This is kind of a vent thread so bear with me.
Recently in a conversation with a coworker(whose child’s teacher has suggested that he be checked out for adhd). Has dug up one of the things in my childhood that really pisses me off at my mother and hate the educational system in general.
When i was 10 i was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and put on Ritalin(which was the initial medication, i was later given other medications to fix the problems that that the initial “fix” caused). Whether i was add or not, i cant really tell but looking back on my report cards i never made bad grades, the only problems i had in school were behavioral (yelling, fighting, etc…) or in other words normal 10 year old behavior. My mom being divorced, lazy and being a pill popper(which ironically i had to listen to her peach about the evils of alcohol,marijuana, and tobacco while she took xanax, zolofts and other mindfuck drugs herself) found medication easier than discipline.
So from the elementary school until 8th grade(when i decided to just pretend to take the medication) once a day(one at home before school one during for me at least, im not quite sure what dosing was for others) sure me and all the other children (around 20 kids although im guesstimating from memory the vast majority boys) diagnosed with a.d.d, were called to the office to take medication, one thing to keep in mind is that im from a relatively small town in Alabama my elementary/middle school had about 500 students total so that’s a fairly large percent of students diagnosed with a.d.d.
The primary purpose of the medication is to alleviate hyperactivity and cause the user to focus. In other words it turns users into zombies. When i took the medication i would spend most of the day zoned out(to the point i was oblivious to everything around me, to the point where i would come home with spit wads in my hair and not realize). And again being from a small town its not like going to college where you can ditch all the people you know and reinvent yourself, everyone remembers the past four years of you being a fucking zombie and never let it down.
As bad as the intended effect the side effects are just as bad. First of all there is a major decrease in appetite, before i was put on Ritalin at 10 years old i weighed about 85 lbs. which was overweight at the time i really loved to fucking eat, after i was diagnosed i ate maybe once a day rarely finished my meals, and at 14 years 5’7 when i finally got sense enough to spit that shit out i was up to a whopping 105 lbs. As soon as i stopped taking the medication my appetite came back but i was already really fucking emaciated and weak when i started football my freshmen year i could only bench press the bar. Although being so small sucked ive more or less fixed that but the thing i miss most is i remember being creative before being medicated i would draw and write stories(granted i was 10 and looking back over most of pre-Ritalin me’s drawings and writing most of it is shitty but dammit at least i tried) , which soon after being medicated as much as i tried i just couldn’t think of anything to write or draw anymore, i couldn’t focus on any idea that wasnt laid out for me.
Ironically out of all the drugs ive had experience with the legal, Politically correct, government sponsored ones have been the worst.
So, if your thinking of putting your kids on Ritalin don’t. And if you already have them on the shit be prepared for the fact that someday they will probably be compelled to Google the side effects or maybe just realize something feels missing and although they may not come out and say it at the very least they will resent you for it, if not outright hate you for even if they dont come right out and say it, its there.