Over Medicating Children

Alright ladies and gents and whatever entities and/or beings end up reading this. Lets talk about medication and "living better chemically", which I have plenty of issues with already, and add to that children. Today my beloved and significant other gave a presentation on over medicating children.

That sparked a brainstorm in me and a long social musing and reflection in my head and even though we were short on time and the rest of the class didn't have any interest in it, like they have no interest in anything no directly related to them and their egos, that's a rant for another time. As is randomly noting that "Ring around the Rosie" is based on the horrid and disgusting symptoms of the black plague.

So I do not believe in living chemically. Why? because we're equipped not to do so and willpower and patience should be exercised more than pumping ourselves with chemicals when it comes to our problems and illnesses. Sure I do understand some people do need it of course but it is so widely and casually distributed and used. i heard this article that a child was medicated and put in a psychiatric hospital because of a temper tantrum... thing is this child wasn't a teen, he was 6. So people have a pill for everything these days and blindly trust doctors, who are as corruptible as any other human being. As she very well mentioned some pharmaceutical comes over and tells them, directly or indirectly, this is our new, refined, best pill, "Prescript it as much as you can". Hell one day you'll go to your psychiatrist's office and those bowls they keep around won't have mints or jellybeans it'll have antidepressant samples.

So to continue with the fun fact that she mentioned Ritalin's warning ad says that it may cause sudden death and it struck me! How much stuff? How many? How many of the things we buy have warning ads? 80-95% of them? Hell the packets of peanuts they give you in airplanes say "may contain peanuts", microwavable food says "Will be hot after heating" and every drug prescription or not will make you dizzy, nauseated, have cramps or suffer mood swings or a combination of those just to give a scant example. So guess what? I realize I included and most people don't bother reading them anymore because we are so used to it and well there's a prime example one says may cause sudden death and thousands of children take it everyday.

Then they get all of these stupid names like defiant bullshit disorder and hyperactivity something syndrome. Well you know what before your obsessive naming kind came along kids were just kids, some harder to raise than others. They weren't children whose fate was in the hands of irresponsible parents and doctors who'll up the dosage to keep him down. How is it right to dope a child? He has no right to say no I don't want it. if he technically does what happens behind closed doors in a house and the pressure and atmosphere that forms is nothing that has to do with technicality.

So you know what i think? the parents are the problem more often than not. Don't get me wrong some kids are little demons that need to be toned down maybe even artificially. However giving them pills is not in any way or form the solution and that is exactly what it is being used as. He stops reacting to the dosage, up it. Parents who just want their kids out of the way the easiest quickest way. The disturbing factor is how young the children are, as times goes on parents and doctors get bolder and bolder. I mean six? and that mom that they say she killed her child by doping it so she could go party. That is twisted by any standard I can set and yet it is setting insidiously into society like something normal and acceptable.

These drugs have not been thoroughly tested on children and the consequences have not been felt yet but at the rate it is becoming popular and the scale its taking I'm sure we'll feel the consequences somewhere over a decade or so. To close this off I repeat myself. Drugs are not the solution, there is an age limit as well because the repercussions cannot be felt yet and lowering the age limit is something that should be strongly and analytically taken apart with a conscience and patience not by the fickle tides of capitalism and consumerism. I have no problem with the drug being something used in conjunction with therapy, communication and a spirit of self-help. Yet it is a serious and unnerving issue that it is used for turning children into zombies for their parents benefit and leisure and adults into legal junkies. The housewife who can't wait to get home to take a Valium and pass out on the bed is no better than a junkie lying with a needle stuck in his arm passed out in a gutter. It is also more often than not the parents, who may or not abuse prescribed medications themselves, the source of the problem and not the child and when the child does develop "problematic behavior" for the parent they take the fastest, proven and easiest route to block out the problem. Drugs.

Legal ones, because that you can't mellow your kid out with Marijuana 24/7 doesn't mean you can take him to some quack doctor and shove Valium down his throat and get the same result you wanted so you can forget the responsibilities and challenges of parenthood.