How medication screwed up my life.

Eh, I don't know how many of you are aware of how much psychiatric medication can screw up your life, but for all of these people that are currently taking any doses of any psychiatric medicine, you aren't seeing them for their real self. People go on medication because they are diagnosed with some disability. The children has no say. The parents tell the doctors what they think is wrong with their child and the doctors supposedly say back to them what disabilities they think their children has, and they subscribe them over-prescribed medication.

Medication has screwed up my childhood. For the first 10 years of my life where I could perceive things-- I was given something to alter my perception. The material that they gave us at school was too boring at me, so I didn't pay attention to it-- so my parents thought I had ADHD and they made doctors give me ritalin. The ritalin made me do well but instead of learning the material at my school I began mimicking math problems and mimicking everyone else and I was unable to create any sense of originality with my thoughts, claims, or ideas.

Recently, one year ago my parents thought I had asbergers and autism, so they had me put on Abilify-- because of the same problem again, fortunately I was 17 when I had the problem. Once I was put on it a few months before I turned 18, I stopped taking it frequently-- and once I turned 18 I stopped taking it for good.

Psychiatric medication is no good for your child. Whether a teacher thinks your children needs it is an invalid excuse-- that means that the teacher isn't teaching enough interesting material-- or that the teacher fails at teaching what they're supposed to. Make sure that your child sees a psychologist. Medication will do nothing good.

I was told that the ritalin medication would have a reversing effect on ADHD-- but they just thought that I had ADHD because I was uninterested in learning the material in school, and the material was boring... when I was put on this new medicine abilify-- I didn't like it at all, and I wasn't even told what it did, and so I had to spy on my parents to even find out what it did. Eh, honestly, don't put your children on psychiatric medication, it will screw up their lives. Since I turned 18-- I have stopped taking it-- and I haven't felt better than this ever before.

You sound alarmingly like a Scientologist.

Psychiatric treatment CAN be beneficial. However its overuse is one of the bigger problems with America these days.

You shouldn’t be telling people to avoid it altogether; just to give it a good deal of thought rather than bending to the will of teachers, school admins and school-board-funded psychiatrists.

Maverick, good for you man. scientologist or not you are on the right track. I don't believe in medication either, except for immediate pain. Like you have an accident and you need morphine for pain, i'm all for that. but I don't belive in giving childrin mind altering drugs..or any adult. I studied psychology too and for now, it's all theory, there is no way a doctor could know how a drug might affect your brain. it's all speculation to this point. I don't take drugs and I don't belive in things like prozac or anything for depression. drug free is the way to live. I think you should have quit earlier in age and not let people tell you what to take. there aren't enough studies out there, but there are drugs for everything.


I live drug free..and yes, I am a scientologist.

There are so many medications out there to fix whatever problems you have, thanks to the pharmaceutical companies. There are no shortage of doctors who will happily prescribe medication to fight anxiey, depression, Restless Leg Syndrome, etc. Why? Because the more doctors prescribed these medications, the more money they make. It's all a giant racket and the people are the one's who will suffer.

I don't take medication of any kind because i don't like the idea that a chemical is helping to "right" my wrongs. I think i can right my own wrongs without chemical assistance, and i save that chemical for recreational drugs from time to time. My wife, on the other hand, has been addicted to klonopin for the last 13 years because it was prescribed to her when she was young.

Medicine for physical issues is one thing.

I don't believe in using drugs to modify a person's behavior, especially kids. I was diagnosed with ADD (which IMO was BS) as an 80's kid and was put on Ritalin. I hated that #. I was a very active kid and when I was given the drugs I'd feel doped up and just not there. The school thought it was fantastic because they would rather have me stoned than being an occasional pain in the ass. I stopped swallowing them and eventually was taken off.

Unfortunately for a good buddy of mine, his experience with Prozac didn't end up well. Back in 1996 when we were teenagers, one of my boys by the name of Kurt Danysh was put on Prozac. He was a cool dude, one of those people who was always chillin' and having a good time. He'd moved out of town to live with his Pops around the same time and unfortunately I only got to see him one more time.

He came back around town and seemed all messed up. He seemed like he was not all there, all weird n #. He was with his boy Rob who was like his right hand man. Something just wasn't right with him, and word was it had to do with some medication they were giving him that I heard might be Prozac.

A couple of days later in school, I saw Kurt on the front page of the newspaper wearing an orange jumpsuit. He'd killed his father during a psychotic episode.

