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I agree with @ 90% of what those people had to say. I have Tourette Syndrome, and God forbid you should come across me when I'm off of my medication! (Both of them, actually- I'm on Prozac and Klonipin, with Klonipin being the worse of the two if I go into withdrawal. Yes, it's a controlled substance; and yes, I have to take it to function halfway normally or the tics will come back with a vengeance [as in tics I don't normally have- corprolalia and intense stuttering being some of them].)
I'm beginning to think it's fried my brain so much I can't function without them.
And about prescribing Ritalin to children: Don't! If you let boys be boys, they'll grow up fine. Kids need to imagine. That's what I spent most of my childhood doing (either that or fighting), and thank God I wasn't diagnosed with a neurological problem until I was 11. :)
-Rivka
"Female men's activist" is not an oxymoron.
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Thanks for your remarks, Rivka.
My little step-brother was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in the fifth grade. Imagine that, a fifth grade boy who can't stay still in class and can't keep his mouth shut!!
Anyhow, the poor kid was diagnosed on the strength of a subjective questionaire handed to my mom. Becuase she placed an affirmative response on a given percentage of the questions, the doctor determined he had a chemical imbalance in his brain and needed severe doses of Ritalin (methylphenidate). I always thought this was about like diagnosing a broken arm by an over-the-phone survey, but what the hell did I know?
Before it was all over, Timothy was weeping and begging to be taken off the medication. It made him feel sick, literally high, and the crash resulting from the stimulant leaving his sytem every day made him visably miserable. Timothy WAS DEFINITELY a problem child, moreso than most little boys. No question, he had (and has) major problems. But the drugs did absolutely nothing to help him.
In my mom's defense, she was desperate, and trusted his pshychiatrist who seemed to have a quick-and-dirty method for curbing his behavior. But even she recognizes now that she probably did more harm than good. Seeing a child being forced to take pills that make him sleepless and throw him on an emotional terror trip is a sight that shocks the conscience.
90% of Ritalin patients are boys. So much for the strict "social construction" theory of behavior. The hypothesis that we are all somehow hormonal "blank slates" waiting to be indoctrinated into our gender-proper behavior is directly refuted by everything we know about hormones and behavior. Wake up, people.
Behavior, and our observations of it, impact our society--our laws, customs, and cultural stimuli. These in turn do impact our behavior. The two are intrinsically linked, like the chicken-egg paradox. To regard one as an absolutely independent variable is nonsensical and inconsistent with every-day observations of the world in which we live. (e.g., the fight-or- flight response is a HORMONAL response to ENVIRONMENTAL stimuli, just like erections or cycling with the moon.)
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My little step-brother was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in the fifth grade. Imagine that, a fifth grade boy who can't stay still in class and can't keep his mouth shut!!
I have a stepson who was a class clown while growing up. It was quite difficult to manage him and motivate him to do homework. My wife and I thank God that he isn't growing up in the current educational system. They would not hesitate to drug him in an effort to control him.
Today he is a solid contributing member of this society. He has excellent work habits, makes a good living, is working for a major celebrity, and is one of our closest children. That would not have happened if he were drugged.
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It is a racket but from personal experience it is not Hilary or "feminists" who should get the blame. It is pshchologist and pshychiatrists and the pharmacuetical industry who are to blame. Here is how the racket works:
In order to get a prescription you have to be seen by a child pshychiastrist/phychologist. Then various doses are tried and monitored. The whole thing with the drugs and the monitoring and so call "counseling" ends up costing quite a lot .... and its assured money because most insurance plans cover it.
This is a huge industry. And it is not just Ritalin and ADD. They have been pushing "counseling" and drugs to my daughter since pre-school because she is shy and very introspective which they term "anit-social". She is also very active and a bit of a risk taker with climbing and jumping off of high things, etc. This makes her unacceptable as a girl and also has gotten no calls for her to be put on Ritalin-like drugs.
Another thing I blame is our general culture which pushes people to conform conform conform. Individualism is not acceptable. There is a narrow middle range where society doesn't accept people who are shy but not to gregarious either. Active but not "too" active. Smart but not "too" smart... etc.
At my kid's school the one person who pushes Ritalin (and other brain affecting drugs - remember Ritalin is not the only thing being pushed) is a male child pschiatrist parent of one of my daughter's classmates. He has his daughter on Ritalin even though she is not IMO hyperactive. She has trouble reading basically because she doesn't enjoy it. He says she reads better while ont he drug because she can concentrate. When I've talked to her she just says she hates reading. Basically they make her a zombie so they can make her read. IMO. (I agree reading is important but to drug a kid to get them to read is criminal).
