From my own personal experience, I can confidently say that drugs certainly have their place and use. They can work wonders. The right prescription or combination of medications can solve a litany of mental illnesses, physical struggles and emotional duress.
However, the symptoms of these issues are identical to the natural process of growing up. Oh, your eight-year-old has more energy than you? That’s surprising. Oh, your teenager is having mood swings? It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with raging hormones. Oh, your 18-year-old son is yelling and angry? Don’t worry; it’s anxiety, not testosterone.
Ritalin, Concerta, Lortab, Klonopin, Zoloft, Lithium, Suboxone, Cymbalta, Lamictle, Prozac, Seroquel, Xanax, and Valium all have very specific uses (and abuses). But these medications can easily be prescribed to children (anyone 18 and under) who really don’t need to be chocked full of medication.
Anxiety, Depression, ADD, ADHD, Addiction, Bipolar, and Insomnia are very real, and very serious illnesses that require serious attention.
Far too often are these illnesses diagnosed in minors who are just growing up, or have yet to really fix their diet. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates of ADHD diagnosis in children 4-17 years old rose an average of 3 percent a year from 1997 to 2006. This is an insane rate of increase; it is higher than average inflation during that same time period.
If Little Johnny has two bowls of sugar bombs and a soda for breakfast he will be bouncing off the walls all morning and unconscious all afternoon. Little Johnny is not bipolar, and he does not have ADHD; he just needs to eat healthier.
When Little Suzie has a panic attack getting on the bus because mommy had a car accident a week before, she doesn’t have generalized anxiety disorder; she needs to go to therapy and talk with someone about what happened.
It seems that we parent our children less and less and instead are just tailoring them to how we believe they should act.
“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician in Cherokee County, told the New York Times. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”
Anderson works with low-income families whose children are struggling with paying attention in school. His solution? Drug them up, shut them up, sit them down and then regurgitate a curriculum.
The issue with all of this is that while we drug our children, they are still developing. There is a reason minors are not allowed to imbibe alcohol or nicotine until they are of age.
It is because our bodies do not come close to fully developing until later in life. Prescribing medications to still growing children can result in serious issues with mental health.
So why don’t we all just take a step back and look at what we’re doing to minors who, by definition are not wise enough to make their own decisions. Do we really need to tell them to say no to heroin and then prescribe Klonopin to reduce stress?
Greg is a junior and a Communication major.
Greg!! Oh Greg! I don’t know you and I respect you so much for this article! I have been battling people in life who seem to think that just because these medical doctors are prescribing tons of medicines just to do it that it is right! Someone walks in and says….hey….I have problems concentrating (on things not interested in I might add) and they prescribe Adderall, oh, you have anxiety insomnia, and depression a year later from this? Let me give you Klonopin, Ambien, and Prozac!! This is all too real. I have someone very close to me that comes from a family with Rx abuse and they were admitted to rehab for depression after a while on Adderall and life going down hill…..well what did the lovely Dr there do? Send him home with 5!!!!!! Rx’s!!!! So 2 days later after almost OD’ing from the Klonopin due to taking multiple in a small amount of time to “make life better” he landed himself in an ER and 1013’ed in another rehab. A person that was perfectly normal, slightly ADHD, before the Adderal has now had life turned upside down and I will 150% blame on irresponsible, ignorant DR’s over prescribing medicines and not monitoring what is going on with the patient on them. Medicine is needed in many situations, but NOT just because someone has concentration problems. Eat healthy, EXERCISE, and get enough sleep and I can promise you, the need for these meds will DRASTICALLY drop. Might I add I work for a neuro psychologist. It’s scary some of the calls we get. Kids on meds that I would never take myself. In delicate growing bodies and minds. Makes me so sad because a lot of the parents just think they are doing the right thing per the doctor when little do they know, they are sending their childs whole chemical balance in their brain and body for a whirlwind! =-(