ADHD | ADD Alternatives to Drugs

The more I read about learning disabilities the more confusing it gets. I'm starting to think I should just let him be who he is - they can put a label on him but that won't change who he is.
All I can do is learn as much as I can to help him. He's a happy little boy, I want him to stay that way.
Again, his teacher suggested I should try him on medication, but the more I read about these meds used for ADHD, ADD, etc the more I'm convinced NOT to drug him.
After all that's what it is - a drug, schedule 2 controlled substance very similar to cocaine.

Hmmm... makes you think...

Extensive scientific literature spanning over 30 years of research unequivocally indicates that both methylphenidate (Ritalin) and amphetamine (Adderall and Dexedrine) have high abuse liabilities:

* They are self-administered by laboratory animals and humans;

* They produce discriminative stimulus effects similar to cocaine in laboratory animals and humans;

* They will substitute for each other and for cocaine in a number of paradigms in both animal and human subjects;

* Chronic high dose administration of either drug in animals produces psychomotor stimulant toxicity including weight loss, stereotypic movements and death; and

* In clinical studies, they produce behavioral, psychological, subjective, and reinforcing effects similar to cocaine.

In more simplistic terms, this data means that neither animals nor humans can tell the difference between cocaine, amphetamine, or methylphenidate when they are administered the same way at comparable doses. In short, they produce effects that are nearly identical.

Read this eye-opening article from the DEA

"Drugs approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pose certain health risks, and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instructed drug makers to put additional health warnings on the drug labels.

The drugs mentioned in the warning include Adderall, Concerta, Daytrana, Dexedrine, Focalin, Metadate, Methylin, Ritalin, and Strattera.

The risks include adverse cardiovascular and psychiatric symptoms. A small number of patients with underlying serious heart conditions on normal doses of ADHD drugs have suffered strokes and heart attacks, in some cases fatal, FDA reports. The adverse psychiatric events include hearing voices, becoming manic, or becoming suspicious for no reason..."

Is it really worth the risk? If you're a parent to a child with ADHD please, I urge you, do your research before you make any decisions to put your child on drugs.

read the rest of this article

There is a practice that has been going on the past several decades that has frightening consequences and causes drug addiction for many. The mental health doctors have been diagnosing certain children with what they call mental disorders and have been prescribing drugs for these children.

These types of what the experts call a disability are attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, minimal brain dysfunction, learning disability, developmental reading and writing disorder. Failing to recognize that all children are different and each has their own personality traits, these experts have the idea, if a child does not perform exactly as they feel they should, or the same way other children do, then that child has some form of mental disability that requires a drug to take care of the problem.

Some children as young as three or four years old are being prescribed a drug to alleviate their so-called mental disorder. As these drugs can be addictive, we are allowing our children to be started on the road to addiction.

This should alarm all of us to the fact that drugs should never be introduced to anyone, especially our children. Unfortunately, this is not the case as there are millions of children in America who are being given the most dangerous and addictive drugs on the face of the earth. They are not illegal drugs, but perfectly legal through prescription. These drugs have a mind altering affect, in addition to an addictive affect on these children.

Parents and teachers alike have been persuaded to believe there is something wrong with a child, if their school performance is not what is expected, if they are overactive kids, or if their attention span is shorter than what is considered normal. A drug is then prescribed for the child to take, promising this drug will take care of the problem. Many times this is done by convincing the parents the child has some type of learning disability.

So many are asking why there are so many school shootings nowadays. Kids are taking guns to school and shooting other students and teachers. This type of occurrence was unheard of twenty years ago, so why has it become so prevalent in the past several years? If you trace back the history of the school shooters, almost to a person, you will find they were all on some type of drug and many of them have been drugged since a very early age. Since the drugs they have been taking are mind altering drugs, is it any wonder they would commit the acts they have?

Ritalin is the most 'popular' drug given to children for the so-called mental disability they are suffering. Teachers have been drawn into the notion that unless they have their Ritalin kids, they will be unable to teach. There was a time back in the middle 1990s when there was a shortage of Ritalin and many teachers felt they could not conduct a classroom without their 'Ritalin kids'.

To understand how dangerous Ritalin is, we first have to know what it is. It is what's called a speed drug or an upper. In the body, it performs the same as cocaine or amphetamines and its affects last longer in the body than cocaine or amphetamines, while still being just as potent.

While all the time promoting Ritalin as an effective treatment for learning disorders, no evidence has ever been found to prove this theory, not even by the manufacturer of Ritalin itself. They make no claim the drug has ever helped in a child's learning.

Knowing what we do about drug addiction and its devastating effect on not only the addict, but society as a whole, why would anyone want to start drugging children? The answer to that is easy - just take a look at the profits of the drug companies!

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Addictions

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Michael Russell - EzineArticles Expert Author