Hidden Dangers of ADHD Medications
ADHD Medication: Harmful or Helpful? In hidden dangers of ADHD medications essay will be an attempt to give an answer. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is also known as ADHD is a disorder that makes it hard to pay attention and control impulsive behavior. It often begins as a child then persist as an adult making it hard with their self-esteem, relationship also school and work. Recent studies show that Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder has plagued roughly 30-60% of people on a global spectrum, marking it one of the most common and even accustomed mental disorders in the modern world. With much of the population affected globally, medications have evolved in order to keep up with the alarmingly increasing diagnosis rate.
Context
In the early 1900s the first child was diagnosed with ADHD and he was described as “an abnormal defect of moral control in children,” he was found that he couldn’t control his behavior but still was smart. He had just not ADHD but also organic dryness, hyperkinetic syndrome, and attention-deficit disorder. After finding out about his symptom’s doctors now overdiagnosis childrens where it puts up red flags to where the doctors relay on heavy pills and medicalizing normal behaviors. In the twenty centuries you may have heard of Concerta, Dexedrine, Ritalin, Strattera and Adderall as one of the medications that should be taken as one of the benefits of reducing the symptoms of ADHD but this might change your mind on why you should reconsider those meds. Those drugs may bring back the symptoms or make it worst, addiction to the drug, can stress out the brain to the point it might cause other problems, and withdraw. There have been a lot of publicity about how the drugs prescribed for ADHD have been abused throughout the world. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with the child but parents, teachers, and doctors have high awareness to think that its ADHD and be ready to treat it and that’s when they get the diagnosis goes wrong. According to The National Institution of Mental Health children might have ADHD if they “Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless they are doing something enjoyable” I disagree on that statement because that should never be classified as one of the symptoms of ADHD. Todd Elder, Associate professor at Michigan State University states that “nearly one million children have been misdiagnosed with ADHD.” This usually happens because of teachers, parents, and doctors judging the child by their attitude or behaviors towards other children’s in their classroom or their surroundings.
A documentary was released on Netflix called “Take Your Pills” which have gotten a bad review because it was insulting people that take pills such as ADHD meds, depression etc. They interview students that takes pills on the regular some says that the pills work such as functioning right but have them feeling numb and funny. One student said that without the pill she wouldn’t make it to school but along the lines she states “feel like crap all the time but oh well” this shows how that taking the pill might be a good advantage but ends up changing your child personality and mood. For them to get through the day they rely on medication and they school system wants kids to be on med if they have ADHD so they won’t disturb the other students around them. Psychologist Gretchen LeFever collected a data in 1999 pointing out the geographical of over prescription showing that in southern Virginia 8 to 10 percent of kids in the second through the firth grades received stimulant of treatment with 5 percent of the students not meeting the criteria for ADHD. This points out the increase number of mistreatment and the students that doesn’t have ADHD taking the meds will start having the worst affect because they don’t have that disorder or doesn’t have a disorder at all.
Central Argument
Adderall is a combination id medication containing four salts of amphetamine and its used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. Canada had to step down from selling Adderall because they had 20 sudden looses out of 14 that were children. The Canadian retracted the sale of Adderall XR because the death rates going up from the dosage of the drug. Adderall can increase heart rates, decreases in blood flow, and opening up breathing passages this drug can also result in having experience a high feeling like cocaine users. The FDA warned people that the stimulant drugs could lead to mood swings or symptoms of psychosis like hearing things and paranoia. If I was a parent, I wouldn’t have my child taking these medications because its changing who they are. For example, they might start being aggressive and hostile and might end up develop a bipolar disorder. Just because your child has a lot of energy and have a hard time to sit down still for an extended period of time doesn’t mean that have ADHD. Adderall is not the only drug that is harmful Methylphenidate can cause skin discoloration and loss of skin pigmentation.
Stephen V. Ferrone, PhD states that “the diagnosis of ADHD is based on how the patient respond to questions, it is possible for people to pretend that they have ADHD, when they do not” that statement makes me wonder in how they construct their diagnosis because it should never be based-on questions. It shows that doctors have mistaken ADHD and bipolar disorders because of their similar symptoms. Some kids can be misdiagnosed and don’t be suffering any kind of medical conditions but simply being kids. “My ADHD made me viscerally uncomfortable in my own body, desperately bored, and so impulsive that it was maddening. I often felt like I was crawling out of my skin,” this quote by Sam Dylan Finch remind me of the interview I had with my teacher about the impact of having this disorder and he felt like it was something he can’t control and it makes him mad. My teacher points out that sometimes he felt like he wasn’t remembering things to the point he has to repeat himself and it was annoying just not to him but his family.
Michigan State University economist states “1 million children in the United States are potentially misdiagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder simply because they are the youngest and most immature in their kindergarten class,” the number of children being misdiagnosed is high because there’s a lot of confusion with the symptoms being related with something else.
Conclusion
While these mediations were indeed created to combat the effects and hardships of this medical phenomenon, certain effects stemming from such medications have led to nationwide debate on whether these drugs do more harm than good and how doctors can be false diagnosing the individuals.
