The Wholesale Sedation of America’s Youth

[speech]

Andrew Weiss holds a PhD in school-clinical psychology from Hofstra University. He served on the faculty of Iona College and has been a senior school administrator in Chappaqua, New York. He has published a number of articles on technology in education. E-mail: anweiss [at] optonline.net.

In the winter of 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study indicating that 200,000 two- to four-year-olds had been prescribed Ritalin for an “attention disorder” from 1991 to 1995. Judging by the response, the image of hundreds of thousands of mothers grinding up stimulants to put into the sippy cups of their preschoolers was apparently not a pretty one. Most national magazines and newspapers covered the story; some even expressed dismay or outrage at this exacerbation of what already seemed like a juggernaut of hyper-medicalizing childhood. The public reaction, however, was tame; the medical community, after a moment’s pause, continued unfazed. Today, the total toddler count is well past one million, and influential psychiatrists have insisted that mental health prescriptions are appropriate for children as young as twelve months. For the pharmaceutical companies, this is progress.

In 1995, 2,357,833 children were diagnosed with ADHD (Woodwell 1997)—twice the number diagnosed in 1990. By 1999, 3.4 percent of all American children had received a stimulant prescription for an attention disorder. Today, that number is closer to ten percent. Stimulants aren’t the only drugs being given out like candy to our children. A variety of other psychotropics like antidepressants, antipsychotics, and sedatives are finding their way into babies’ medicine cabinets in large numbers. In fact, the worldwide market for these drugs is growing at a rate of ten percent a year, $20.7 billion in sales
http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=4571.msg10078;topicseen#new

[M House]

Stimulants are awesome. Amphetamines are actually really simple drugs that are extremely close to your body's catecholamines in structure. Personal opinion is that the Ritalin derivatives aka Methylphenidates are poo though. Man they even have a patch for that shit now, lame. They actually seem to be perscribing alot more bi-polar meds as the flavor of the year. Nothing like an atypical antipsychotic to put some real sedation on. I kinda think we could tackle alot more "psychological" issues if psychiatry would just flush itself from the system and neurobiology got a thorough integration into pathophysiology and endocrinology.

[M House]

Recent link about the bi polar disorder being heavily over diagnosed http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/news/20080506/bipolar-disorder-overdiagnosed .

[liberteebell]

Andrew Weiss holds a PhD in school-clinical psychology from Hofstra University. He served on the faculty of Iona College and has been a senior school administrator in Chappaqua, New York. He has published a number of articles on technology in education. E-mail: anweiss [at] optonline.net.

In the winter of 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study indicating that 200,000 two- to four-year-olds had been prescribed Ritalin for an “attention disorder” from 1991 to 1995. Judging by the response, the image of hundreds of thousands of mothers grinding up stimulants to put into the sippy cups of their preschoolers was apparently not a pretty one. Most national magazines and newspapers covered the story; some even expressed dismay or outrage at this exacerbation of what already seemed like a juggernaut of hyper-medicalizing childhood. The public reaction, however, was tame; the medical community, after a moment’s pause, continued unfazed. Today, the total toddler count is well past one million, and influential psychiatrists have insisted that mental health prescriptions are appropriate for children as young as twelve months. For the pharmaceutical companies, this is progress.

In 1995, 2,357,833 children were diagnosed with ADHD (Woodwell 1997)—twice the number diagnosed in 1990. By 1999, 3.4 percent of all American children had received a stimulant prescription for an attention disorder. Today, that number is closer to ten percent. Stimulants aren’t the only drugs being given out like candy to our children. A variety of other psychotropics like antidepressants, antipsychotics, and sedatives are finding their way into babies’ medicine cabinets in large numbers. In fact, the worldwide market for these drugs is growing at a rate of ten percent a year, $20.7 billion in sales
http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=4571.msg10078;topicseen#new

Thanks for this.

My 11 year old son's school wants me to put my son on Ritalin. It will be a cold day in hell before I drug my child.

