Anonymous wrote:The defensiveness for medication on this board is consistent and astounding. For people who are quick to deplore processed food, chemicals, etc., so many are willing to medicate their elementary school children to make them easier to manage and to make school focusing easier.

This is speed. I don’t understand why people don’t embrace CBT, etc because that has lasting effects where Adderall wears off in half a day and the person has not grown their abilities at all. And there are significant side effects.

My ADHD child I manage with therapies, etc and while it isn’t easy for him or me, in the long run it is the only thing that will help him as a lifelong matter.

We have treated DS's ADHD without meds for over 10 years now. It has been a long, hard road. DS is now a junior and we are finally seeing a vast improvement in his ability to self-regulate and in his executive functioning. DS's academic advisor and pediatrician pushed hard for medication in 8/9th grade but his academic advisor recently told me that he is the model for kids with learning differences because he no longer procrastinates and does the things he needs to do without prompting. The therapies made all of the difference. It was extremely difficult, he received academic warnings in 9th grade, but he is likely headed to a top 50 college and is a happy, healthy kid. Our pediatrician and those on this board often repeat the threat that your kid will end up self-medicating if you don't use ADHD medication. That was not true for our son, as best we know -- I do not like how people say that as an absolute truth. Reading about the impacts of medication, I'm actually torn. DS feels like he could have done better in high school with it, and will likely use it in college, but he also thinks there are benefits to being med-free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s all go live on a commune then! That will take the stress out of our lives! No meds!

It's better than drugging our kids. Goodness me.

I'd really love to know how some of this drug-happy parents would react if their kid ended up on meth. The funny thing is that I think most of them would be horrified (as would I). And yet..... same thing, different place it comes from, and it's fine?

There's a major lack of critical thinking here.

It's not the same thing because my child's medication use is being closely monitored by two doctors (psych and ped) and by involved parents who make sure medication is dosed properly and teach complementary behavior modification as well. We teach him, at an age aproriate level, the benefits and risks of medication and the importance of using it properly. And he's getting it from a legal, licensed source so it's not cut with a bunch of random and dangerous crap.

Your blind faith in the pharmaceutical industry astounds me.

You know how 50 years ago people were sending their SN kids off to different institutions to be subjected to shock therapy and other things to 'help' them? Everyone used to do that. The government suggested it, supported it. And now, we know that it was totally the wrong thing to do.

I strongly believe that giving kids speed is going to be one of those thing that in 50 years people will look back at these primitive times and shake their heads at how clueless people were.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s all go live on a commune then! That will take the stress out of our lives! No meds!

It's better than drugging our kids. Goodness me.

I'd really love to know how some of this drug-happy parents would react if their kid ended up on meth. The funny thing is that I think most of them would be horrified (as would I). And yet..... same thing, different place it comes from, and it's fine?

There's a major lack of critical thinking here.

It's not the same thing because my child's medication use is being closely monitored by two doctors (psych and ped) and by involved parents who make sure medication is dosed properly and teach complementary behavior modification as well. We teach him, at an age aproriate level, the benefits and risks of medication and the importance of using it properly. And he's getting it from a legal, licensed source so it's not cut with a bunch of random and dangerous crap.

Anonymous wrote:So your kid has ADHD and what do you do in lieu of “drugging him?”

There's a diet that many people find very effective. (Search for "ADHD diet", it's called Feingold Diet.) It basically removes certain compounds that ADHD kids have been shown scientifically to react badly to. You need to be pretty strict about it though, even just a small bit of the wrong foods can cause a reaction.

In our case, we have our kids on this diet (spoiler: it's a TON of work) and their behavior is good but one of our kids is still a lot more active than other kids. He hasn't started school yet, but we've accepted that we will be homeschooling, because we can see that he just won't be able to sit there like the other kids. We've also accepted that we'll probably be focussing on athletics much more than academics, even though we're quite academically focussed ourselves. He's never going to be someone to sit there for hours and hours and work on detailed problems. But that's okay. It's not what we'd planned or expected for our kids, but we'll figure it out.

