Posted by zeugma on June 3, 2004, at 14:15:09
In reply to Re: my 12 yr old was prescribed ritalin today.. » zeugma, posted by Chairman_MAO on June 2, 2004, at 19:57:26
> I never said that I agreed with the post, heh. It's just food for thought. I have ADD too, and being unmedicated is misery for me as well. But that does not mean that people do not use it as an excuse to medicate children to make them docile, even when they can concentrate just fine. You seem to acknowledge the point which I was trying to drive home by posting that column, which is that medication is serious business for children and one should make sure that it is being used in the interest of the CHILD, not the parents or school system.
I agree completely that meds are being overprescribed, and I think that there are so many interests at work (pharm companies, parents, schools) that it is hard to make sure it is truly in the child's interest. Psychiatrists practice in a field that is closer to advertising than medicine.... in my opinion the quality of antidepressants has drastically declined from the days when they were only prescribed to hospital inpatients (TCA's and MAOI's). Strattera is too new to pass judgment on it, but I can say, comparing it to the TCA nortriptyline, that the TCA is the drug I would prefer to be on for the rest of my life. I need to figure out some way to stay on a stimulant; I am trying exercise to build up some mass so i don't have to take Strattera, which is partially redundant with a TCA anyway, to manage my ADD. I can say categorically that, for me, the TCA, which was essentially discovered by accident, is far superior to the 'rationally developed', 'clean', 'targeted' Strattera (the whole Prozac mythology, which I despise.)I think AD's should only be prescribed to those who need them. The pharm companies have a stake in making as many people need them as possible.
>
> There is also the possibility that there is nothing wrong with people like us; we just have hardware that isn't well-suited for most jobs and life-task scenarios in this society, and certain drugs help us out. This is not the forum to get into the finer points of concept of mental illness, but it suffices to say that Thomas Szasz is a genius, whether or not you agree with him. I personally think he is overzealous, but he could argue any of us into the ground ... Do you not think that his reference to masturbatory insanity was relevant at all?Yes. His analogy is flawed in this respect, however. Masturbation was a violation of a moral code, and the hypothesis that implicated it in the etiology of insanity was in retrospect a miserably transparent and self-serving (pun intended) falsehood. ADD, on the other hand, is a complex of behaviors, and at least involves the right organ for the cause of a mental illness.
One way he scores points is by profiting on our ignorance of what ADD, and for that matter depression, is. But just as I know when I'm depressed, I can feel the inattention oppress me, yet I can observe others whose behavior does not seem affected by this oppression. So I take medication for the condition, in the attempt to emulate those I see whose functioning appears efficient and unimpaired. Can Szasz explain the fatigue, the low threshold for stimulation, the terrible drain it is for me to plan an hour in advance? He might deny that these are symptoms of any underlying disorder. But as he says, names mean nothing. I am distressed by my symptoms. They cause functional impairment in society. I have to live in society, because I don't have ready access to an alternate reality at the moment (maybe before the drugs I did). So I search for remedies. What could Szasz say to that?
poster:zeugma
thread:353129
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040602/msgs/353425.html