Has Ritalin Ruined My Life?

reply to post by Wildbob77


Stress is something I live with daily already struggling to do the things average people find easy.

I do the best I can to live a life stress free. And don`t let my problems hold me back. Like I have said I have already achieved great things in my life more than most. But what would I have been capable of unhindered.?

reply to post by MountainLaurel


Thank you!
I am 36 year old male. I was put on Ritalin when it was just starting to be popular to be prescribed to children.

This whole thing reminds me of thalidomide babys except the damage isn't external but internal.

I have intense difficulties with certain situations and it is difficult to explane it.

Daily I take 3000 mg - 6000 mg of vitamin C
1-2 Multi vitimins
500 mg Niacine
3600 Mcg of B-12
Plus I also try to eat as much beneficial food as I am able to afford.

I find this combination really helps with my depression and foggy headed thoughts and other related problems.

OP, sincrely, i understand your situation, and i believe you.

Yes it been proven Ritalin can cause damages.

I have ADHD was put on Ritalin at age 10 to age 15 (I'm 52 now) I was 5'2" at 15 and by the time I was 17 grew to 6'4" I'm certain it retarded my growth physically and mentally, the odd thing was I was/am a bookworm was reading at a post medical degree of comprehension at age 13 (tested).

I do not take it as an adult but have found a natural herb that does the trick however My state does not recognize it so I cannot get it, because of this I lose jobs (have had over a 100 or so in my adult life) if I use this herb I'm "normal" without it I get frustrated easily and it causes anger (non-violent) issues.

If I had known then what I know now I would have sued the school system that required me to be on Ritalin to be in school.

Originally posted by enament
reply to post by MountainLaurel

 

Thank you!
I am 36 year old male. I was put on Ritalin when it was just starting to be popular to be prescribed to children.

This whole thing reminds me of thalidomide babys except the damage isn't external but internal.

I have intense difficulties with certain situations and it is difficult to explane it.

However you decide to proceed, I respect that you are willing to bring light to this horrible trend to drug children, and how it has effected your life. I will be sharing the videos from your OP on FB...which I still keep to hopefully bring exactly these types of issues to light.....alot of beautiful kids in my family and friends families.....and I don't want any children drugged...as Starwise said, for being NORMAL ......or even perhaps "above" normal, think about that...

The age you were drugged was an important phase in your childhood, from 1st to 3rd grade were the years I really saw my daughter make BIG connections on how she fit into this World, what her interests and strengths were, what things scared her and how to handle those things....what did Love, Compassion and Empathy mean?
How to stand up to bullies, and call a spade a spade..." from the mouths of babes"....♥

I have seen the effects of these drugs.......it's more complicated then I want to get into here, and I have spoken of this in other threads.....but I am totally uncomfortable with these types of drugs...I am totally uncomfortable with convincing children and adults for that matter that they are "flawed" or "depressed" and should ever use drugs that have such terrible and UNKNOWN side effects......get a puppy....

reply to post by thedigirati


I know exactly what you are talking about.Medicine wise I mean.

Lots of people and including coworkers have always said I should have been a scientist and not a carpenter. I like my job as a carpenter but I have always had my heart set on being a scientist actually.

When other kids were learning there ABCs I wanted to learn science, manufacturing,engineering and astronomy.

The truth is school isn't geared for people like me. The school system chews people like me up and spits me out.
I am an individual I cant learn the way most people do. I am not sure if it is Ritalin that caused it or not,I'm not sure A.D.D.was a term coined at the time either.

Originally posted by enament
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

You know my dilemma as well as I do. Drugging our children is truly the perfect crime.

Very true. It is sad that parents rely on others, including doctors, teachers and the pharmaceutical industry to rear their own children. I believe children are bright and have energy. Giving them any drug to force their obedience or behavior or to pacify them is criminal in my opinion, but as of now you can destroy your children's life, future and well being and get a way with it free of charge. So shameful and personally I place the blame on parent's and their poor parenting choices.

Now I have to young children and I am sure the would qualify for ADD drugs and whatever else society deems appropriate for their consumption. If their mother had her way she would have them on drugs just as her own Catholic mom forced her to take ADD meds when she was growing up. Parents do not have time nor patience to invest into their children's natural well being. This is sadly true. Just like everything on ATS, the world is effed up and we need to use our brains, intellect and inner spirituality to make the choices that we feel are right regardless of what the powers and their sheeple tell us to do.

Golden

reply to post by MountainLaurel


I have often thought about that. about me being on that drug at a critical time in my early childhood brain development.
There is no way of clearly knowing that for sure, there lies the big problem.
Its all just so frustrating.

Originally posted by GoldenVoyager

Originally posted by enament
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

You know my dilemma as well as I do. Drugging our children is truly the perfect crime.

Very true. It is sad that parents rely on others, including doctors, teachers and the pharmaceutical industry to rear their own children. I believe children are bright and have energy. Giving them any drug to force their obedience or behavior or to pacify them is criminal in my opinion, but as of now you can destroy your children's life, future and well being and get a way with it free of charge. So shameful and personally I place the blame on parent's and their poor parenting choices.

Now I have to young children and I am sure the would qualify for ADD drugs and whatever else society deems appropriate for their consumption. If their mother had her way she would have them on drugs just as her own Catholic mom forced her to take ADD meds when she was growing up. Parents do not have time nor patience to invest into their children's natural well being. This is sadly true. Just like everything on ATS, the world is effed up and we need to use our brains, intellect and inner spirituality to make the choices that we feel are right regardless of what the powers and their sheeple tell us to do.

