Growing up with ADHD, Andreas story really hit home for me. My mom never believed in medicating her children. I ended up dropping out of school in the eighth grade because I had such a hard time. I have wondered numerous times if either of my kids will be ADHD. I cant imagine how hard it would be to make a decision to medicate or not. I do believe a brain that is not fully grown can be damaged by unnecessary medications. As mentioned in this article children ages five to nineteen have at least a 7.5% chance of being diagnosed with ADHD And "Children often get their drugs not from a specialist in psychiatry and psychopharmacology but from and M.D. with the power of a prescription pad." So who is doing the diagnosing for this 7.5% of children? In my experience with some doctors, if they have no clue about what is wrong chances are they will give it a guess. For example: when my daughter was eight or so her eye was bothering her. Instead of monitoring her myself my mom nagged me to go to the E.R. After hours of waiting the doc looked in her perfect little eye for five seconds. He then wrote a script for pink eye medication and said it looks the pre stages of it. Skeptical of his diagnoses I tuck the paper away and never pulled it out again and nothing ever happened to her eye. He had no idea what he was talking about. So when I am handed a prescription for certain medications I wait it out awhile before taking them. I think that our society has diagnoses and medication for everything now a days and its abuse. According to a study by Julie Zito, a professor at Maryland school of pharmacy the use of antidepressants by children, tripled from 1987 to 1996 and continues to go up. After reading this article I would really like to learn more about the process of diagnosing children and teens with mental disorders. If I had an unlimited amount of money for a study I would choose to look into misdiagnosing and how often t really happens.
My boyfriend had the same experience as you did it sounds like. He appears to have ADD even now as an adult and according to his family he was even worse as a child, although never diagnosed. He also dropped out in the 9th grade because he had such a hard time concentrating in school. I wonder the same for my children if they will suffer from ADD as well; if he does actually have it. I am also very interested in learning more in depth about diagnosing and misdiagnosing children as far as mental illness and ADD.goes.
ReplyDeleteI too am sick of the prescribe first care later ideals of many doctors. I wonder if the malregulation of shift length for doctors contributes to this. Many doctors have to work 24 hour shifts, but truckers and pilots can't work longer than eight. We need to regulate this, medical professionals hold lives in their hands, not to mention swift judgment and such because of fitigue. Good post.
ReplyDeleteOur medical system has gone drug crazy. The pharmaceutical companies are out of control. The days of the small town doctor, that had a natural remedy fix for what ailed someone is pretty much gone. With that said I do see a Natural path and love her. There is a real need for drugs, but we need to not over prescribe them.
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