They Don't "Believe In" Medication

[GirlDriver]

I am frustrated & confused by the comments I hear about ADD & medication. I have never seen any other group of people stigmatized or criticized so much for using a well-researched treatment. I understand that there are myriad reasons why an ADDer chooses not to take medication for ADD. Perhaps the ADD does not interfere significantly with one's life; perhaps the medication has intolerable side effects; or, perhaps the ADDer appreciates the differences that ADD brings.

Notwithstanding these considerations, what does "not believing in medication for ADD mean?"
Does this mean that ADHD is not a "real" disorder?
Why are ADDers subject to so much stigma for choosing medication as a valid tool for improving their quality of life?

Please enlighten me about this. GirlDriver

[Trooper Keith]

I used to be very anti-ADD as well (kind of as denial for having it), and I can say therefore pretty clearly what most of those statements are...

Mostly, people are "anti-ADD" medications because either they don't believe the disorder is real (they say, instead, that it is poor parenting, or bad discipline, or laziness, etc.), or they think that the parents are simply medicating their children because they are lazy parents who don't want to take the time to teach them or discipline them, etc.

Most "anti-ADD" medicine people are against medicating children. My doctor was reluctant to give me medication until he learned that I was the one who wanted it, not my parents. There is a stigma saying that people who give their children ADD medicine are just lazy parents, etc.

A lot of these misconceptions are a result of the fact that ADHD symptoms are relatively common in everybody, from time to time, and that the symptoms are also normal in children below a certain age. They don't realize that real ADHD is NOT just "the kid ran around on a playground." Because they don't know what real ADHD is, they assume that all ADHD is just "poor discipline" or "bad parenting," and therefore they are against people "using medicine as a way out of having to be a parent."

[PrettyPerfect]

im glad for meds and alternative treatments or i would act 4 all hyper and stuff lol
brittany

[One on One]

Right now I don't want to get diagnosed or meds for my ADD. My reason is that I don't consider ADD a true problem right now. This may change now that I have graduated college and need to find a job, but I'm not sure it will. I'm happy to be unique and I'd rather fit my life to my ADD rather than the other way around. Of course, if I had serious problems with paying bills on time or something that was really hurting my life, I'd take meds. Right now, though, the only problem I have is finding a job I like. I can't read books all the way through, get distracted a lot, do multiple things at once, etc, etc, but I can kinda laugh at that stuff because it doesn't cause me any serious hardship.

[PrettyPerfect]

it depends on the severity like me i have it the most severe possible with all symptoms in the criteria for adhd combined lol
brittany

[mother rabies]

A personal story...

I'm 34 and was Dx at 11. My parents did not understand how the meds or the ADD worked. It did'nt matter how the doctors directions read, I had to take a pill everytime I "acted up". By the time I was 14 all that ritalin in my system made me feel strange all the time so I took myself off of it. My parents would feed me the pills and I would stuff the meds in my cheek untill they left the room and I would spit the pills out and stuff them through the vent holes in my stereo. Sometimes I got them shoved to the back of my throat while being held down in the floor. In the meantime I was treated no differently as the kids on the short bus because I was different. I was the only one in my school that had to go to the office and take my "smart pill". My parents read a book called "Square Pegs in Round Holes" which is archaic and outdated and calls the condition MBD for Minimal Brain Disorder. When other kids picked up on the term my parents and teachers were throwing around (MBD) things got worse for me,socially. I denied for years that I had a problem and would'nt even so much as swallow an aspirin because I had issues associated with taking pills. I also went into denial about the condition for those reasons. I lived as if there were no such thing as ADD.

Now to the main issue at hand. Do I believe in medicating?
For a long time I did'nt but when things got too far out of my own control, I came to a decision to medicate. My child later was discovered to have the same condition and it was the hardest decision I've ever made to medicate him because of all I went through,but I did. He got 5mg of Adderall at first which is a very gentle dose and as he doubled in size he went up to 10mg. He only needed it for a "push" to get started for the day but I always told him that he should let me know if it makes him feel uncomfortable. This school year he came to a decision for himself to try to preform well in school without the meds and I'm behind him. So far he's done better than he did last year while medicated.

