Yes

4 of 11

by Rixta Francis

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There are three different reasons why certain diagnoses are made more often. First of all of course some disease simply become more common (e.g. diabetes or AIDS). Second reason can be that diagnostic tools are better, so that it's easier for doctors to put the right label on a patient. Good examples of that are Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, which in the past doctors assumed to be psychological. But there is a third reason and that's the one that plays a big role in many cases: the pharmaceutical industry has developed a new medicine and wants to sell it. Considering these businesses spend ten times more money for marketing than for research it's not strange that the effects are so well known. Examples are cholesterol lowering medicines, anti-depressants and medicines against ADD.

When I was at primary school (about 30 years ago), there were children that could easily concentrate on a task and there were children that were easily distracted and talked all the time or wanted to leave their desks when it wasn't allowed. But teachers just told those children to keep their mouths shut, stay at their desk and do their work and usually sooner or later the work was done. Maybe a little later than their classmates that could concentrate better, but nobody made an issue of it. Teachers knew that all kids are different and that's it.

But times have changed. At most primary schools the classes have grown considerably, giving the teachers less time for those kids that have some problems. On top of that their task has increased enormously, as nowadays teachers are supposed to do a lot of the work that actually should be done by the parents. The parents are supposed to raise their children, not the schoolteachers. But as more and more parents have two jobs they expect the school to provide for all those things they don't have time for themselves.

As a result children that are busy and can't concentrate very well become a problem for the teacher. There is not enough time for all children, let alone they can spend extra time with those kids that need some extra attention. But the pharmaceutical industry has offered the perfect solution to this "problem". Simply give the children pills to keep them calm and they don't ask for any extra attention anymore. We live in a society where it's so normal to pop a pill for whatever problem we have, that this seems to be completely acceptable.

But it is not right! Of course there are children with ADD and they often are helped a lot by taking Ritalin or one of the other drugs. But before they should take these pills they should be seen by a psychiatrist who would do extended testing to see if this kid has ADD or is just busy and has problems concentrating. This used to be the practice, but considering how many kids take these pills I think that most of them have never seen a psychiatrist and never have had any more than some superficial tests.

I must add to this that it's true that children nowadays have much bigger concentration problems than in my generation. This is not ADD and can't be solved with pills. It's caused by watching television. In most television programs the picture changes at least every three seconds (check it yourself, it's true!). When children watch a lot of television they get used to quick changes, which makes it very hard for them to concentrate long on one task. They get easily distracted and many can't even read one chapter of a book without interruption. It's so easy to put your children in front of the television when you are busy, but you do them seriously harm for their education and future. So turn off that time wasting machine and let your children play games or read a book. Once they are used to that again their behavior at school will improve considerably, without the need to take pills.

And if their teacher then asks what you did to change their behavior, simply share the secret. Maybe other parents can be convinced of the same and within a year a teacher might have a classroom full of children that can concentrate on a task again for longer than three minutes. And most of the kids that take pills can throw them out. In many ways that would make much healthier kids with a much better future.

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