Is this a true reflection of American drug use?

IMHO, the former. But if its prescribed by a physician, not giving the medication to your kid can mean the social workers take him or her away.

 

Wow! good article. Used to be "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child" which seems to have morphed into "Spare the Rod, Drug the Child". robbyr2 is correct that these days if you don't drug them the Socialists will take them away.

 

like any generality about an entire country or peoples, some have to wonder where these things are happening and who is actually represented by the media reports. american culture? there is a lot of diversity but i have heard and seen many reports on psychiatric drug prescription. there is certainly a lot more than there used to be. hard to believe it's only the u.s. tho.

 

Oh, here we go with the evil socialists and health care again. What is it with you people? And of course, it's the socialists and their profit motives who push the drugs in the first place, right?

 

anti social?

 

Please if you are going to quote, at least do it accurately! What robbyr2 in fact said was "But if its prescribed by a physician, not giving the medication to your kid can mean the social workers take him or her away."

Not just a semantic difference, by the way. Perhaps you don't know the difference between a social worker and a socialist! (I'm sure there are socialist social workers,,,,)

Another example of deliberately using misinformation to further an point of view IMHO.

 

Gonna have to ask for a cite on this one.

While there have been extreme cases involving non-medication and government action, I can only recall it occurring wrt diabetes, where there is no debate on the need for a drug and failure to medicate means death. I can also recall another extreme case involving a cancer treatment.

I have not heard of the government getting involved for add/adhd, and certainly have not heard of a case where they insist that a parent give a child a drug off-label or the child will be taken into protective custody.

As for the article, with most things, the truth lies in the middle.

 

No this is the exception, not the norm.

Some parents mistake usual teen angst for a "problem" and bring them to pyshologists, who often prescribe drugs like candy. These would be the same parents that would put their dogs on anxiety drugs.

It's one of the reasons I didn't pursue phychiatry after I graduated. Too many parents thinking something is wrong and demanding drugs and too many psychiatrists willing to prescribe them (and too many big pharma reps enticing them to do so).

But again, over medicated families like this are the exeption, not the norm.

 

i give my dog marijuana laced brownies for dessert, makes him mellow.

 

In la-la land conservative parents are not demanding drugs for their kids. The reality is much different.

 

Calvin on Ritalin:

 

You know what they say, the family that meditate (i mean) medicate together...

 

This seems to be mostly anecdotal stories, I don't see any statistics of drug use compared to decades past or other countries. I'm sure you could find families like this in any western country.

Personally, I think ADHD is over-treated. Kids don't spend much time running around outside anymore, and that is shown to help ADHD. Of course, I don't have a kid with ADHD, so it's easy for me to talk. Bi-polar disorder is more serious and does need treatment, although this family seems to be rather hypochondriacs. (Medicating the dog? Really?)

As for taking the kids away for not taking a prescription, that's just anti-government paranoia spread by the tea-party group. Every now and then you get some family that is not treating their kid's cancer or some other major thing because it's not "God's will" and it takes an protracted legal battle to get these kids treatment against their parent's desires. So for something relatively minor, if you don't give your kids their ritalin, nothing will happen to your family. (As long as there's no domestic abuse or other factors).

 

Just be sure he has lots of food and water. And don't let him watch any scary movies.

 

i miss C&H!

 

he's a big harry potter fan, not scared of he who must not be named.

 

What is wrong with giving drugs to your dog?! My dog had a prescription for prozac.

Point of clarification: Our dog had a brain tumor that eventually lead to us having to euthanize him. About a year before he was put down he started to have seizures when entering the vet clinic. The vet wrote us a prescription for prozac to calm him before bringing him in for a check-up. It worked great, 3 prozacs 30 minutes before a visit and no more seizures at the vet. BTW, prozac is really cheap from your vet, about a buck a pill.

 

"prozac is really cheap from your vet, about a buck a pill. "

That suprises me. My vet gave me pain killers for my dog's hip diplasia and it cost an arm and a leg and they gave him the runs. I found out that simple ibuprofen works BETTER for a few cents a pill.