Another boy in the class loves reading so much that he brings his own SF books to school to read during recess and during any lull between activities. He is in 3rd grade reading at a 8th grade level! Because he is quiet and shy and loves reading more than playing with the other boys he has been termed "anti-social" by the school councelor. (Kids join in .... He is teased as a "sissy" while my daughter is teased as a "tomboy" for her antics on the playground).
Our culture heavily pushes that everyone be the same or nearly so. Our schools and our general culture discourage individualism. Everyone must fit into a narrow social and/or gender specific roles of conduct and interaction. If they don't the answer is ..... "counseling" and drugs.
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Wonderful post on all counts. As an adamant, unconditional individualist I wholeheartedly agree with the gist of yor statements. Girls like your daughter are not "abnormal". Boys who like to read are not disturbed. Further, (and this is where gender politics come in) little boys and girls who exhibit stereotypical behaviors are not simply perverted products of some twisted culture.
We are all individual human beings, with our own problems, likes, and dislikes. The fact that children to not respond well to a sadistically rigid classroom environment for five or more hours at a time should not surprise anyone. We adults need to look at ourselves and the expectations and demands we make of young, developing minds and bodies. Good post, Lorraine.
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Detracting from the key players that continually perpetrate the fraud that most men are by nature, abusers, and women are victims. Hillary is just that. Spewing sexist statements in the same fashion Hitler did. She, as well as the psychiatric community, are apart of an ideology for which she is a ringleader. Blaming one without blaming the other is pandering to her agenda.
Feminist is a general term, Gender Feminists, are the ones to blame and the main perpetrators of the ill-minded attempt to poison young boys.
The Psychiatric community is corrupt to the core. They've literally created mental illness that will protect their wallets for years to come. But again, they would not feel right doing so if they didn't believe in the Gender Feminist ideology.
Parents and Schools carry much of the burden as well.
Of all the parents I know that have children on mind-altering drugs, all have an inherent inability to parent their children, typically because of their upbringing. Some are just lazy or bad parents.
Administrators and teachers incapable of doing their jobs rely on drug recommendations to solve problems they can't handle. They too are lazy degenerates.
99.9% of these children (mostly boys) should never have been given drugs in the first place.
What I say, I say as an adult that has been diagnosed and treated for Depression and OCD which I believe could have been avoided by proper parenting, legitimate psychological counseling and discipline.
Blaming society's theoretical "Conform" policy is intentional sidestepping of the real problem. The Gender Feminist Ideology, radical leftist social engineers and those that spew hatred of men are to blame.
Dan Curry
DanCurry.Com
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Yes, I agree with you.
There is nothing wrong with little girls who like to play rough or little boys who like to read. I was a little girl who got upset easily and read "boy's" books (mostly stuff on biology and physics in elemntary school), so they tried to label me as "emotionally disturbed" which I wasn't. I guess between having a psychological problem and a neurological one is a Hobson's choice nowadays. Drugs either way...
Although my elementary school wanted to institutionalize me b/c they didn't understand me (I was the weird pissy kid who took everything seriously, got straight 99th percentiles on her standardized tests [not to mention a Stanford-Binet IQ of 170 in preschool, 160 most recently tested], wrote poorly, earned bad grades in gym, and twitched a lot- I was the walking contradiction).
I'm just lucky I graduated high school with the grades I did and ended up at a prestigious college. It was either take the mind-altering drugs or go to a Special Ed institution. A tough choice.
But as I said before, the drugs are frying my brain, and I don't like it much.
And a question: IYHO, are neurological problems like Tourette or autism or cerebral palsy somehow intrinsically different from psychiatric ones? Just wondering.
-Rivka
"Female men's activist" is not an oxymoron.
