Posted by johnLA on March 13, 2014, at 19:55:08
In reply to Doctor: 'ADHD Doesn't Exist, Drugs Do More Harm..., posted by Ronnjee on March 12, 2014, at 15:24:11
i'll jump in...
i think the 'truth' lies in the middle.
i taught high school (grades 9 thru 12) for close to 30 years.
this is just my experience.
my 1st ten years was at a 'inner-city' school here in los angeles. not many kids on meds at all. many came from very difficult circumstances. this was the 80's/early 90's. wrong colors in your neighborhood and you could be in big trouble.
many of the kids at this inner-city school struggled academically, emotionally, etc. but, either due to lack of knowledge, funding, culture, etc. for whatever reason, the community that these kids came from, one just did not see the amount of medication i was going to see at my next school. we did lose several students due to gang related tragedies. if i remember correctly; 6 students.
my next school that i was at for almost 20 years was a very different; a very upper class community. the amount of kids on psych drugs was unbelievable. i am not saying this in a critical way. it was just so different than my previous school. i think there are many reasons why this was the case. one of the main reasons i think is the parents had the means to have their kid 'evaluated' by a psychiatrist. the parents would often search for answers as to why their child was not 'succeeding' academically, socially, etc. my gut feeling was many of these kids were needlessly drugged. no problem with what colors you wore at this school. but, we lost about 10 kids to suicide. that never happened at my first school. sad.
the parents at the second school (not all) had a very hard time accepting that there kid was just 'average.' anxiety, depression, adhd, and much more seemed sometimes to be the 'reason' the kid wasn't succeeding.
these are powerful medications. dangerous too. mix that in with a kid who's brain is still developing and there is a good chance of disaster.
again, i am in the middle here on this. but, what are we doing to these kids for down the road?
much harder being a kid today. throwing drugs at them in many cases i feel makes it even harder...
poster:johnLA
thread:1062349
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140307/msgs/1062437.html