He'd never talked greasy about anyone, never started trouble or got into it. And suddenly something forces him to kill his own father. Man, I can't begin to imagine what he must have gone through leading up to pulling the trigger, but it must have been hell. I sincerely hope that he is able to make it back to the outside and have another shot at living life.

www.kurtdanysh.org

[edit on 9/4/07 by vinrock]

I am a parent who has a 13 year old son on meds. I wish I had some alternatives but you have to realize that when a parent is told that they either get professional help or must take a child out of school due to behavior we have no real choice. I am sick, with myself and the pharma industry that all this is true.

My precious son started acting up in school in the second greade, never sitting still and paying attention, wandering around..maybe its all normal for some but in reality the schools have to have kids sit still and listen.They have tried all sorts of drugs. They started with the ADHD stuff and after years of seeing my son remain small, in a family of big people, and seeing him get worse, I stopped all speed drugs, like Adderall, etc. He right now is in a special facility to get him to be able to return to school and home; he takes three meds right now and is doing OK. It broke my heart to read the OP's story..please do not blame parents as we are no more able to deal with things than anyone else.

The system is set up to treat people this way. I would LOVE to stop all meds but that would mean my son would never be able to live a halfway normal life. He was supposedly the victim of ADHD..and then they said Aspergers..and now they are not sure..some undefined psychotic illness..They are not sure what he has. ODD perhaps, maybe something else. But he is a sweet and giving little guy and innocent too. He never wants to harm anyone, just to be friends..but so many kids tease and bother ' special ' kids that it is heartbreaking to parents.

I wish I could stop all of the meds, but that would be worse than they way it is now..hopefully one day soon we will be able to stop al meds and he can live a normal life..but until then I really have no choice. It is a terrible situation, damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am really lucky that my son is bright, intelligent and can do school work easily if he can pay attention. He feels like the other kids are looking at him..staring..and he will challenge anyone he feels is staring at him. This leads to issues of course.

He looks perfectly normal, a regular kid, but he knows he is ' different ' and thinks that others can tell just by looking at him, which of course they cannot. But it doesn't help him to deny that they can tell..he is a little paranoid but not too much. No one can know the tears a parent sheds over a ' special ' child..we want to protect them and keep them from hurt, but in this world that is not possible. It is a cold and cruel world and he has to learn to let things go, even if he thinks that they are real.

best of luck to all and this thread really hit home for me..I like to hear from kids who have been thru the meds and tell us what the deal is. thanks.

Originally posted by eyewitness86
I am a parent who has a 13 year old son on meds. I wish I had some alternatives but you have to realize that when a parent is told that they either get professional help or must take a child out of school due to behavior we have no real choice. I am sick, with myself and the pharma industry that all this is true.

With all due respect, why are you letting a government school tell you to medicate your child?

Is private or homeschooling not an option?

the widespread over prescribing of psychiatric meds often by family doctors or GPs makes me livid. Especially the overuse of antidepressants with no real warning or understanding of the severe side effects they can have for many people.
They put my husband on prozac after a single panic attack while he was grieving the loss of both parents within 3 months of each other. He became irritable, tired all the time, he slept constantly, was devoid of motivation or emotion, had no sex drive and was like a zombie.
the prozac gave him every symptom of depression so rather than take him off they upped the dose.
three weeks later he was having migraines daily, was spaced out and having depersonalization spells and just seemed ill. when he asked the doctors he was told it was his depression still acting up, give it more time.

it all culminated in 3 grand mal siezures, the loss of his job and another month of recovery while the meds left his system.

within 2 weeks of going off the medicine the headaches were totally gone, he was bright and energetic again, his appetite was back, his drive was normal he was my husband again.
no one will willingly link the prozac with the problems, despite the fact that he was never depressed, he was grieving which is normal, and despite the fact that his symptoms came and went with the prozac.

there is very little difference in testing, behavior and outcomes for undereducated and underchallenged gifted children and those diagnosed with ADD and sometimes ADHD.
However there is another set off issues such as trouble remembering basic routines, losing important things constantly, getting bogged down and overwhelmed, feelings of shame for not being able to live up to the potential you know have, because the work isnt hard you just always screw it up somehow, by not doing it or losing it, or forgetting it was due that day etc.
These also can be attributed to many a famous intelligent person as well as ADDers and gifted children alike.