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Individualism is not acceptable. There is a narrow middle range where society doesn't accept people who are shy but not to gregarious either. Active but not "too" active. Smart but not "too" smart... etc. (Lorianne, #3)
Anyone ever seen a film called 'Harrison Bergeron' ? It's set in a future America where the principle of mediocrity has been taken to its ultimate conclusion. Everyone has to wear special devices which limit their intelligence, artistic abilities and sporting prowess, thus creating a society of total equality by bringing everyone down to the lowest level. However, some people are immune to the devices. One of these is a man called Harrison Bergeron. He struggles to be average in school, but no matter how hard he tries he keeps doing a lot better than everyone else. The only solution appears to be a drastic brain operation, but at the last minute he is offered the chance to join the secretive elite who run the country. In doing so he must completely abandon his former life, so his parents are told that he died in surgery. None of the elite wear the mind limiting devices, of course. They see themselves as acting benevolently in the interests of the greater good. Harrison gets a job at one of the TV stations that pump out mindless crap to the subdued masses, but from the start he has revolution on his mind. He succeeds in taking control of the heavily fortified control room at the TV station and starts transmitting programmes of some of the best actors, musicians and artists of the 20th Century. He urges people to take off their limiting devices to better enjoy the experience. Some people do. Meanwhile, armed guards are burning their way through the yard of steel door that seals the control room. It takes them hours, but eventually they get through. As a final act before he's taken off air and lobotomised, Harrison shoots himself in the head in front of millions of viewers. Sitting at home watching the show with their limiting devices still on are Harrison's parents. After the shooting the mother says "What just happened?", and the father replies "I don't know. Something sad, I think."
On the subject of Ritalin, what can I say that hasn't been said? There are certain things which should never become commercialised because of the terrible conflict of interests inherant in doing so. Psychiatry is one of these (the prison system is another, but that's a different discussion). Once something becomes commercialised it takes on the behaviour of any commercial enterprise: the creation of a need, the production of products to satisfy that need, and the marketing of those products. That's OK if we're talking about washing machines and video recorders, but not if we're talking about people's minds and behaviour. If I sell you a TV with a 30" screen and stereo sound this year, I'll have to sell you a TV with a 33" screen and surround sound next year, and a 36" set the year after. If I sell you a drug for children who fight constantly and attack their teachers this year, I'll have to sell you one for children who get into occasional scrapes next year, and one for children who run around a lot during break-time the year after. That isn't science, it's marketing. It's increasing one's market share, increasing one's yearly profits. And like the unrestrained elite in 'Harrison Bergeron', what do these people care if some anonymous kid in some anonymous school somewhere spends his days in a drug-induced stupor? It is madness. Maybe it's the ones who come up with all this crap are the ones who need the treatment.
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I am a middle school teacher and I feel that I need to defend myself. I have always been fervently opposed to the wide-spread use of ritalin and other stimulants as the blanket solution for every problem. I have done a lot of reading on the gender inequalities found in schools today and have found that boys often get the short end of the stick. So I have designed my programs to be more 'boy-friendly'. But I am not that unusual. I work with many quality professionals that care about ALL of their students. Teachers are not just out to bring kids down to the lowest common denominator. More often I am approached by the parent who is frustrated with their child's behavior and has been prompted by the pediatrician to have us fill out their 'subjective' inventory. I always do so with a narrative at the end where I tell them that I don't think their child requires medication. Teachers do necessary and important work and need support in the form of practical, constructive criticism...or even better, how about community volunteers!
This was my knee-jerk response to Mr. Savage and Dr. Breggin. I know that they are doing good but let's not blame all teachers!
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Let's not demonize free markets as the root of all the evil here. Markets respond to the whim of the consumer, which is often much harder to manipulate that you might think. If a marketing exec could simply create and maintain a supposed need for something, polyester would never have fallen from fashion. The clothing manufacturers could simply have duped everyone into thinking it had not gone out of style.
The pharmocological community is responding to a different need, or percieved need: that is, a time-efficient way of dealing with the challenges of raising a child. When both parents are spending their entire day at jobs they can't explain to their kids, and fill in the remainfder with dinner, tv, and video games, they obviously lack for time spent with thier kids and a real sense of control over their development. This naturally leads to a sudden "need" for drugs to assist them with their problematic little tykes...which is more expensive but less time-consuming than actually raising them.
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ADD - doesn't that mean Absent Dads Disorder?
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by wiccid stepparent on Thursday February 21, @06:04PM EST (#7)
(User #490 Info)
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No, it doesn't. My two nephews are being raised by their dad, my sister's exhusband. He was on Ritalin as a child, so of course both of the boys "have" to be on Ritalin, even though only one has been "diagnosed" ADD.
I think they are both just energetic, normal boys. My sister has been campaigning for years to get them off the drugs, but the judge sides with the dad and the drugs continue.
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