybe if I had gone on the Ritalin at an earlier age, I might have been helped by it. During my schooling, my problems in school were discounted to my being "lazy." (I still, to this day, utterly HATE being called lazy, even in jest.)

One of the main reasons why I wasn't diagnosed earlier was because I was not hyperactive. There is a difference between ADD and ADHD, besides just the obvious difference in the abbreviation. I really wish teachers and parents would come to realize this.

Some children do not respond to Ritalin, others do. Some children should not even be put on the drug to begin with, as they are falsely diagnosed because of some other behavioral or developmental problem. I don't really think there is any solution to this, other than mandating that teachers not only school themselves in education, but developmental psychology as well. But that's asking a bit much, really.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2000

I've spent most of the last 3 years working with children, in programs where I often meet a new group of 10 kids each week. There's no question in my mind that there are kids (and adults, for that matter) with legitimate medical ADHD who benefit greatly from Ritalin and other similar drugs. I've spoken to adults with the disorder and they've all spoken clearly about the difficulties of functioning in a classroom or similar setting.

At the same time, I've worked at camps where literally 25% of the children (200+) were on Ritalin. I have trouble believing that each and every one of these kids actually needs the drug. For some parents, I think it becomes an easy excuse for their kids poor behavior.

Oh, and as far as the focus issue? I've always been taught that ADD manifests itself not as a complete inability to focus but as an inability to switch focus consciously at appropriate times. This can mean both difficulties in paying attention to an ongoing topic, and difficulties in switching away from a topic when the rest of the group or class moves on. I've seen plenty of examples of ADD kids who become focused on one topic to the point of temporary obsession, and I don't think it's necessarily because it's a topic they enjoy.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2000