Ritalin Cures Next Picasso

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
You're just a sack of chemicals anyway. What difference does it matter to you if you chems are balanced by talking (not as successful) of by pharmaseuticals (much more successful?

The problem is we are so complex that nobody can be absolutely sure what these external chemicals do to a person's body.

Take aspirin for example. The drug has all sorts of side effects. So far, these effects seem to be good ones, yet experts are still not sure if they have found all of it. Aspirin is an old chemical that has been studied extensively. What about newer ones?

[Bereta_Eder]

On a side note, aspirin should not be given to children below a certain age. It is forbiden since there proven dangers for them if they are taking it under a certain age. Also those with allergy to penicilin/kefalosporin should also do good to avoid it. [/end side note]

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DetroitDave
The fact that Prozac is the 2nd or 3rd leading prescribed drug in the US leads me to beileve that depression is a symptom of our screwed up society, and not an affliction in and of itself.

Just because a bear is biting you on the ass doesn't mean your ass doesn't need stitches. Just because our sick society screws people up royally doesn't mean they don't need to be treated.

You have to ask yourself, what the heck is up with a society where the vast majority of people are unhappy. Over 60% of Americans are overweight (food addicts), then there are drug addicts, shopping addicts, gambling addicts . . . this is a fundimentally unhappy society. It needs transforming, not the people. Unfortunately, we're nowhere near ready to replace this society with a better one.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by DetroitDave
I dont like the idea of personality-shaping by chemicals.

The fact that Prozac is the 2nd or 3rd leading prescribed drug in the US leads me to beileve that depression is a symptom of our screwed up society, and not an affliction in and of itself.

Same with these kids. It strikes me as odd that this ADHD or whatever is only a phenomen in a few western, industrial countries, where kids are exposed to constant stimulus like TV, video games, and computers. Haven't heard of any kids in Nepal or Brazil with ADHD.

Yes, taking drugs to affect your neurochemical balance is unnatural, but so are the circumstances we live in and have to deal with. I have just recently started taking prozac for depression. If you have to live with depression and anxiety like I have had to do, you will understand why...

[Zero]

If anyone watches boston public, there was an episode like this. Kid was uncontrollable in class, and parents wanted him on ritalin. But kid was an amazing pianist, and he didnt want to stop playing the piano

[Demerzel]

so the child was hyperactive but using that hyperactivity to draw, and the answer is to stop both using drugs?

The most comical thing is that at the end of the report its says..


"Castellano's parents reported that the cured child no longer tries to draw everything in sight, calming down enough to show interest in television."

So they stop him drawing to make him watch TV?? Most parents try to stop their children watching TV and make them do something better for them, drawing for instance.

f*cked up quick-fix parents of USA imho.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
You're just a sack of chemicals anyway. What difference does it matter to you if you chems are balanced by talking (not as successful) of by pharmaseuticals (much more successful?

I love how people think brain disorders can be cured by will power or some such, but then don't deny the power of alcohol to make people drunk.

When I was a child my parents medicated me, I hated it(and am still somewhat mad at them for it)......I felt like it made me a different person, and that it wasent me, eventually I just REFUSED to take them(with severe punishments following.....though I still wouldnt, they even tried putting it in my food etc.....got pretty bad, after a while I just stopped eating in my house). BOOM puberty kicked in, symptons went away.......meanwhile I have friends who had the same problems I had at that age, whose parents gave them these kind of poisons, and they built a dependancy upon it, so today when were both 19, my friend Steve still has a dependency on the stuff-while I dont.

Im not one of those people who scream "Blame Alcoholics because they like Alcohol!" I fully understand brain chemistry determines much of our behavior-I even accept homosexuals are that way because of genetics-GASP!. I am NOT some back water fundamentalist hick who disbelieves everything we know about the brain, but from my first hand experience I know we medicate many more kids then we need to, or should.

Any drug which fundamentaly changes WHO you are-so you'll stare at a chalk board easier is no less barbaric and self serving then the "doctors" of the early 1900's who used electro shock on mental patients to make them easier to manage.

[Jac de Molay]

Just because a bear is biting you on the ass doesn't mean your ass doesn't need stitches. Just because our sick society screws people up royally doesn't mean they don't need to be treated.

