Try reading too the one about i think Say No To Ritalin.
Also the book The Wildest Colts Make The Best Horses. There is also an ADHD doctor here in Canuckstan,he is actually one of the more reasonable.... You can see his website, You can also go find some of his books. http://www.caer.com/
If it were me, I would avoid and activally boybot andything by Ned Hallowell. He was my doctor for a time in my teens. I would also avoid a number of other writers, who write about us like we are objects comparing us to animals and the literally retarded. who don't want to stigmatize, but there is really nothing good about people labled this way.
I would also start looking into the methodology of diagnosing ADHD, and how subjective the whole practice is. I would also, look into the organic factors of ADHD. (It is interesting that after over 25 years they have no organic evidence of any difference in the chemistry, functioning and electricity, or size/shape, that they claim is the origin and reason. It is for the reason of 0 evidence that the nifty book of mental disorders calls it a 'disorder' rather than a 'disease.' I don't feel sick.
I would also like to thank you, as a victim of the experts, trying to learn scientifically about about ADHD and the science... My entire teenage years were made up of a campaign to medicated me. I was never hyper. I have always been rational and reasonable. I hate homework, which was why they decided i needed medication. I felt, it was a violation of my ccivil rights. I went to school all day, teachers will always tell you i was a joy to have in class. They just didn't understand as i understood everything why i didn't do the homework.... I gave 7 hours of my day to society.... I wasn't even payed for my contribution. I behaved beautifully.... wwas pleasant.... and obedient.... I got a 5 minute break in a day over 6 hours long, my working counter part would have been entitled to atleast a 15 minute break every 4 hours. So yeh, when i got home, I wanted to read about stuff that actually interested me... Sadly had i studied those additional 5 or 6 hours every day doing homework.... I would never have been able to do *anything* that i wanted, and already i felt i was missing out on too much. These experts encouraged my parents, who had no problem aside from wishing i would do the homework, to use any tactic to force pills down my throat. I was beaten till i took the pill, held down, jaw, forced open pill inserted nose held water poured in my mouth till i was forced to swallow, Extorted denied something important to me unledss i took the pill. Every 2ish months the kind of medicine would change. The dosage was rarely played with much... It was just 1 bad drug after another....Sometimes 2 or 3 all at once. Ritalin, made me violent, if that dosage had been any higher only the goddess knows if i would have hurt someone or killed someone... Violence if you ask my family, is completely out of character. I rarely even raise my voice. And the only person i have ever actually hit, was someone in the act of torturing a cat that later died. I am not sorry. And i would do it again. I think most people would. Atleast most people deserving the title of human... I tried to verbally get the cat first... And would have kept trying verbally but, there really was not time. Aside from that and violent feelings while on ritalin.... I almost never yell.... I am a polite dutiful daughter. taught manners. My behavior is considered good by everyone i know. All my teachers in and out of school loved me. I was calm, kind of dreamy, with interests outside the realm of standard academics available through my highschool. I want to thank you... We need more parents like you. We need parents who look for alternatives, and we need parents, to not be bullied and to not allow themselves to be terrorized by the experts. My parents held out till i was a teenager, but the fear mongering just got worse and worse..... They finally gave in... My mother hated it though.... I think, it might have tortured her even more than me... I have been on paxil, zoloft, ritalin, depacote, klonopin..... etc.... That is when i stopped counting... Teenagers, who are viewed as rational by parents and teachers, who are not delusional or a danger to themselves or others, should have the right to decline the medication pushed by the experts. I am nearly crying i am so happy to come across a parent like you that is willing to follow your son's lead by looking for alternatives. I wish there were an award for good parenting, for respecting a child's right to decide what goes into their body. Parents like you are few, but every one of you gives me hope. What was done to me, needs to be stopped. The practice does continue... Patents, don't realize many schools and experts actually receive financial compensation from the drug companies for every perscription they are responsible for aquiring. Even the doctor who named ADHD in the 80s, is horrified by some of the trends. He has said, It is very real... I dunno i am on the fence about it... But he thinks it is real, he says though, that it is severely over diagnosed, and even more over medicated than it is over diagnosed. In that, when he named it, drug treatment was supposed to be a last desperate attempt when all else had failed. It was NEVER supposed to be a standard part of treatment or of diagnosis. Even the UN has issued statements of horror about the amount of medicating americans do to their children. According to them, America, uses aproximately 90% of the world's supply of ritalin. The rest of the world diagnoses ADHD, about 80% less in most countries and maybe 50%ish less in uk. The rest of the world, combined, uses that remaining 10ish percent of ritalin. That is scary. Atleast i think it is.
