Ritalin

When I was a kid, my father was a big believer in prescribing Ritalin. But, back then it was called a belt.

Some idiot teacher suggested that I needed this stuff once. My mom denounced the teacher as a fool. Thank you for not letting them get me high as a child, mom! To show how much that teacher knew, I have a 3.8 GPA in college right now and as it turns out all I really needed was a little direction and discpline, both of which I got in jumbo quantities in the Marines!

What did all the parents do before Ritalin came around. It's all about the money!!! Now we drug our kids because we suck as a parent. I feel there are very few children who actually need it, all the rest are on it to make up for the poor parenting. It's sad! It takes away their personalities. We are all different and that's a good thing. Let them be individuals. Love & accept them for who they are and now who you WANT them to be. Try herbal remedies or parenting classes instead of taking the easy way out and drugging your children.

Problem with kids? Medicate 'em. Yes, I am being simplistic and sarcastic. . .yes, I am glossing over the kids who are actually being helped. . .but the majority of kids on this junk are being sold a bill of goods by the pharmecuetical industry. The answer is usually not found in a pill. . .

Statistics support that it is underperscribed. It has more research than any other perscription medication for children. Chances of serious complications are less than with antibiotics. Research supports that it works very well. Yes, there are many arguuments stemming from the church of scientology against its use, but, while people are of course allowed their "religious" opinion, medication should be judged by society based on scientific evidense. The dangers of lack of treatment, inaction, are robust. Untreated ADHD as well as other disorders and experiances permenantly alter the brain in destructive ways.

Over prescribed Nazi medicine, pure and simple. -- Doctors push this junk on unwitting parents who are too lazy, stupid or overextended to tend to their own childs psychological developement. I've also read that 40 percent of children in foster care are prescribed this stuff. Many of the kids who take these drugs usually end up engaging in risky and criminal behavior in their teen and adult years. The FDA, really needs to take a good hard look at these drugs and consider banning them or limiting it to those who actually benifit from them ( probably not many). If you can't handle a bratty kid then you should probably not be having them. I mean honestly? Aren't kids supposed to be 'hyper'?

I feel that this drug is over-prescribed to a dangerous point. Kids act up and get hyper (and even I at 20, get hyper and bouncy sometimes!) and I've seen a kid in my family look like a zombie on this stuff. Sure, maybe a few kids do need it, but not to the number that I see it prescribed.

Doctors irresponsibly over-prescribe Ritalin to millions of children every year. Essentially, it's a stimulant in the same category as cocaine. Long term experiments seem to indicate that it offers no permanent therapeutic value for any diseases. Indeed, attention deficit disorder, which is the disorder it seeks to cure, may not even exist. To top it off, there are some negative side effects to Ritalin as well. Truth of the matter is that there needs to be a wider debate about psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. Many believe that all of their problems will be miraculously solved by popping a pill. Medicine in this country is marketed intensely by the pharmaceutical industry, especially to doctors who then sell these drugs for a very high price. Most of these drugs do nothing more than alleviate symptoms. They treat, but they don't cure the underlying problem. And more often then not they have very bad side effects.

I have adult ADD and four children ,none of which have it, so far. I take 10mg once in the morning and it makes things easier, to a point. There's a difference between lack of concentration and laziness and you really have to be carefully evaluated to find out which it is. Children act crazy if allowed to and proper disciple from the beginning is what teaches a child control, not a pill.

I had a friend in high school who had ADD and his Ritalin was also government-subsidized. He never bothered taking them so he usually gave them to me. Man, if you don't really need them they can be a lot of fun. I took a bunch at once and felt like I could rearrange the planets using just my mind. I could take a copy of War and Peace and turn the book upside down and read it perfectly through a mirror, my powers of concentration were soooo intense. They also make you hyper alert without giving you the jitters like caffeine of ephedrine. Highly recommended if you can get your abusive hands on them.

