If you truly were as "educated" as you try to make out you`d know that being defensive is a dead give-away.
That is my last post on a thread that was interesting to start out with, but has ended dismally in the mire.
Continue, enlightened minds.
As some old writer once wrote ... "Methinks he doth protest too much".
If anyone is interested there is an excellent book available called the Anatomy of an Epidemic
Magic Bullets, psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mnetal Illness in America. A very rfevealing read
This is about the severely mentally ill though, I think there was also an expose recently in the UK about the handicapped, truly gruesome.
Oh I am going to cry now...
Hey Smokey I dropped out a couple of days ago for the same reason but decided to drop back in as I had some time to pass.
I have had this type of discussion on other lists and have run into the same responses. But I understand. I very good friend had a son who was on ritalin for about 9 years. My friend would get very defensive if someone would question his choice of giving his son Ritalin. His son decided he no longer wanted to take ritalin because he found that he was not in control of his own life. The were many side effects. The ritalin did work but more for the parents and the teachers as the son was quietened down. Our society has gotten to the point that we take medications to calm down, speed up etc. In my opinion ADD can be a gift. Yes, these people can be different but what is wrong with this.
19 years ago when I moved to switzerland no one knew about ADD but now everyone is an expert.
Yes, a lot of misdiagnosis just to quieten the kids down.
In the short run the medication will help a child behave better but not on the long run.
No this book is not about the severely mental ill.
A comment on the jacket of the book
In the Anatomy of an Epidemic investigative reporter Robert Whitaker cuts trhoug flawed science, greed, and outright lies to reveal that the drugs hailed as a cure for mental disorders instead worsen them over the long term. But Whitakers investigation also offers hope for the future : solid science backs nature's way of healing our mental ills through time and human relationships
Daniel Dorman MD Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
UCLA School of Medicine and author of Dante's Cure:A Journey out of madness
I have to declare myself an sceptic...I am wondering if this Whitaker guy is a scientologist?
According to his Wiki page he is a medical writer with ties to MIT & Harvard Medical School. His writing on Psychiatric research put him in the running for a Pulitzer prize (he came second). No mention of Scientlology .
Yeah I got the same info from different sources...I am just wondering though
Looks like he is anti-scientology. The quote below is taken from an article in Psychatric news.
Yes, this was the first line of attach by the "sceptics" This was his second book. He really did his research. The book blew me away
For those who are interested
Thanks for the quote
I would strongly argue that people have changed and massively.
Our basic gene structure has not changed. However, when you step back, we are only 9x% different from a fly, monkey or dolphin and probably <99% different from each other.
Yet, unless you are an identical twin you will never be 100% the same as someone else.
Then throw in the environmental factors, and the twins separated at birth studies which show how one twin who smokes, doesn't exercise etc. is way different to his/her "healthy" twin.
Then throw in the wild card that no one really knew about - the science of gene expression - affected by our environment - and shown to influence how babies develop and differentiate in the womb when carried by their mother who experiences stress X, Y or Z.
Not different? Couldn't be more different.
Then throw in the life-style changes. My grandparents died in late 1990s/early 2000s, having been born at the turn of the last century. The world couldn't have and indeed hasn't changed more than in the past 100 years.
The stresses and strains on our lives are immesurably different. This is bound to have an impact on our bodies.
That's just the way it is - for better or worse. As a race, we've become a society that needs a pill. Got a headache, take a pill. Got the runs, take a pill. Feeling low, take a pill. Need some sleep, take a pill.
Drs don't particularly want to prescribe, but patients come to them wanting answers. Patients often don't like to hear, "well there's nothing we can do, you'll just have to wait until it (e.g. a viral infection) clears up". People want something... anything... just something so that they can feel they've done something about it.
The pharma industry is often the "bad boy". Accused of making up diseases and then providing a cure (or worse only treating the symptoms). Well yes. To some extent that is true. However, the flip side is what else do you expect? People aren't going to plough millions into developing a drug that does, er... well nothing actually.
That's my 5 raps.
Ahhh ... ok ..... I take back what I said ... I`m back. But simply because when there are actual intelligent postings to read it takes my mind off work I should be doing ... nothing scientific of course, just stuff like cleaning the cellar, washing out cupboards....ironing shirts ... laundering money, etc...
Maybe some real talent is being subdued with all this medication? Did I read it here?..or somewhere else..?..That Elvis Presley was a candidate for ADD medication? Lucky for us the tablets hadn`t been invented in those days!
Imagine a baby Gorilla (or any other primate) suffering from Attention Deficit ..... when little learner primate doesn`t listen to instructions and obey it gets its bottom smacked (in the old fashioned way, by Mama) - so that it learns to obey - to enable it to survive as it grows up.
The attitude being developed lately in youngsters is that "someone else" will solve their problems - when their boss terminates their apprenticship - that they are not responsible enough to handle life in the workplace - without medication to dull their enquiring minds - or to slot them into the cattle grid.
That is, quite simply, nonsence ! I hope your doctor's knowledge of medicine is better than his kinowledge of the health system !! A disabled persons medical bills are paid for by their normal medical insurer.
Smoky, while you may wish to post observations about your opinions and anecdotes from n=1 cases, there's not much that can be done about it, but to bleat foul play because another poster has suggested what you say is not supported by the scientific literature is hardly going to reinforce your position.
As an aside, there is plenty of evidence to show that bipolar patients are highly creative - in their mannic phases - but that's little use if the throw themselved off a cliff in their exuberance or under a train in their depression. Furhermore studies have show that their are more productive on average when medicated than when not. Finally there's an interesting correlation with bipolar patients and artists (across different media) suggestion that there's a higher proportion of fragile egos amongst this population...
Anyway back to ADHD, as said previously it is a spectrum of disease. For some simple behaviour modification is enough. For others treatment is needed. For some it will work, for others the side effects will outweigh the benefits.
LOL
Yes exactly that gives the power to detect errrr hold on let me calculate oh yeah nothing
I love math jokes.