The american school system is totally unequiped to deal with creative bright children who think outside of the box. IT is a system set up to create conformers and adults who dont ask too many questions.

i do however think that what is commonly also called AHDH which includes aggression, defiance, oppositional behavior, emotional outbursts and more is something else entirely than the above description.
things like parental consistency, gentle firmness, a system of rewards can help a lot of times, but sometimes these kids have major issues that go way beyond ADHD.

i am ADD and i am an adult, i wasnt diagnosed until my senior year of high school. before that they said depression, anxiety and some bright doc told my folks i had borderline personality disorder...absurd every teenager fits that profile.
i wasnt depressed though, i was just a bit of a trainwreck, horribly disorganized, constantly frustrated, tired all the time, always missing appointments, assignments, and i felt like an idiot because i knew wasnt one but did all this retarded stuff to make my life miserable.

I made the choice after talking to a good doctor and doing some reading on my own to go on medication.
It was literally like a fog had been lifted
honestly i would have great difficulty doing all the things i do daily as a mom, and business owner, and pet caretaker, and maid and cook and doing them successfully without my medicine, i just tend to get overwhelmed and shut down.

BUT
i would never put a young child on ritalin or adderral or any of the other add drugs, nor would i put a young child on any other heavy duty psychiatric drug unless as a very last resort to improve their quality of life.

So, I was put on ritalin before, as I said, and what I went through was horrible. I had to take the medicine every day. On the days that I didn't take the medicine, my hands were shaky, so I was forced to take it every day, or apparently it would screw up my system. They thought after that I had ADHD when I had a major depression, after that teachers thought I was an asbergers person. Do you think I am the kind of person that:

From www.mayoclinic.com...=2
Signs and symptoms

Signs and symptoms of Asperger's syndrome include:

* Engaging in one-sided, long-winded conversations, without noticing if the listener is listening or trying to change the subject
* Displaying unusual nonverbal communication, such as lack of eye contact, few facial expressions, or awkward body postures and gestures
* Showing an intense obsession with one or two specific, narrow subjects, such as baseball statistics, train schedules, weather or snakes
* Appearing not to understand, empathize with, or be sensitive to others' feelings
* Having a hard time "reading" other people or understanding humor
* Speaking in a voice that is monotonous, rigid or unusually fast
* Moving clumsily, with poor coordination
* Having an odd posture or a rigid gait

The signs of ADHD are compulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness. I was misdiagnosed for ADHD because teachers pointed out to my parents that I had trouble in school socializing with other people and they thought this was the cause of me having done so. Yes, I may sound close to a scientologist but they're right about this drug thing, it's a lot worse than you think about, and most people don't think about how much damage the drugs to do the patients. In a sense, I felt high because of the medicine causing psychological damage to me and inflicting impressions upon me from the medicine. The medicine made me go really crazy, and I went psycho because of it.

[edit on 4-9-2007 by Maverickhunter]

medicine is not perfect...that is why you go to college and get certified to 'practice medicine'..

sadly, painkillers and physhotropics are two of the most commonly distributed drugs and wrongly distributed at that.

that said, if properly diagnosed, these drugs can work wonders....

this is a HUGE factor in having side effects or having the medication not work properly and that is MISUSE.....

these are meds that are you supposed to follow the directions on to the letter and people don't.
you have to ween yourself onto and off of these drugs. people double up, mis doses, etc etc and then they wonder why it don't work.

or, they try say paxil and it don't work so they write off the entire class...lexapro don't work. prozac don't work. etc etc......

i don't like when people spread the message of these drugs are not good for you....they can be horrible for you but each person/situation/needs/means is totally different.....
it can not be a certain way across the board...

i take certain meds that i don't want to be on and that my doc would rather me be on something else but the insurance won't pay for it any longer and i don't have the $1557 per month that these meds cost, so, i take smething else.....

in short, when you have an illness or multiple, you do the best you can...
you can't tell people what is best for their kids cause YOU had a bad experience....CERTAINLY docs prescribe meds to people that don't need em....thats why you get a second opinion and you educate yourself and such and i am not talking the wiki on this one...

when i started the meds the ins pulled me off of, i wanted info so i went to the website. they sent me a free welcome kit with ALL KINDS of literature on it and a lock box with a lock and key to keep it stored in...


stop listening to tom cruise

Originally posted by Boondock78
you can't tell people what is best for their kids cause YOU had a bad experience....

So what happens to those people's kids when they grow up realising they were drugged for most of their childhood in school? When they realise that all those drugs for all those diagnosis were a waste of time, except perhaps for the teachers?

Maverick here is someone's kid grown up who is telling us what it is like as a child to be given (forced) psychiatric medication and what his thoughts and conclusions were; the Tom Cruise remark was uncalled for.