I've seen all kinds of situations. Sometimes kids need help and their parents don't acknowlege that they need help so the kids go without help. Sometimes parents can't handle the extra effort so they declare their child ADD as an attempt to keep from admitting defeat as a parent. Most of the time kids are treated, not treated or over treated as a parents means to save face for whatever reason. That is why this condition gets a bad reputation.

[Kimalimah]

I think that's horrible what you went through. I agree that many people think that medicating children is simply because the parents are lazy or too busy with other things to concentrate on their "jobs" as parents. Unfortunately, this is this case sometimes which certainly hurts those of us who have made conscientious, well researched, difficult decisions regarding medicating our children.

I think, too, that many schools contribute to this situation...they have a "special" child who requires a bit more attention to perform and rather than taking the time to give them what they need, they start talking about ADD and meds. Parents look to educators to be informed and knowledgeable about these matters and take their word for it.

I would always encourage people to have a THOROUGH physical and psychological workup before accepting a diagnosis of ADD.

On the personal side, our son was diagnosed at the age of 3 1/2 with ADHD/ODD. We, too, said we would deal with him with love, attention, getting ourselves educated. After a year of individual therapy for him, family therapy, and physical therapy I crawled back to the pediatrican and begged for help. Without Ritalin we simply cannot communicate with him. He is unattainable. I think it would be a crime to not give him meds, for a condition for which he has no control over.

He is now 14. He has gone through periods where he "wants to be normal and normal kids don't take meds". They were tough, but eventually with additional therapy he has chosen to take them again. He would really like to come off them, but the psychiatrist sat and talked with him about how he needs them. That he wants to control something with will-power that just isn't possible.

He's a good kid. Made it in the mainstream school until this year. Unfortunately, the school system was not able to give him the attention he needed so we chose to put him in a private school. It's a daily battle, but he's worth it, I think.

Don't know if this helps or not. When people sneer at me for medicating him I simple explain that not medicating him would be like denying a diabetic their insulin. There are just some people who need help and, if it's available, I think it is wrong to deny to them. That usually works. Once I start "educating" they don't have much of a leg to stand on!

Kim

[mctavish23]

Those were excellent posts. Thank you all. The original research study on what we now call ADHD was conducted in 1902. The first study of stimulant medication on behavior was in 1937. The truly "lazy" people are the one's who don't take the time to investigate the issue and prefer instead to give a "kneejerk" reaction to most problems; like everyone else is stupid for not figuring it out their way.

When you look at the symptoms for ADHD, it's obvious that most kids do those things. The key to what makes a child ADHD and what's "normal" are the diagnostic criteria ( present from an early age(there is no one set cutoff date), happen for 6mos in a row, happen everyhwere, be different than what other same age kids would do,i.e. a developmental delay, and most importantly, constitute some degree of impairment. No impairment, no disorder). The other things to look for would be a family history or suspected history, prenatal care; especially nicotene use, birth complications, etc. You get the picture.
When you understand that ADHD is a neurobiological disorder(meaning there's a real chemical imbalance), then medication as part of an overall treatment plan makes sense.

PS. About 3 years ago, "family therapist " and syndicated columnist John Rosemand, left town after his presentation on ADHD being "fake", rather than stay and debate me and several of my colleagues and friends. Just to let you know, I kicked his *** in absentia, called him a liar and then backed it up with references.

[exeter]

I think mother_rabies' approach to children and meds is the right one. By about 4 or so, a child should be able to tell if the medication makes him "feel funny". At that point, I think the child, being the patient and all, needs to guide the treatment as much as possible through his parents. After all, if Ritalin makes your child feel like a zombie, and he doesn't say anything, you might assume everything is fine.

For myself, I don't particularly *like* taking medication in and of itself. Even with insurance, it's an extra expense I could do without ($25 copay each time I see the psychiatrist + $20 copay per prescription). I'm the kind who will usually suffer through a cold, headache, or flu, as long as it doesn't get too severe, rather than take even over the counter drugs.

This is different, though. After having lived with this condition for nearly 30 years, I've found that I've already independently developed most of the coping strategies that I see suggested in books, web sites, etc, and it's not enough. That is the reason I started on meds.

Now that I'm on them, I'm still not thrilled at being dependent on a drug, but life has gotten a lot better. I won't stop taking meds unless and until they stop having the effects I'm after.

