Are drugs for treating attention deficit disorder being over-prescribed to children today?

Yes

by RNay

Created on: April 02, 2010

Being a mother of a son that was diagnosed with ADD gives a completely different perspective than that which you would see on a television commercial. My son went through a series of tests for nearly two years to rule out anything such as hearing loss, difficulties with his eyes or any other disability that may have otherwise been a problem for his difficulties in school. This story tells of a struggle between a school system, the medical system and the system of good old fashion parenting and understanding.

After everything was ruled out and my son was diagnosed as being completely healthy, the schools and psychologists ran a series of tests that checked to see if he had a learning disability and/or emotional trauma that would cause him to have a lack of attention or other emotional disturbances. It was discovered that he had a slight learning disability and based on the tests they did, he was also diagnosed with ADD. We were sent to the doctor to see what type of pharmaceuticals may be appropriate for my son so that he would be able to cope and learn better while in school.

First, he was put on Ritalin, then Concerta and then another drug. After about a year of medications and trying different ones (to find the "right" one), I got a report card from my son's school that showed he had only earned 38% in all his classes. How could this be? The medication was supposed to be helping him and his grades had actually did a huge dive. The previous year, my son had been in the 98 percentile for the math scores in all of California.

Instantly, I decided that my son was not a guinnee pig and I no longer wanted him to take medication. My son and I sat and discussed whether this would be an appropriate decision and he agreed that he did not want to live on medication. We did much research together and learned that his ADD could be monitored and the symptoms could be decreased through many different avenues.

A proper diet and constant monitoring of things such as sleep. sugar intake and emotional status greatly improved how he behaved. He was also monitored for his extra curricular activities. For example, if he were to play video games for more than 20 minutes on any given day, he was more hyper. Conversly, if he were to take the dog for a long walk or ride his skate board for an hour and get exercise, he was more relaxed and able to concentrate better. He also needed to be monitored more closely when doing things like homework. Instead of doing an hour of homework at one time, he needed to know that he got a break in between. He could do 20 minutes now, take a break to walk the dog and get some sunshine, then go back to do 20 more minutes. For a child with ADD the perception of time is different than someone without that ADD.

At home, it appeared that he was greatly improving once off his medication, but at school it was a different story. The school had called me and suggested that my son was having great difficulty paying attention and they nearly insisted that he be put back on medication. This made me angry as I had already seen the improvements at home with the extra monitoring. The next day, I decided to go to the class and just "sit in" on his class to see what type of environment he was learning in.

To my surprise, my son was seated at the back of the class full of students that ALL seemed to have ADD. The teacher seemed to have such a lack of control over the students and it appeared that they were not being directed as they should have been. So right away, I called a meeting with the principle, the school psychologist and his teacher. We brain stormed about what would work best for my son and came up with tons of solutions.

First, he no longer sits at the back of the classroom as there is too much to look at in front of him. He is seated at the front of the classroom so that all he has to pay attention to is the teacher. He is taken out of the classroom to a quieter room for test taking. He is also given a notebook that the teacher signs off on daily so that I can see his progress for that day. As all this stuff happened my son was in elementary school. He is now in his last year of high school and has not been on medication since 3rd grade. He will graduate in 3 months and is on his way to a fantastic career. My son is well aware of his diagnosis. He is well aware of the ways to combat the difficulties he has and he advocates for himself because that is what he was taught by his mother. It is a process that took a long time, but something that he would still be struggling with had we just masked the problem with medication.

We went back to the way things were done in the good ole days, when there was no such thing as ADD and Ritalin. We found out his learning style, catered to the needs of the child (which by the way is the parent AND the teachers duties) and we monitored and discussed progress with the child on a daily basis - sometimes on an hourly basis.

For some children, I am sure medication is a necessity, just as a diabetic may need to take insulin - some students need Ritalin. My experience is that it is easier to just put a child on medication so NOT to deal with a behavior rather than take the time to cater to the needs of the child. Yes, it is harder to do it the natural way (without medication), but it can be done. Before a parent makes the decision to put their child on medication, check all the other avenues that may help the child before medication. It should be a last resort (as ADD cannot be diagnosed through blood work or a simple test .......it is really just a guess by a set of frustrated doctors and teachers that don't have the knowledge or the time to deal with children that are higher maintenance than others). It is the parents responsibility for parents to be advocates for their children. Medication should never be the first choice. Find out the child's learning style (for example, my son learns visually - my other son learns with his hands and actually doing things, some children learn by reading, etc)

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