A Warning for the Over-Diagnosed

AD/HD is described by most experts as resulting from “abnormal chemical levels in the brain that impair a person’s impulse control and attention skills”. The use of medications targeted towards those with AD/HD comes with a long list of “possible” side effects that can be psychologically, socially, educationally and even physically harmful to the person taking them. The reason why this researcher chooses to use the word “possible” in relation to “side effects” is because there is a possibility of a child not developing a small handful of the listed effects, but they will always suffer from at least one.

 

A child taking Ritalin for example might develop a combination of appetite loss, facial “twitching”, paranoia, hallucinations and night terrors, while another who takes Adderall might notice an increased heart rate and blood pressure, drowsiness, headaches and tremors to name a few. The most terrifying part is that regardless of which medication a doctor may prescribe, there is not a big difference in side effects among AD/HD medications and the children risk carrying the effects with them into adulthood even if they cease using the medication, “I started having some really bad dreams and wouldn’t eat,” Jaime Mansfield, an adult who was prescribed Ritalin when she was diagnose with ADHD at the age of four, confessed in an interview on how the medication was mentally and physically harmful for her:

 

They [the doctors] started out giving me a small dosage that gradually grew larger as I got older or as they decided the medications ‘weren’t working’. After a while, my nightmares got so bad that I didn’t want to sleep and food was unappealing. At one point, I would eat a piece of toast and that was it for the whole day. Then I started having facial ticks, or feel like my face was breaking out, and would start picking at invisible spots until sores appeared. When I started feeling drowsy even at school or in the middle of the day, my mom finally decided to stop giving me the medication but even without taking it, it was a while before the ticks stopped and I started getting hungry like normal. The nightmares haven’t stopped, though, and I still get drowsy unexpectedly at times.