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Monday, November 18, 2002'We have an obsession with performance in our country,'' says Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., and the author of two books on A.D.H.D. ''We have a universal performance enhancer in Ritalin. It helps anyone, child or adult, A.D.H.D. or not, to perform better. It was inevitable that there would be this drift down to the 3- to 5-year-old set.'' That’s true. I have had adults ask me for it, too, because they have trouble concentrating and are convinced they have ADD. I always refer them out to a psychiatrist for evaluation, though, largely because I’m only all too well aware that I could stay up later and concentrate better if I took amphetamines, too, and I know I don’t have ADD. Flipping through the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders on a recent afternoon, Breggin read aloud from its list of A.D.H.D. symptoms: ''Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork. Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat. Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed.'' He scowled. ''There is no disease,'' he said flatly. ''It's a list of behaviors that annoy adults.'' That’s true, too. It’s the “something has got to be done but not by me” syndrome of teachers and parents. Having said that, however, there are also genuine cases of ADD, such as the boy described in the article. Some kids just seem to be wired wrong and certainly benefit from medication. They are in the minority, however. I worry about the kids who are given drugs more to help their parents than to help themselves. Are we denying ourselves future explorers and heroes by taking away their sense of adventure and daring? Only time will tell. posted by Sydney on 11/18/2002 08:14:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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