Adrianne Scott
English 105
November, 9, 2014
Elissa Abbott
Addiction to ADHD medication Once your child is born and you see their face for the first time you grow a bond with your child that is unbreakable. As your child begins school you receive a phone call that your child is not performing well, causing issues in classroom, and not paying attention. You take your child to the doctor and explain to them the issues that are going on and then you are told your child suffers from attention deficit hyperactive disorder known as ADHD. As you are sitting there taking it all in you are unaware of this disorder and ask for more information. You are handed a pamphlet with possible treatment options and top websites to research for unanswered questions. You choose to give your child medication in order to treat there ADHD but the question is what is the long term effect that the medication have on their life. Doctors make mistakes each day giving out misdiagnoses, giving medication that can cause them to become addicted, and giving out medication with strong side effects that could harm a child in the long run. ADHD is the most common misdiagnoses used within our children. By making an A.D.H.D. diagnosis, we ignore and stop looking for what is really going on with the child. A.D.H.D. is almost always either Teacher Attention Disorder (TAD) or Parent Attention Disorder (PAD). "The kid who is inattentive could be inattentive because he has ADHD," notes Dr. Steven Kurtz, the senior director of the ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. "Or he could be inattentive because he is worried about his grandmother who's sick in the hospital, or because he's being bullied on the playground and the next period is recess” (Inattention child mind institute). These children need the adults in their lives to give them improved attention (New York Times). Instead of going on the teacher or parent word the child needs real psychosocial and medical evaluation in order to receive the proper diagnoses and they will respond quickly to improved teaching and parenting. When a child behavior tend to change as they become older we tend to think something is wrong at home or at school but have we really just sat down to see what is wrong with our children. A lot of times children lack stimulation at home to where the parents are tired from work, single parent with no help with a lot on their plate, travel a lot, or allow others to watch their child while they go out all the time. Those examples I just gave will cause your child behavior to change due to lack of stimulation not spending enough time with them, not listening to their problems, non-affectionate, and they don’t know you because your life is a daily routine to where you not pay attention to your child. The day your child acts out you are sleep deprived, depressed, or just to the point you are upset with your life choices you tell your doctor about it causing them to live with a diagnoses of ADHD taking medication that can harm them because you didn’t ask what was wrong you didn’t pay attention. The study found when teens were an average of 15 years old, 35 percent of those with ADHD said they used one or more substances, compared with 20 percent of teens without a history of the disorder, Science Daily reports. Ten percent of teens with ADHD experienced significant problems from their substance abuse, compared with 3 percent of those without ADHD (February 12th, 2013). We are diagnosing and drugging millions of our children instead of providing them the improved educational and family life that they truly need (New York Times). Our life can be Hectic and filled with challenges to where we may not pay as much attention to our children as we need to going off the doctors word. As your child is taking medication for ADHD we are told that medication like Adderall or Ritalin can improve their lives until