Don't think i am anti medicine... I am anti medicating people who are not dangerous and exhibiting problems that are keeping them from doing a large portion of the things they should be doing. Esample, i would understand being medicated in my teens, had i been bad at school and or at home.... Had i hadd severe social problems, had i not been working part time for 2 years at the same place.... Had i been getting D's and F's.... Had i not been getting certified as an herbalist, had i not had 4 music teachers and classes outside of school. Had i not been riding horses in ho9rse shows and taking lessons.... I did many of these things all at once.... While maintaining a C to C+ average.... At some points i took 2 music classes a week and 1 riding lesson so i could do herbalism etc... i played around with all that and some years i did one thing rather than another, but in that 4 year period that is what i had going on. Yet, i was medicated, for the crime of being a good student all day in school, but deciding homework was unconstitutional.
For many years just the mention of mental health professionals made me turn pale, and shake in terror, for over 5 years i would vommit every time i passed a therapists office in the car. Finally i had my own problems as an adult and decided, i would rather be on a drug for a little while, and out of control and manic aws all the drugs had made me in my teens. So i went to see someone... You can't imagine the terror facing that.... My doctor, is actually not interested in studying anyone. He is not an adhd expert though he is familiar with it and feels i do have it along with some other things. He finds that the doctors my parents asked me to see periodically because they worried about me.... And as i said i am a dutiful daughter.... They all said i did not have ADHD and that i was infact, bi polar.... But i have never been manic a day in my life EXCEPT while heavily dosed in my teens. So i didn't believe it... My current doctor says that he would actually go to court and say that those other doctors performed malpractice in using such a diagnosis. He was really really great. He knew what was wrong with me in 90 minutes and it is multiple things. He then asked me to give him 1 more hour of my time and to pop 1 pill.... And we would know for sure.... Not months of bad drugs with crap side affects.... I did what he asked, he was reasonable. And i needed some help, and 1 pill is not a commitment.... It changed my entire life. He changed my life. It was like a fog cleared. But i went there not out of duty and obligation to satiate my parents, and no one forced me to take anything. I was respected, and encouraged to think about it and to make my own decision... My free will was not trampled, nor was i victimized or made to feel i had no control of my body or mind. Though my mother was present (She knows certain history that i was too young at the time to know) He did not in any way promote fear, or pressure her to pressure me. I decided i could trust him so far as 1 pill went. I am against the forced medication of rational people. I am not against properly dosed medication when other avenues have been exhausted and the person to be medicated chooses to be medicated. All the same, i still feel the lower the dose the better... And the more we can avoid medicating, especially children the better.
There are several things we don't yet understand about these drugs. The most important is that, we don't know what affect medication has on brain development. Brain development pretty much starts day 1 and continues through to the mid to late 20s when one's brain is finally fully formed. Which again, i find terrifying.... Who knows what issues i will have or diseases due to the forced medicating?
Lastly, i am not sure, what drug/s your son has been taking... But Ritalin for example affects the dopamine system. The affect is the same as that of cocaine, according to recent scientific tests... The only real difference seems to be the severity or the vollume almost of the affect. Ritalin has a stronger affect. So coming off of such a not so mild stimulant, is going to mess with grades and mood and energy level.... Drugs for depression have their own factors when coming off of them. I would recommend you read about all that...
Once again, thank you for giving me hope and i hope i am of some use and help. Good luck!