Psychiatric medication should be the very last resort for a child... damn it even if it means suspending classic education until they grow older and can be given medication as an adult. We cant just give children medication because they are disruptive in school. Take them out of school, do something else with them - the education system should be creative!

i higly recommend the book Beyond ADD by Thom hartmann, it is insightful and a really interesting perspective that focuses on the positives of having this brain type.

the thing about antidepressants is that they linger in the body for a very long time, they also cross the blood brain barrier so no one is really sure to what levels they build to in the brain.
the side effects are widely varied and hard to pinpoint, and they take a long time to show up, in some cases having permanently changed the persons chemistry, making it so they cant get of them, this is a problem with paxill and zoloft especially.


I briefly took ritalyn several years ago and it was horrible, i was sick to my stomach, out of it, and miserable, i took it for three days and went back to my other medicine, which i still take today.
It is in and out of my body in a matter of hours, even though i have been taking it on and off for years it takes about 48 hours to normalize when i go off for whatever reason.
It helps me tremendously with my daily life, gives me the ability to successfully accomplish at all that i have to do, without dropping any crucial balls, or having a breakdon because i am so overwhelmed and frustrated and behind.

I will admit that sometimes it is necessary to place your child on medication. These mental defects are real and most can be controlled through the proper dosage of prescriptions. However, I do believe that some doctors are too quick to diagnose a child and too willing to pass out potentially dangerous medications.

As a child I began suffering from horrible migraines and my mother eventually took me to a special clinic to find out what was wrong. The doctor looked at my family history and saw that I have a cousin with epilepsy; so, obviously, he diagnosed me with epilepsy as well (even though I had never had a seizure) and prescribed tegretol. His personal belief was that children can't get migraines so there must be some sort of neurological disorder.

I was only nine, but I knew that I couldn't think properly when I was on the medication so I shortly began flushing the pills down the toilet to avoid taking them. After a couple months my mother caught me and I had to explain why I wasn't taking them. She then took me to another doctor for more cat scans and ekg's and this doctor concluded that there was absolutely nothing wrong. He told my mother to stop giving me the medicine immediately; it was only migraines and I would probably grow out of them. (I used to get them every month or so, but as an adult I probably have one every two years; so, fortunately, he was right.)

I'm posting this story as a warning to parents. If you believe your child was misdiagnosed don't hesitate to get a second opinion before you medicate them. There are too many risks associated with most of these medications to take them unless they are really needed.

If you are taking an SSRI antidepressant (Paxil, Zoloft, lexapro, etc.) you should be aware that if you stop taking it abruptly you can have a severe withdrawal reaction and quite possibly end up in a psych emergency room or worse. If you want to get off these drugs it must be a very slow taper over several months. Prozac is less of a problem because it has a long half life.

reply to post by WEOPPOSEDECEPTION

I understood that, and so I stopped taking it, and I ended up coping with the problem. When I tell people about this, they don't care, and they're like "Why do you think I care, I don't give a ****". The amount of people that don't care about my problem is underwhelming. I stopped taking the medicine as I turned 18, and I began having high cholestral, due to the medicine, I couldn't lose weight, and I began having so many suicidal thoughts, so it would have been better for me in the long run to get off it. I knew that going off it would cause ap psychological epidemic that damages my mind in the long run, but I figure that I can learn all of the things that medicine is supposed to teach me through books. I am going to be reading books on how I can treat myself, through bibliotherapy. I don't want to have the same medicated thoughts over and over. I already ended up in a psyche room because previously I stopped taking the medications. I pressed the issue on my parents, and I told them that I didn't need medicine, and they almost bought into all of the things that the psychiatrists was saying.

When I chose to get off the medication I didn't tell anyone about it at first until I was near the age of 18 to when I could legally stop taking it. I became a little edgy, and I became unnerved, and I became agitated about things. I did the right thing, I found an author, Deborah Tannen, who is a languist, and I read a book of hers that helped me become more aware of conversational things, and it single handedly saved all of my relationships I had with people on the medicine and all of the friendships that I had with other people.

I'm going to be doing the right thing. You see, my parents want me on medicine because they think it influences me, and changes my psyche to help me do better. They want it to help solve my social problems. You see, I want to be able to be where I was when not on the medicine as I am with the medicine. Sure, that is a lengthy goal, but I don't see what the purpose of taking medicine that specifically treats bi-polar/schizoprenia is, when I don't have either.