My son spent most of his first few years a very frustrated and angry young man. It seemed like no matter how hard he tried to learn something, it always ended up driving him to shear anger in most cases. After examining his diet, and trying everything possible in regards to searching for any allergies or reactions he might have been having to the food. We also tried eliminating other things, which also didn’t offer any relief for this precious child. After undergoing extensive testing both physically and psychologically, it was determined that he had Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity along with a slight learning disability. Our doctor prescribed Ritalin a chemical that is a stimulant in those that do not suffer from this aliment and some others that it might help. I started my research and did find that there were a lot of cases where kids seem to be over medicated if they are not monitored properly. At the time, my son attended a public school system, so monitoring ... Read more

I was on Ritalin for 3 years. It stopped working after 3 months. Why was I taking it for so long? Because my doctor wouldn't listen to me until I took myself off of it and refused to take anymore. It's overprescribed, and too many people view it as a wonderdrug when it's not. Granted, it did work for me, for awhile. But when you have to keep upping the doseage to keep the same level of performance, there's obviously something wrong.

Although there may be some legitimate cases for the use of Ritalin for some,I also agree that this drug is way overused. the state I live in has even been targeted for one of the worst states in the nation for it's overuse in the schools.I knew quite a few kids who are on Ritalin.Sadly part of the reason for the overuse is as other posters have said parents and teachers no longer have that right to discipline kids. Goodness you cannot even take their arm and make them sit anymore without being accused of child abuse. SADSADSAD! Now we have too many kids who sit still but act like zombies. I do believe there is such a thing as ADD ADHD, but some of these kids are being wrongly diagnosed. Ritalin has become too much of a cure all for getting kids to sit.and behave.

No drug is bad in and of itself, especially not this drug, it's fine as long as parents keep a close watch over the dosage and little Timmy isn't snorting it in the bathroom.

takes a kid's most precious thing.... his/her childhood away!!!! that's all i could say... me and my brother have been on it and it messes up and absloutly shatters a kids life!

I have had an ADHD son, who had to repeat the 3rd grade, and couldn't pass anything in school, because of severe attention deficit, and hyperactivity. Finally, after the school counsellor discusion, and examination by 2 different doctors, he was put on Ritalin at the age of 7, and has never looked back in his education! He "grew" out of needing Ritalin by the time he was 16, and recently graduated from High School. He has just turned 19 and about to go off to College! Without Ritalin, it would be very hard to imagine such a successful future for this wonderful, loving, happy, well-balanced young man!

Seems to me that unfit but well-meaning parents just use this crap as a substitute for a good ol' fashioned (and needed) ass-whoopin'.

THIS CRAP SUCKS LIKE HELL!!! I was on the damned crap for so long that I cant even remember a week ago, that crap affects your memory, your thoughts, your way of thinking your attitude and the way you act. I swear, its worse than drugs. I'd get massive nosebleeds from the crap, couldnt concentrate, and the doctor actually believed this crap is supposed to help hyperactivity and ADD? I think not!

From what I've heard about it, its basically a substitute for parenting. Rather than sit an antsy kid down and make him stay there, just give him a pill and it'll all be better. Touche' PBeavr.

Gosh folks, could the large percentage of negative votes for BeckyS's compelling argument be from just a few of the thousands of you out there who find it less complicated to just dope those kiddies up than deal with the reality of child rearing? I'm sure there are some legitimate cases, but the obvious overuse of this drug more than any other on the list really shows to what depths our society has sunk. Dicipline through chemistry. If you don't like the way kids behave either learn to deal or have yourself neutered. All answers are NOT in pill form. Geez.

Why is this under the health & beauty category? Ritalin (or is it coccaine?) does not make you healthy nor does it make you beautiful. In fact it makes you pretty damn ugly and a drug addict. When I was a kid we had recess 3 times a day during school hours so we could unleash our bottled-up energy now we use drugs to make the kids behave. It will be a cold day in hell when I put my kids on this stuff. This is just another attempt by the liberals to put the government in control of our lives.

Several of my good friends were made to take ritalin to stay in school. I could promise you from witnessing the side effects first hand, that Ritalin screwed up their lives even more. Mentally, they were just not all there.