We also make sure he has plenty of time to really run around to exhaustion. We noticed that after he does this, he can actually sit and do a puzzle or stuff like that when there's no way he would be able to focus on that otherwise. So we make sure to prioritize this every day. And we packed the TV away and now have a climbing structure in the living room. Would I love to sit on a couch and watch TV? Yeah. But we don't have the space for both and this makes more sense for our family. It's really all about priorities.

Anonymous wrote:You are lucky. I think farm living would be great for our kid. Not an option for us tho

I think the point is that it's not really an easy option for anyone. But some people would do it anyway, because putting their kids on speed is even less of an option.

I think the theme here is that most "ADHD" behaviors are just human variations. Parents turn to performance-enhancing drugs like Adderall because they can't deal with the idea that their DC is imperfect/less than others.

So your kid has ADHD and what do you do in lieu of “drugging him?”

Anonymous wrote:Let’s all go live on a commune then! That will take the stress out of our lives! No meds!

It's better than drugging our kids. Goodness me.

I'd really love to know how some of this drug-happy parents would react if their kid ended up on meth. The funny thing is that I think most of them would be horrified (as would I). And yet..... same thing, different place it comes from, and it's fine?

There's a major lack of critical thinking here.

Let’s all go live on a commune then! That will take the stress out of our lives! No meds!

Why are we pursuing our high stress, high prestige and/or high paying jobs? For our children. So if it's wrong for our children, should we medicate then or change our lives?

Previous poster, that is a great response...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoops... choice... given this adhd dx. Adhd is not just exec fx issues... it’s also emotional regulation challenges etc. while this documentary is correct to help people be mindful of abuse, making it seem so slated is very shaming to parents and adults who benefit from meds. We were not flippant about this and we are both scientists, but I am still human and feel shame and worry after watching something like this (e.g. am I doing the wrong thing? Will he not be able to get off these etc.) this was a tough decision, but we need to go with the data— that these meds can be very helpful for people who have ADHD.

Of course "the data" shows that stimulants can be very helpful for people [with or without ADHD]. You're talking about speed. The same stuff that truckers pop so they can stay awake and drive all night long.

If you want to look at the real data though, the data showing the long term effects of these drugs, then you'll be looking pretty hard because it doesn't exist.

And if you knew you'd really tried everything, and that drugging your child was 100% necessary, you would not feel guilt or shame about it. I'd be willing to bet money that even a "natural" and "healthy" person like yourself has not done a 100% strict special diet for any serious amount of time. And for most parents on this board who laugh at "natural" parents, well, it's even less likely.

FWIW I have a science PhD. We highly value education. We plan/hope for our kids to go to one of the top colleges in the world (we have multiple citizenships) of their choosing. But above all else, we value the health and wellness of our children. We would move to a farm in a heartbeat and homeschool and teach our kids a vocation related to farming or whatever else they could handle before we gave them speed even once, let alone every day. I'm not staying in a rat race that they can't handle and then drugging my kids just so I can throw them in public school and make life more convenient for me.

NP. But what if your kid doesn’t want to be a farmer? If my kid were to decide someday that farming is the lifestyle he wants for himself and he can live that lifestyle without taking medication for his ADHD, fantastic, more power to him. But I don’t want him to be limited like that, I want him to have the same freedom to figure out who he is and what kind of life he wants as a kid without ADHD, and I’m not going to force him into a particular box that may make him miserable just because it allows me to manage my anxiety about the idea of giving him medication.

Anonymous wrote:That’s lovely for you that living on a farm and homeschooling is a viable option.

Most of us don’t have that kind of flexiblity to change completely rearrange life.

We don’t homeschool. But most people can make significant changes if they really want to..you don’t have to have a farm. It is much easier not to do it and grab meds, though,

That’s lovely for you that living on a farm and homeschooling is a viable option.

Most of us don’t have that kind of flexiblity to change completely rearrange life.

You are lucky. I think farm living would be great for our kid. Not an option for us tho