Kids and Medication Part I

We have all talked a lot about the problems in our educational system, about latchkey kids, about teacher turnover (50 percent of teachers quitted within the first five years on the job), psychologists over prescribing medications such as Prozac and Ritalin with our friends and families. We can all foresee a terrible problem in the future because we are feeding these drugs to kids under the age of six, their brains have not been fully formed yet and these drugs and their predecessors and competing drugs all have adverse side effects.

There are over 10,000 chemicals that the brain reacts to, there are over 2000 chemicals in the brain in any one time, in your brain is reacting to 20 or 30 of those chemicals in a big way. And along comes in new enhancements. Why because we're not allowed to discipline or own children, we might be turned in for child abuse. God help you if you smacked her child for mouthing off, hitting their siblings, or general rude behavior. Benefit teacher doesn't they can go to jail to. So what happens when Johnny is bad the sandbox; he is put into a corner as a punishment away from the other kids and we call this a timeout. On the other hand if we give Johnny a Swift kick in the rear, then maybe he might learn something. When he acts out they put him in a corner and then he wants attention, so he further misbehaves; so the teacher says into the office and the principal calls in a special psychologists who refers little Johnny to the medical nurse, who calls Johnny single mom at work which embarrasses her, you see Johnny's father left and he is a deadbeat dad, unwilling to pay for Johnny's costs even though he brought Johnny into the world and now Johnny's mother doesn't know what to do, so they convince her that her child has ADHD.

When in reality Johnny is just like all the other kids a little hyper all the time probably has to much sugar at home in being young has just a ton of energy. Since Johnny lacks the discipline of a child under supervision, without father around he isn't a lot of trouble as do most kids were not discipline. But instead disciplining Johnny they decide to drug him instead. Johnny now is on drugs and ever been really discipline ever assumes that he has a problem because his mother, teacher, nurse, Dr., principal say so.

Now Johnny has lower expectations of himself as do his elders best Johnny performed on to that ability which is right around 0. Johnny acts off gets into trouble, becomes a juvenile delinquent tries a few drugs with his friends does a little graffiti causes of any crimes and decides to join a gang. Where is mom, trying to make ends meet without the assistance of Johnny's dad who has skipped how sold his construction company to a friend who pays them five dollars an hour. Thus Johnny's dad is unable to make restitution and the courts changes restitution to such a small amount it isn't even worth Johnny's moms trouble to try to collect. And it's certainly isn't worth her trouble to share custody rights. So when you look at George W. Bush's plan to keep the families together, especially low income families where the mom has to work and support for kids you can see the incredible problem we have in why something must be done. Either we have discipline the schools and When two people have the kid they stick together and raised a child in a responsible for child or we all pay later for more prisons, prison guards, rehab facilities, police officers student faculty support employees etc. do you know right now that the nurse gives a child and aspirin that child must get a note from their parents. However if that child needs an abortion, that child can get an abortion without the school ever contacting the parent, give me a break.

The easy issues affect every employer at the store level due to unmanageable employees they might have and their productivity goes South all too often, this affects their ability to work and pay into the system or advance in a company. When a kid does drugs and gets into trouble we all pay. If that child grows up into a life of crime it costs more to keep that child in prison for one year that it does to send them to two years of college, so you figure it out either we drop the BS stop over Medicating and start disciplining or we will pay later and we will pay dearly. We just have to stop feeding our kid's drugs for mood enhancement. We know these drugs have side effects.

Let's look at these for a bit one by one. Adderall is a amphetamine which is taken once per day and stops areas of the brain responsible for organizing thoughts; it has some very real side effect such as rapid heart beat, high blood pressure and sometimes over stimulation and can become addictive. With Concerta it keeps the neurons with lots of norepinephrine and dopamine, which reduces hyperactivity and inattention, and it's side effects include head aches, stomach pain, sleeplessness and can cause over stimulation. Strattera was the first non-stimulant which enchances norepinephrine levels in the brain and also has some serious side effects, which include; decreased appetite, fatigue, stomach pain and nausea. Ritalin is an active agent, methylphenidate to stimulate the brain to filter and prioritize incoming information. But the side effects we know too; Headaches, lack of appetite, irritability, nervousness and insomnia. Methypatch is the patch form of the methylphenidate and delivers continuous doses through the skin.

Kids and Medication End Part I

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs