“Mass amounts of American children are being diagnosed with a possibly fictitious disease; even worse they are being prescribed addictive and lethal drugs for it.
The ‘disease’ or rather condition, is known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The disease is said to be a common behavioral disorder. It is said to affect over 10% of school age children. It is characterized by the inability to direct one’s complete focus and concentration on one thing at a time. It is also often characterized by excess hyperactiveness. If you were to ask me, I would say that children are hyper and energized naturally. Of course, the average child isn’t going to be enthusiastic about taking a math test, and chances are you’re probably not going to get their full attention either.”
We know that children are hyperactive, some more than others, and perhaps that’s how some kids are just meant to be.
But how do we help the children that are not coping well or are struggling to be accepted by those around them and disrupting others’ lives. What about how they affect their family’s home-life? Are there other ways of treating them than with medication?
The Birth of Amphetamines
It was not until 1932 when Gordon Alles first patented amphetamine when he was experimenting with amphetamines while trying to improve on ephedrine, a bronchodilator, and decongestant.
Alles, after trialing amphetamine for asthma, realised it was not helping patients at all he recognised that perhaps it had a use as a euphoria-producing stimulant after seeing the effects it had on himself and others. This was how the use of amphetamines was born!
Amphetamines had actually been discovered over 40 years before and were, at the time, believed to be quite valueless pharmaceutically. So it was only at this point that they were found to have a new use as a psychoactive prescription drug!
The Need to Use Amphetamines in Children
But should we really be giving small children (and sometimes even babies) strong psychoactive drugs like these? Their brains are developing fast, they are growing, and they are at more risk at this stage in their lives than at any other time of being affected adversely by chemicals.
We are after all extremely careful about the levels of many other chemicals that children may be brought into contact with because we know that children are more susceptible to the effects that chemicals may have on them. Governments in the “West” draw up safety guidelines for many chemicals with which we may come into contact in our daily lives.
The children do not have a deficiency of amphetamines (because amphetamines are not known to have any nutritional use). Amphetamines and other ADHD medications are not found in natural food items as are vitamins and trace minerals in fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables. Trace mineral and vitamin levels are certainly areas in which we can have deficiencies.
What are the risks that we subject children and babies to when prescribed with methamphetamines such as adderall and vyvanse?
“The most commonly prescribed drug to ADHD patients, including children, are Methamphetamines. The drug poses extreme overdose and addiction risks too.
Withdrawal Effects of Methamphetamines
- Sleep problems
- Decreased appetite
- Delayed growth
- Head-aches and stomach-aches
- Rebound (irritability when the medication wears off)
- Tics
- Moodiness and irritability”
France has a different way of looking at the condition and as a result, they also vary in their mode of treating it as well.
“Instead of using the the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the French use an alternative classification system produced by the French Federation of Pyschiatry called Classification Francaises des Troubles Mentaux de L’Enfant et de L’Adolescent (CFTMEA).”
The French look at ADHD holistically much in the same way as the functional Medicine practitioners view it, and that is to look for the underlying causes of the disorder’s symptoms and as a result, rarely do the psychiatrists find it necessary to prescribe medications, or even use psychotherapy or family counseling. They are showing other countries that it can be done differently.
Where do we start to look for the underlying causes? Food and drink are the very first, then toxins in our food chain, our environment, exercise, stress………. I will be writing more about these in the future.
Do we really need to medicate our children diagnosed with ADHD or are the French psychiatrists showing us the way, the way to look after our children and nurture them?
Meanwhile, we have to start thinking about who has got treatment for ADHD right, the French or the US and other “Western” countries?
