If you have kids that are in school, or of school age, then I’m sure you have heard of ADHD, or ADD. I personally don’t think that there is such a thing, but apparently there are a lot of school psychiatrists, doctors, and other parents who would disagree with me. I think that there’s just some kids who are just plain out hyper. Or some that can’t focus on one thing at a time. For that matter, there’s adults out there too, that are just “scatter brains.” Does that mean they need drugs?
Think about it. There is a lot of money to be made by diagnosing a person with a condition which may require drugs AND psychiatric treatment. So, it’s within a drug company’s benefit to do that. Plus rather than dealing with the problem, a pill just makes it go away for awhile.
I am going to share our experience with the ADHD monster.
We have a son who is now 14. He has had major behavioral problems in school from the very start. He is not stupid, he just won’t listen. From the second grade the school psychiatrist had him on whatever “magic pill” it was available at the time. If you’ve never experienced this stuff, the following will enlighten you.
The pills work fine for a few hours, but when they wear off, the kid became an emotional wreck. I thought “How can this be HELPING?” So we made a visit to the school psychiatrist. We told her that we didn’t think the pills were a good idea, but she was quite adamant that we keep the kid on the pills.
There is also the issue of diet that comes into play here. For instance, if you give our kid one piece of bubble gum, he’s “bouncing off the walls.” If you have kids you’ll know that too much sugar can do that. Maybe not to all kids, but to a lot of them. So between the ADHD pills, and sugar, you have a monster on your hands.
A few months after the visit to the school psychiatrist, we went again. She took our son into her office and had about an hour discussion with him, and then it was our turn. Right before we were ready to leave, she gave our son a handful of candy from a dish she had on her desk. I looked at her (the psychiatrist), and yelled at her for doing that, and she asked me what was wrong with giving the kid candy. I answered her question with a question. I asked her first, if she was supposed to be a psychiatrist. Then I asked her what happens when you give a kid sugar - or a bunch of candy. She just gave me a blank look, and we left.
Shortly after, we withdrew our son from the public school system, and we are now home schooling him, and he has been off of the ADHD pills for a few years now. A change in diet helps a lot, plus we got him out of “the system.”
You see even though a child is yours, you can’t do things entirely your way if he’s in the system. As for the behavior problem, I think the old fashioned “butt whippin’ should be brought back. I’m not religious, but if I were I believe the Bible has a chapter in it, Proverbs 13:24 that says something to the effect of “spare the rod, spoil the child.”
There is an ADHD joke, that goes: "How many ADHD kids does it take to put in a light bulb?" Answer: "Let's go ride our bikes."
