Ritalin and Adderall a Hoax

I am sure that simply the title of my blog will anger more than a few parents.  In this day and age of pill popping frenzy, Ritalin and Adderall have become a mainstay for parents with children suffering from A.D.D. or Attention Deficit Disorder.  They claim that their children can not function properly in school without these drugs.  They can't focus, pay attention, or otherwise make it through the sometimes mundane tasks that children face in schools.  But how long are these drugs actually effective?  Are they capable of making a difference in the long run?  The answer to the first question is that they are effective for only 4 to 8 weeks, after which they start to decline in effectiveness unless a higher dosage is given.  The answer to the second question is that they do not make a difference in the long run.  They have such a short period of effectiveness because they are essentially amphetamines modified at a molecular level, made "safe" for children and teenagers.  Parents may say that their effectiveness is proven by the fact that when they take their children off the meds, they immediately regress and have trouble once again in school.  Yet there is never any inquiry as to why this happens.  Parents automatically assume that it is because the drug is working so well that their children can't adjust to life without it.  A more apt explanation, and one supported by research, is that they are simply going into withdrawal.  Ritalin and Adderall, like the amphetamines they mimic, create a dependency and also build up a tolerance within the child's body so that when they are taken off their meds, it is akin to taking a drug addict immediately off cocaine or heroin; the body can't deal with it.  (All of this is explained in more detail in the linked article.)

So if drugs aren't the answer, what is?  To find the answer, one must look back to early childhood and how a child is raised.  It is now being shown that a likely cause of A.D.D. is not some genetic anomaly or malfunctioning brain system, but more an issue with a child's upbringing.  Many children's attention problems can be linked directly to their experiences as a child.  A child raised in a stressful setting, one filled with uncertain parents or frantic parents always trying to make ends meet can contribute to attention problems later on.  The same goes for over stimulation in babies, especially when they are not ready for it.  Even abruptly changing a babies setting, whisking them from playing with toys to a bath time and time again can have a lasting effect.  It is instances like these and many more that are the cause of many a child's woes as they grow older.  Yet no attention (no pun intended) is being paid to how a child's issues originate and what can be done without drugs to help them progress through life.  We in the United States like the immediate fix, pop a pill and feel better, pop a pill and eradicate that high blood pressure, pop a pill and feel happy not depressed.  We are coming to rely more and more heavily on drugs as an answer to all of our problems.  If we inculcate our children with this same mentality from an early age, they will perpetuate this societal dependency on medication.   What should be done instead is to focus on how we can work with children, either with behavioural psychologists or other form of therapy, to help them maintain their focus and attention when needed.  Medication is not the answer, yet we keep pushing harder and harder for more and newer meds. 

Perhaps the best solution, and not one that will help children already "diagnosed" with A.D.D., is for parents to be more mindful of how they are raising their children, their interaction with them, the environment the provide, and their simply uninhibited presence to their children.  If young children see their parents running around frantically like chickens with their heads cut off, do we not think that they will adopt the same behaviour as they grow older.  Young children, from the time they are infants, are like sponges, soaking up anything and everything around them.  They take in verbal and non-verbal cues from their parents, they study faces, their surroundings, and are greatly affected by any stress in a household.  Even though our son is only three and a half months old (going on 4) he is already susceptible to high levels of stress.  For the most part, my wife and I are laid back people and as such, are son is as well.  Yet when he comes in contact with someone who we know is a high stress person, he freaks out and can't handle the stress.  What happens to a child who is brought up in a high stress household?  I would surmise that they are directly affected on a more permanent basis and carry that with them as they grow older.  Parenting is never a simple thing.  It requires us to remove ourselves from our everyday lives and focus on our children entirely.  It requires us to become centered and to a certain extent, stress free, so that we can interact with our children focused solely on what they need.  Life for anyone isn't easy, yet drugs, especially Ritalin and Adderall, are not the answer.  With their effectiveness lasting only 4-8 weeks, you would think that parents and doctors alike would be searching for other remedies, yet this is not the case.  Every year, more and more children are diagnosed with A.D.D. and more pills get prescribed.  Hopefully one day, a light will click on in the minds of these parents and doctors and other remedies will be sought out.  Until then, lets focus more on our children and their needs so that they don't feel the need to pop as many pills as possible to solve their problems.