A Rush to Medicate Young Minds

Do you think the dangers of over-prescribing the drug are worse than the risks of under-prescribing it?

 

Absolutely. Most of the people that receive these drugs today simply didn't need medication in the first place. Most, but not all.

 

im for medication if its nessesary, going to help the person, and not hinder their ability to live and be happy.
while putting chemicals in my body isn't the cleanest feeling in the world, ive had to my entire life.

but when your doctor gives you wrong medications that turn you into some slug zombie, yeah.. you resent medication for awhile.

 

I think some doctors are too quick to prescribe meds to children. I guess it's a sign of the times we live in. Parents who do their best at raising a child still come short at times. It doesnt help much if the parents are flagrently mismanaging and rearing their children poorly. The best thing to do is to get into school and become a doctor. Then you can do something to help, and raise your kids the best you can. You can't just turn away from the problem and think it will go away. It's very sad. I was wrongly prescribed medicines a few times. I know how it feels. When I was a child I would stop taking my Ritalin, and teachers and parents and doctors would convince me otherwise. It's hard when the support system fails you. You just have to be strong inside. It is not an easy thing; easy would be to just take a pill and shut up.

I think medicine has it's place when a child really has no options and is sick. The chemicals in the brain need to be tracked better. Right now it's just prescribe as you see fit. It's all about symptoms. It's hard to find out what is going on in a childs mind and body without the proper tools.

 

It's sad. It really is. Every child who has a hard time paying attention is on ritalin and anyone feeling sad is on Prozac. Everyone is in such a rush to automatically medicate themselves or others rather than look up other ways to fix things. We're a medicated society where pills make everything better. I wish we didn't.

 

don't just blame the doctors, folks.

americans wants the quickest fix. it's simple and it goes something like this:

there is a growing demand in our ever-quickening society for the fastest, easiest, cheapest remedy. unfortunately, americans no longer have the time to properly rear their children because they're working one or more 40-100hr/wk jobs; they themselves mostly consume fast food on their 20 minute shift break and bring the leftovers home to the kids, who are getting fatter by the day. the kids love the hormone- and cholesterol-filled burgers and the greasy, salty french fries with processed ketchup because it comes with a cool toy in the box and because the sweet fat content makes it taste way better than steamed brussel sprouts. if they're lucky, mom will have enough time to cook a frozen pizza in the oven. the nutrition deficiency in the majority of average american homes is quickly contributing to far poorer physical and mental health of the entire family. the parents are so sleep deprived because they're overburdened with errands and chores that they have little patience for their children, especially after a 10 hour day of work. the sleep deprivation instantly raises cortisol blood levels in the parents, causing them to be even more stressed the next day. they need relaxation after a hard day at the office and they're lucky if they can get it by telling the kids not to bother them right now and to go downstairs and just watch TV and play video games all night, while they simultaneously snack on bbq flavored, msg-laden chips since they're still hungry because their lunch lacked the essential fats, proteins, and vitamins only found in fruits, vegetables, and lean meats like fish which then further deepens their inadequacies involving sustained attentional processes due to the continual visual and mental video stimulation that quickly becomes ingrained as a future expectation to the developing child's brain that naturally craves fun play above focused discipline all the time. the parents' ignorance leads them to think that all of this stuff is just natural in the modern american society. when the mom has her weekly get-together with her girlfriends, she finds out about her friends' children, some of whom also have the same attention and behavior problems in school. they express brief concern about their childrens' "incompetencies" until one of them mentions how she spoke with her friend who knows a doctor who gave one of the kids some methylphenidate (ritalin) and is now making As in his fourth grade math class. eager to have a successful child, the mom and dad agree to make an appointment with the doc to see if their kid qualifies for ADHD. later that night, while the parents cuddle in bed watching tv for 10 minutes before they quickly fall asleep by 10:30pm, they notice that during every tv commercial there is an ad telling them that one little pill can fix their own problems concerning sleep, stress-induced anxiety and depression all at once. and since they're too caught up in the demands that society pushes on them stronger by the day they see no other way out: a pill for every problem. it's just what we needed, they say. it's exactly what america wants.

 

The above poster basically described the downfall to western civilization.

 

Boy, ain't that the truth.

 

Its the PARENTS that are changing. Even my own mother, since the early ninties to now, has transformed from loving, sweat-shirt wearing, understanding mom, to wanna be movie star, weight obsessive bitch mom. Parents are becoming more and more superficial and using "tough love" less and less. Years ago children would get spankings, now a parent is talked about for this terrible act of "hitting" their child. I got spankings when i was younger, and for these young children having "temper tantrums" and what not, excuse my french but i think parents need to stop being PUSSIES and letting the children control them and stop trying to find a scientific excuse for having an ill-behaved child. Its sick. Even into the adolescent years, their are misdiagnosises everywhere, half the kids are on adderall because ADHD is a very vague, and almost NORMAL thing to be when your young. Of course someone between the age of 1-18 are going to wiggle, rebel, and push buttoms, thats part of youth. As you grow you learn to control yourself, without a dependency on a deadly drug. It is realy heartwrenching and angers me greatly to watch these parents look for excuses for their own poor parenting. Anyone agree???