Should Ritalin, which is a stimulant be used to help cope Attention Deficit Disorder. Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD is a neuro biological disorder. “Neurobiological” refers to the structure and functions of part of the brain. People with ADD may have imbalances or differences in the chemicals used by the brain to control activity, attention, motor skills and other aspects of behavior. Ritalin () belongs to the class of drugs known as stimulants, which is considered a class II drug. It is essentially a form of speed.
People with ADD tend to dislike people telling them what to do, and are very independent people. If you tell a child he is “bad” often he will most likely become bad. Tell her she’s “brilliant” and she will strive to achieve brilliance. ADD is a hereditary condition and it affects 25 million individuals in the U. S. ADD has many symptoms that would consider you having it If your attention span is short, but can come intensely focused for long periods of time, poor planner: disorganized and impulsive, distorted sense of time: unaware of how long it will take to do something, impatient, has difficulty following directions, daydreamer and lacking in the social graces.
There are definitely other ways to help ADD with out using a medication; you have natural options that are available for you to try which I believe to be the best options: Environment the next step, cleaned up the boy’s environment. Limit the amount of television watched (encourage educational for shows and discourage the violent shows) cut down on the amount of sugar intake as well as caffeine. No longer allow red dye products and have cut down on the amount of dairy products they consume. Professional Counseling Allow an outside party to look at all aspects of the ADD problem and worked to come up with solutions together. Sessions with the counselor included structured testing and evaluation, hearing and sight testing, as well as emotional evaluation. Parenting Technique The last approach we have been using is a parenting technique called ‘Love & Logic.’ 1 This program allows they boys to make decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions.
You don’t always have to turn to a drug when there is a problem sometimes it’s best not too. Ritalin is not actually a drug that helps you, it is temporary and it wears right off estimating from the amount of milligrams pertained per day. I think that it is very cruel for medical doctors and psychiatrist to just throw a pill or medication to some one to make their job ten times easier. Doctors need to take more time and also a better look at these people that they are diagnosing with this disorder. It is important to note, the majority of children who are taking Ritalin today do not need to be on the drug. Many have been misdiagnosed and put on Ritalin without looking at the whole picture.
These children are being incorrectly treated and medicated, and the real causes of their problems go unsolved. There are many potentially damaging side effects to Ritalin and yet most parents don’t know what else to do except to give their child the medication. I believe it Has been a band-aid fix to an old age problem of ‘kids being kids.’ The sad part to this whole situation is that we as a nation are telling our children ‘DARE’ to say NO to drugs, but say, ‘OKAY’ to Ritalin. Remember, the kids that are on Ritalin today will run our country tomorrow.
Many observers have concluded that our schools and our families are failing to meet the needs of our children in a variety of ways. By diagnosing and drugging our children, we shift blame for the problem from our social institutions and ourselves as adults and positive people to the relatively powerless children in our care. We harm our children by failing to identify and to meet their real educational needs for better prepared teachers, more teacher- and child-friendly classrooms, come to find out there main reason for giving these children Ritalin comes from them not having enough teachers or time to deal with them in the classroom. At the same time, when we diagnosis and drug our children, we avoid facing critical issues about educational reform. In effect, we drug the children who are signaling the need for reform, and force all children into conformity with our bureaucratic systems. Finally, when we diagnose and drug our children, we dis empower ourselves as people.
While we may gain momentary relief from guilt by imagining that the fault lies in the brains of the children, ultimately we undermine our ability to make the necessary adult interventions that our children need. We literally become bystanders in the lives of our children. It is time to reclaim our children from this false medical approach. I applaud people who have the courage to refuse to give stimulants to their children and who, instead, attempt to identify and to meet their genuine needs in the school, home, and community.