To kind of tie this all up, it's important to realize that I made this decision for myself. Certainly, when a child becomes old enough that he can make that decision, it should be his decision as well. That isn't to say there couldn't be some kind of agreement with the parental units that if the symptoms return and are too hard to manage that he would go back on the meds.

Young children might not be able to make that decision. I don't think a 4 y/o is going to decide he wants to take Ritalin on his own. Still, it seems important to involve the child in the decision, because otherwise, the child might grow up resenting being medicated against his will, and deprive himself of a valuable treatment.

[blueyemass1979]

That reminds me of what my best friend said when I told him that the allergist's test had confirmed I was allergic to dust mites.

"There's no such thing as dust mites! That's an urban myth."

"No, the doctors are pretty adamant that lots of people are allergic to dust mites. It's pretty much a universally agreed-upon thing."

Shakes head.

"Well, they've taken pictures of them under microscopes..."

Shakes head.

You get the picture...suffice it to say, I quickly stopped trying to convince him that dust mites exist, and I didn't tell him when I got diagnosed with ADHD, either.

Also, did you know that...

All mental problems and human unhappiness generally are ultimately caused by "engrams," as discovered by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction author--because all good medical discoveries are made by fiction writers and promulgated by Hollywood B-list celebrities...

Men can't be attracted to men...it's all in gay people's imagination...or they have an "inverted" sexual drive...

We could solve all dislexics' problems by providing books printed backwards...or just telling them to hold a mirror to them...

Iraq possessed WMDs (40% of the US population was polled as believing that as of Sept. 2004)...

People of African ancestry are genetically pre-disposed to lower intelligence (The Bell Curve, a book given more credence in the media a number of years ago than just about any honest-to-God social science study, ever)...

Women can't be raped...physiologically, if sex happens, she wanted it...

Planet Earth and the entire universe are 5,000 years old, and the entire geological, astronomical, and fossil records were put there simply to tempt you into sin; carbon-14 dating is the devil's own handiwork...

People with learning disabilities just aren't trying hard enough...

A woman's face can cause such prurient desire in men that women must wear veils to protect innocent men from their own loins--women, of course, have no sexual faculty so men's faces are not a problem...

"Deaf" people just aren't trying hard enough...

You get the picture.

[rogerj1]

I can be sensitive about the topic, there's a vast body of ignorance out there. One thing my kid's med doc said when I asked him about the issue of kid's being overmedicated is that it can be looked at several ways. "What kid wouldn't benefit from a mild stimulant? How much better do you feel after your morning cup of coffee?"

[Outsider]

I only started taking ritalin yesterday, but I was sitting in class when it wore off and I couldnt focus at all so I decided to sneak into my backpack and take the 2nd pill. I'm fumbling around with it, trying to get the child-proof lid off, while the class discussion turns to a study having to do with ADHD. My prof made some comment about "if in fact ADD does exist", meanwhile I'm sitting 10 feet away from her with a bottle of ritalin in my hand!

[mctavish23]

Hi,

Please go to Russell Barkley's site and look for the journal article entitled "International Consensus 2002." That is the most definitive response on the "Is it real?" BS you will find. It is signed by over 80 of the world's leading scientist's and has 19 pages of references.

The other references I would suggest would be to go to the US Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health: Chapter3 ( Disorders of Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence).That gives great background info on the use of stimulants, as well as the topic of ADHD in general.In fact, they list THE definitive genetic research study on ADHD ; Cook et.al. (1995).Association of attention-deficit disorder and the dopamine transporter gene.American Journal of Human Genetics,56,993-998.

CHADD Facts #1 I believe (available @chadd.org), discusses Alan Zametkin's landmark glucose brain scan(PET) study @ the NIMH. This study established the neurobiological nature of ADHD and was published in the NE Journal of Medicine. Dr.Barkley also discusses it in his book Taking Charge of ADHD, on pages 68-69.

The bottom line is that ADHD is the most widely researched childhood disorder on planet earth. The fact that any Psych professor doesn't know this is a testament to the need for them to read more and lecture less. Good luck.

[GirlDriver]

Thank you to everyone who posted such insightful responses. I am enlightened and saddened by your experiences. Wow, we humans can be a cruel & judgmental lot. GD