Antidepressant Seen as Effective in Treatment of Adolescents

People said that to me too, but I strongly disagree.

When I was in college I studied my ass off. It was insane - I had zip social life - I practically lived in the library. Always scared to either loose my scholarship or not being able to get the job I set out to get.

At work I spend just as many hours, but at least I got a nice paycheck and when I am out drinking, I don't think about that termpaper.

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. Our connected world has evolved (revolved) much faster than the education and understanding of it ever has. Media tell us that even the dumb can be popular and many people struggle to understand that everyone has this notables-potential though, but this doesn't necessarily mean to become prominent. Life is hard and always was.
In our connected world everyone's able to get info about what one likes/wants/wants to be/dreams about etc. The tough task is to use this ability in a healthy way and to KNOW that only a few will manage EVERYthing to their satisfaction.

I could understand that side of it too. I did my fair share of work, but tried to enjoy myself too. I knew that it wasn't going to be any easier once I got out of school, so I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. School is tough, I am not saying it isn't, but once I was out in the real word, things got a lot tougher.

When a quarter of my generation is doped up to make them more docile for school, when parents are accused of being child abusers because they express concern over putting their 7 year old on Ritalin for simply being a rambunctious child, I think its pretty fair to say that we are overreacting. Perhaps overdosing is a better word.

I'm not talking about average, everyday John Q Publics who go about their work and life, I'm talking about schools and physicians doping kids with Ritalin, Prozac, and Luvox for simply not wanting to sit still and straight in chairs for 8 hours a day. I have no problem with adults (or even teens, or parents taking their children) going to the doctor and saying, "you know, I've been having X, Y, and Z problems, is there anything you can do" and he prescribes a medication. Got no problem with that, I think that's just standard medicine. But to give children psyco-active drugs (sometimes over their parent's consent no less) just 'cause they can't "get with the program" is just wrong. What would you call it?

Perhaps I overstated my case with the percentage. I apologize. What I meant to say (and really should've clarified) is the medicating of children with "diseases" like ADD, ADHD, etc and so forth, is way over the top, and I believe well over the majority of them are falsly medicated. These children are medicated because its the easy way out. No one wants to ask the questions like "why does little 7 year old Johnny fidget in class?"

So mental illness that seems so obvious today was just harder to see 50 years ago? Our grandparents and parents had blinders on when it came to mental illness? These new problems just popped into existance in this new generation? If so, why do you think that happened?

Quite right, quite right. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going through and ending up, well...for lack of a better phrase, not fine.

Adrian

this I agree with you.

yes, yes and no. It was harder to detect back then, because not as much was known about mental illnesses as there is today. Plus, even though our society is far from where we should be, depression is more acceptable today then it was 50 years ago. So, in a sense people did have blinders on. Hence, people are more likely to commit themselves to treatment than 50 years ago. Pluse, doctors are more apt to detect it than only 10 years ago - when a someone was just labelled an 'outsider'. Again, I am NOT talking about ADD, but rather depression in all shapes and forms.

I agree, but that is the parent's fault. Sometimes there are Johnny's that do have a problem, but a lot of times, Johnny just needs a swift kick in the arse.

Sometimes the parents are definetely at fault.

When Ashlea was on placement for her course she was shocked at the amount of parewnts the school had to phone up and tell them to come and pick up their kids because the parents were too drunk or ****ed up on drugs to remember or know what time it was.

actually shocked me and i dont come from a particularly nice scheme or went to the best primary school.

But in some cases its a genuine problem. I used to be really sceptical about stuff like ADD and thought the kids just needed a good kick up the arse from someone but a kid came into my work a few months ago and he was just wrong like running around swearing and stuff but I didn't get the impression he was wanting attention or just acting up he did seem to have somethign wrong with him. Just a feeling i got and then the woman he was with apologised for his behaviour and said he had ADD.

Absolutely. I have had students who just can't control themselves, and I have also had students whose parents can't control them. It does work both ways.

I submit that there are definitely real mental illnesses that children get, no dispute there. But ADD and ADHD is used to explain too many symptoms of adolescence. Moodiness, temper...crap, the system sometimes medicates boys who act too aggressive, too...much like boys, I guess.

Also, I think its easier to assign a kid a "disease" like ADD or ADHD than to really discipline him/her. Once a kid gets a label, the parents, especially if they don't really care, find even more reason to let the parenting slide, since they can justify it with the excuse of the "disease." I'm not certain if that applies in Jim's example of the boy in the store, but it sounds like it to me. I do not think these diseases exist in the vast majority of cases in which they are diagnosed. I think they're just an excuse for the school to medicate, to dumb down the kids who hate school, to force them through chemical means to "get with the program." They're also excuses for parents to give up on parenting, to justify everything their children do. Again, I do believe that there are mental illnesses that children suffer from, but I believe the vast majority of ADD diagnoseses (definitely spelled wrong!) to be a some combination of a lack of discipline, typical childhood or adolescent behavior, and an all too common lack of purpose.

Adrian

I think you look way too deep into some things Adrian and sometimes come up with things you want to be true or present but isn't necesarilly so.

but I agree that it can be a cop out. he's got ADD all we can do is give him his pills and what not