Once again, I am going to do the right thing, I will not rely on medicine to help me out in social conversations. I will be reading books about how well I can do in social situations. Maybe this might be a lot of work, but it'll be better for me in the long run.

At risk of being slapped with a point penalty and earning a lot of enemies, I will say that I'm very irritated by MH's frequent ultra-whiny and/or ultraparanoid posts.

And I wager that I'm not alone.

reply to post by uberarcanist

Ultra whiny posts? You're forgetting who is the author of the thread, and who made the topic my friend. If you don't like the topic you can leave. If you don't give a ****, why post in it? Eh, and you're also insulting me by that comment.

Well I'm developing a theory about the plethora of
similar nerve and neuro-transmitter related diseases.

I'm diabetic, type B, but rather than take the pills,
I modified my diet and take a couple additional minerals.
However, I had major diabetic neuropathy in various
joints, a massive degradation of vision and so on, following
a round of chemotherapy I'd been given for breast cancer.

To top it off, I had nerve damage to the motor nerves in
the cerebellum from an encephalitis I contracted in the 90s
which had put me in a full blown coma that lasted 5 days.

All this added up to a lot of neurological problems. So, off I
went in search of answers. I went through the possibility
that it was Lymes-related. But the tests came back negative.
So, I studied gulf war syndrome, and found a match.
the little mycoplasms carried by ticks, which is also related
to encephalitis and lymes disease,
had broken down the insulin function of my pancreas,
creating the diabetes, which in turn created the
neuropathy and the vision damage and so on and so on.

The neuropathy was getting worse.
The doctors thought it was a somatic disorder and prescribed me
anti-depressants. At the time, they didn't know I had diabetes.
Once the diabetes was found and I was able to connect it to the
neuralgia, the next step was finding a solution. Turns out that the
solution may be very very simple. Doctors are having some
success treating autism and diabetic neuropathy with Methyl B-12.

if you're having trouble with insomnia, hyperactive disorders,
problems that are obviously related to the nerves and their
functions (which can compromise neuro-transmitters, by the way,
like chronic nerve related diseases), ask your doctor about Methyl B-12.

P.S. It HAS to be METHYL B-12. Apparently, some people, and especially the aged, don't have the necessary chemistry to break down
B-12 into Methyl B-12, which the nerves and so forth, require in the regenerative process. This can really mess you up badly, I might add.
Methyl B-12 is already converted to the form your body uses. So not
only does it stop neuropathy, help focus and correct some sleep problems,
it also helps the body fix its own nerve degradation.

I'm on it now, but I just picked up a bottle at the health food store. Several companies sell it in oral pill form, but the cases listed in the study claimed
to have more success by giving it in an IV. If you get in dosages higher than 1000mg, I'd proceed with caution. Read the label. A 5000mg dose is too high for daily usage and requires one pill every three days. Depending on your lifestyle, diet and habits, once a day lower dosage may be better, as B-12 is water soluble and breaks down rapidly in the presence of some substances like nicotine and caffeine. ( i think they are similar, molecularly and the nicotine, for example, pushes the B-12 off the synapse or whatever, replacing it.

This may explain why most people with ADD and ADHD, are usually self-medicating with nicotine and so forth, before they are even diagnosed. The nicotine acts on the nerve function like the B-12 should be, and in the absence of the right chemicals to convert the B-12 to Methyl B-12, the nerves are not getting the right dosage of Methyl, so the nicotine takes the spot that Methyl should be. the problems arise in that nicotine does not actually do the entire job Methyl B-12 does, such as nerve regeneration, so
the nerves just become more and more malfunctional. instead, the nicotine creates a sense of relaxation, allowing the person to focus better, that the Methyl normally does, but can't because it isn't being converted by the body for the body to use.

this may be one of those cases where medicine actually works and the solution is elegantly simple.

hope that made sense.

Further reading:
PDF file, Methyl B-12 research by Dr. Neubrander
/36qvjp



[edit on 5-9-2007 by undo]

reply to post by Maverickhunter


Freedom of speech, I'll post as I please. Have you ever considered the possibility that the major woes in your life *are not* the result of drugs or meddling by "the man" but rather by your blaming of external forces for problems completely within your control to correct?

Originally posted by uberarcanist
reply to post by Maverickhunter

 

Freedom of speech, I'll post as I please. Have you ever considered the possibility that the major woes in your life *are not* the result of drugs or meddling by "the man" but rather by your blaming of external forces for problems completely within your control to correct?

Do you mind not further victimizing the OP?
Just leave it be. Sick people don't need well people poking them with sticks.
Thanks.