[lucius]

"Fichte laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished, But in his day this was an unattainable ideal: what he regarded as the best system in existence produced Karl Marx. In future such failures are not likely to occur where there is dictatorship. DIET, INJECTIONS and INJUNCTIONS will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so. A totalitarian government with a scientific bent might do things that to us would seem horrifying. The Nazis were more scientific than the present rulers of Russia, and were more inclined towards the SORT OF ATROCITIES THAN I HAVE IN MIND."

-Nobel Prize winner, Fabian scientist/socialist, Lord Bertrand Russell, of the bloodline, in 1953 ‘The Impact of Science on Society’

[M House]

"Fichte laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished, But in his day this was an unattainable ideal: what he regarded as the best system in existence produced Karl Marx. In future such failures are not likely to occur where there is dictatorship. DIET, INJECTIONS and INJUNCTIONS will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so. A totalitarian government with a scientific bent might do things that to us would seem horrifying. The Nazis were more scientific than the present rulers of Russia, and were more inclined towards the SORT OF ATROCITIES THAN I HAVE IN MIND."

-Nobel Prize winner, Fabian scientist/socialist, Lord Bertrand Russell, of the bloodline, in 1953 ‘The Impact of Science on Society’

Cool, bring. it. on....

Sounds 200 percent sweeter than my computer 101 class. In our society it's already hard just to disagree with your family. Atleast you can still vote/run, right. Karl Marx wrote a short stupid book that can be summed "Communists may own you, but they do it for you....pleb" If you agree with that philosophy well... whatever it certainly didn't have go anywhere.

[lucius]

Cool, bring. it. on....

Creating a nation of zombies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq2FdNElL9U


Sounds 200 percent sweeter than my computer 101 class.

:)

[tonesforjonesbones]

Not surprised. I hate taking medicine to tell ya the truth. Tones

[Primbs]

The European rates of diagnosis of all these disorders is very different from that in America.

It would appear that either Europe or America has the wrong diagnosis.

[Dieseler]

Thanks for this.

My 11 year old son's school wants me to put my son on Ritalin. It will be a cold day in hell before I drug my child.

I had a teacher way back in 1994 suggest that my Son would benefit from Ritalin during a parent teacher conference over disciplinary action.
I was helping to coach a couple of little league teams that my Son was on, both football and baseball at that time. I had firsthand witnessed a child who was heavily dosed with Ritalin...at football practice no less.
To say that the child slobbered a lot and couldn't get out a complete sentence without nearly falling over would be an understatement. This child had no business even on a pee wee football team in this state of mind. It was all I could do to keep this kid safe during drills during practice and it was a horror to watch during games.
Anyway back to the story.
Upon the utterance of those words by that teacher, I suggested that she might benefit from a prescription of Valium or maybe even a different line of work if she could not deal with six and seven year old children without them being drugged down to her level of acceptability. That concluded our conference as that was all she really wanted to do was make that suggestion. I was able to have my Son transferred to another class luckily.
I'm not sure how well that would work these days because a lot of water has passed over the dam since then.
BTW, my Son graduated with honors without the Ritalin.
Good luck to you and remember this.
No one outside your home knows your kids better than you. If there is something wrong, you should and will be the first to notice it, not some public school teacher.

[M House]

Ritalin fucks with dopamine regulation in your brain probably why it has the issue with coordination. Amphetamines are bit different the Adderalls, Dexedrines, etc. They are a bit more systemic in their effects and have a strong adrenergic effects in addition to stimulation of dopamine release. They also have different MAOA effects. For the most part amphetamines seem to be much more effective at treating ADD like symptoms from what I've understand. I've taken both and I'd have to say most people including teachers, doctors, parents are pretty full of shit about it. I wouldn't buy anyone's opinion on them except a Doctor that actually took them him or herself. I always had trouble concentrating at school and well the stimulants make a huge difference. I actually only recently started taking them at college too. Would that have made a difference years ago when they were first suggested and my parents declined who knows? But being yelled at constantly over grades, homework, disorganization, and losing things gives you a different perspective. Atleast for me the amphetamines seem to improve that some. I wouldn't call their effects sedating or controlling in the least. They are what they are for better or worse.