Golden

I have a son they wanted to put on Ratlin. I flat out refused and his mother did too!
My solution was to put him in Judo and it worked. And I also got him a laptop and that stimulated his urge to want to read and write. There isn't any thing wrong with my son there never was he is perfect just the way the creator made him.

To my knowledge, Ritalin is basically an amphetamine. I know that the meth-heads around here certainly suffer from depression once they get clean and sober. I think it basically messes with your adrenal system. You may have "adrenal fatigue".


By the way, I thought they put kids on Straterra now?

My first grader has a teacher who told me her opinion....It was to see a doctor about Ritalin for him.

reply to post by Starwise


This is the problem its not the kids its the schools, if you look at the studies most of the kids that are put on Ritalin are because they are hyper in school and a teacher suggested it.

I too had a teacher tell me that I gave it back to her with both barrels, I told them that Ritalin and Prosaca are mind altering drugs, if these kids take these medication they will never be able to enter the Military. Since I was a Recuriter for the Army you have to ask yourself this, why is it that the Military don't want anything to do with kids that were on Ritalin or Prosac, simple they are mind altering drugs.

I told the teacher that what kid is not hyper and full of enegry when they are at that age, why is it that you became a teacher in the first place knowing young kids are full of energy, also told her that if she ever brings this subject up again I would bring this up to the ethics board that she is practicing medicine without a license.

I guess she could not handle 20 kids running around being kids, she wanted them to be zombies instead.

Good to see you told her NO, that was a little nicer than my 20 minutes of outrage.

reply to post by enament


Awesome to hear about Judo. Both my two children are in Tae Kwon Do. Great for them to burn off some extra energy.

What about all the sugar people give kids? It's crazy! Even at school they pass out sugar. Ever wonder how many of these kids are just over indulging in sugar?

Worth pondering, IMO.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


The teacher suggested the Ritalin. I wouldn't even let it get to the doctors office so I am not sure what would have been prescribed.
When his teacher mentioned it just brought all the bad memories back. Thats when super dad kicked in and signed him up to Judo expensive at $450 a year but well worth it he is in a class of 30-40 students with 8 instructors sometimes more.
Lots of instructors means lots of attention.

reply to post by enament


I am so frightened for my Grandson.
He has not been performing well in school.

My Daughter's family Dr., after a healthy discussion with her/ him and having him answer a
couple pages of questions, desided to place him on Adderall
First 5mg once a day then 5mg 2 times a day(could not sleep at night).
Next 10mg once in morning,
graduateing to 30mg once each day.

Now my daughter gets his report card with teacher comments on it takes it to the Dr. and the Dr.
(with my daughters permission) switches him to Ritalin LR.
At 20mg a day.

I am in tears. I don't wan't him on any of "their" drugs.

Actually he never has had much of an intrest in school at all.
Does not participat
Does not finish in class work
Does not bring homework home
Even if he does homework he does not bother turning it in

I talked to her till I'm blue in the face about the fact that they eat crap for food,
and that Diet can make all the difference in the world for all of us.
She chooses to remain ignorant of truth.
She also seems to believe that her own weight problem (320lbs)
will get better if she watches her salt intake. It will help but That is not the full scope of the problem.

Now I amd trying to make her see that they are yet again putting more poison into this precious boy.
Did I mention that we have a history of alcohol and drug addiction in our family
(amongst many others issues).

I feel so helpless, wanting to stop them from forced drug use on a child, being ignored when
showing her the dangers of these drugs.

Anger,fear and tears

thank you for sharing. my 7 year old has mild to moderater adhd according to what I've read. his mom and I have agreed no drugs

the main reason is related to what you stated, it reinforces there is something wrong with you, and to fix it you take a pill

we are working with diet, restriction of tv/video screen simulation, walks, playing ball and lots of excercise

he has had a big improvement

when I wss a kid in the 70's I was a "daydreamer" and they just waited for me to grow out of it

reply to post by 19KTankCommander


Good for you lol. i like the part about practicing medicine without a license, right on.

reply to post by azureskys


My best suggestion is some kind of martial arts or something like that.
It takes a while for the benefits to kick in but it all improves in about 6-12 months.

You yourself as a grandparent enroll them and take them it works. My personal opinion, I am no doctor And I speak from my own experience get them off the drugs ASAP.

In Canada we have Cadets too. also good If you have cadets in your area it costs very little too..

Just get the kid active. When I started realizing Ritalin didn't make me feel good I would just pretend to take it.

I have a son they wanted to put on Ratlin. I flat out refused and his mother did too!
My solution was to put him in Judo and it worked. And I also got him a laptop and that stimulated his urge to want to read and write. There isn't any thing wrong with my son there never was he is perfect just the way the creator made him.

That was a beautiful post.....and a big part of how you will heal....there was nothing wrong with you either...make peace with that through your Son.........your making some good decisions, so your "less" damaged then people that would consider these drugs for a child......it is diabolical...and clearly they didn't take your "Soul".....

reply to post by syrinx high priest


Also I suggest doing some research on fish oils. The same DHA and EPA ratios are different for ADD and ADHD kids.
I forget exactly what they are but for ADD and ADHD kids the ratio needs to be different.
Its actually the next thing on my list of changes I am making in my life It is so expensive to be healthy.