This week in class we discussed Ritalin and it's skyrocketed usage in our country. After reading the section on the book about it, I couldn't believe how dramatically the use of it has risen. For a few reasons, I have always seen Ritalin as an unnecessary evil. I feel that it is a good drug in theory, but it gets used in the wrong sense much too often to be safe. For example, my freshman year here at Alma, one of my friends (who I won't name) had a really long paper to write for the next day and it was getting to be really last minute so one of her other friends had ADD and had Ritalin that she sold to her. I think this is a prime example of how this drug gets used in the wrong way and although it can help healthy people, that is not the intention of the drug.
We came up with many negatives to the drug such as: no studies done on long-term usage by children, that it changes personality, and that it's just a quick fix for a more complex underlying issue. I think that parents are more apt to get their child tested for ADD now than they were in the past because they do not want to be seen as poor parents if their child is doing below average in school. So in that way, Ritalin becomes a fall-back excuse. I know it sounds cliche but I feel like back even when I was in elementary school, kids were disciplined if they got really bad grades and they shaped up and started working harder to turn things around. It seems like this is kind of going out the door in today's society. As we were comparing this situation to anti-depressants, I couldn't help but think that the two are interconnected in this way. Our culture is driving us to try to be perfect all the time, leading to the dramatic increase in both of these drugs that should supposedly cure it.
I like how you said "and they shaped up and started working harder to turn things around" because i feel this way too. Nowadays people are always looking for the easy way out. A pill that "solves" bad grades in students is the perfect solution for lazy parents! Sometimes we need to take a step back and realize that the way things used to be were that way for a reason, and that although change may be a step forward, it may not be in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the use of Ritalin and antidepressants are overused in today's society, but the problem is that there is no reasonable way of ensuring that all of the people who end up taking a neuroenhancing drug really need it. It would be good to have everyone go through counseling in order to determine if there really is a need to proceed to drugs, but in today's society the longer process is seen as a waste of time and that we should have the option to go right to the quick fix even if it's not necessarily the best. I feel that for any "enhancing" procedures or treatments it should be mandatory for proof to be given that the patient has undergone a reasonable amount of therapy so that the procedure or treatment is the last step if others don't work.
ReplyDeleteI agree that ADD medications are over-used in our society. I have personally seen the mood changes these types of drugs create in people. They mellow a person out into "zombies", and often create addictive behavior. I loved how you mentioned what hardwork and discipline have done to our generation. I think ADD is a condition more treatable with effort than a simple pill. As you said, we don't have the scientific data to show what long term damage is done by these medications. You hit a lot of good points with abuse of this drug too. Almost everyone has a friend or two that has used these drugs in a recreational way. This proved to me, that ADD medication is unnecessary. You don't see people buying eczema cream or antibiotics or any other prescription with low side effects. It's the seriously dangerous medicines like Vicodin or, I'd like to suggest, Ritalin.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the drastic over use of this drug and many others. At my time working at the Doctors office in town I have noticed so many parents who bring their kids in because they think they need the drug. It is horrible to see it being used so freely I guess. It always surprised me when I would see why the parents thought they needed ADD meds. because it was usually things that normal kids do but maybe the parent did not want to deal with a very active kid.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to also add that I am an education major and throughout placements, etc. I have seen this a lot in the classrooms. So many parents and teachers are taking the concept of ADD and really making it a broad concept. I feel that it is becoming more "normal" for teachers and parents to have a kid who is very active and may just need to get some of the energy out of them and thinking they need Ritilin or something to calm them down. I think people often forget that they are kids, they are supposed to have lots of energy. Just from another educational standpoint, we (teachers) are expecting that students are just automatically be interested in someone standing in the front of the room talking to them or reading a book for the entire day? No wonder the students get board and cant sit still. It seems that we need to reconsider what ADD means and narrow it down to what it is really for.
Great post! :)