This assumes the treatment itself is a cure and is beneficial. Prozac and other similar drugs don't come close to meeting either criteria.

I do information and document retrieval in libraries for a living, and spent about 3 years handling side effect and adverse effect materials for Eli Lilly, a lot of which was passed on to the FDA.

You wouldn't believe the staggering amount of adverse effects and drug cross-reactions these drugs produce: everything from seizures, Parkinson-like symptoms, to death. The only reason Lilly hasn't been successfully sued is because they were lawyered to the gills, and willing to pay out huge settlements to keep people quiet.

And still the doctors dispense this stuff like candy.

If you have to live with depression and anxiety like I have had to do, you will understand why...

Actually I do, so I can sympathize. I've decided to take a holistic approach for the severe depression and anxiety I suffer, which includes intensive exercise, proper sleep, good nutrition, and meditation. Depression, like any chronic conditions, requires a plan of action and commitment of time. IMHO, pills are too much of a shortcut. I did the Paxil and felt even worse.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by DetroitDave

The fact that Prozac is the 2nd or 3rd leading prescribed drug in the US leads me to beileve that depression is a symptom of our screwed up society, and not an affliction in and of itself.

Americans are so overmedicated now that concentrations of prescription drugs, especially anti-depressants, are starting to show up in our water supplies, and they don't know how to filter them out.

A friend of mine is in a fight with his ex-wife because she wants to put their kid on ritalin. Now this is a kid who is reading LOTR by herself at the age of NINE. This is hyperactive?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
You have to ask yourself, what the heck is up with a society where the vast majority of people are unhappy. Over 60% of Americans are overweight (food addicts), then there are drug addicts, shopping addicts, gambling addicts . . . this is a fundimentally unhappy society. It needs transforming, not the people. Unfortunately, we're nowhere near ready to replace this society with a better one.

You can't change society, but you can change your own life style.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Demerzel

The most comical thing is that at the end of the report its says..


"Castellano's parents reported that the cured child no longer tries to draw everything in sight, calming down enough to show interest in television."

So they stop him drawing to make him watch TV?? Most parents try to stop their children watching TV and make them do something better for them, drawing for instance.

f*cked up quick-fix parents of USA imho.

I think someone should point out that The Onion is a satirical U.S. newspaper. They started a big scare a month or so back when someone read one of their terrorism articles and took it for real. Can't remember the details, though.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Static23


Americans are so overmedicated now that concentrations of prescription drugs, especially anti-depressants, are starting to show up in our water supplies, and they don't know how to filter them out.

A friend of mine is in a fight with his ex-wife because she wants to put their kid on ritalin. Now this is a kid who is reading LOTR by herself at the age of NINE. This is hyperactive?

His ex-wife should be shot........there is no need for that child to have Ritalin if he is reading full length epic novels at the age of nine....


Static-I credited theonion with it-look about 4 posts down on the first page.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Just because a bear is biting you on the ass doesn't mean your ass doesn't need stitches. Just because our sick society screws people up royally doesn't mean they don't need to be treated.

You have to ask yourself, what the heck is up with a society where the vast majority of people are unhappy. Over 60% of Americans are overweight (food addicts), then there are drug addicts, shopping addicts, gambling addicts . . . this is a fundimentally unhappy society. It needs transforming, not the people. Unfortunately, we're nowhere near ready to replace this society with a better one.

I believe that is called "transference." Just because you're not happy doesn't mean that everybody else is unhappy.

(And I wouldn't take what's on this board as a measurement of what "society" thinks/feels - having been one myself, nothing is more insufferable than a whiny 21-year old know it all who thinks he's better than everybody else and has all the answers, but is unhappy because the rest of the world is too stupid to pay attention. )

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Static23


Americans are so overmedicated now that concentrations of prescription drugs, especially anti-depressants, are starting to show up in our water supplies, and they don't know how to filter them out.

(emphasis mine, JT)

CITE!!! RIGHT NOW! TO SCHOLARLY SOURCES AND NOT ARTBELL.COM!!!!

Sorry, but I can't let you get away with this one. Jeez, what some people believe because it suits their predilections!

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by JohnT
(emphasis mine, JT)

CITE!!! RIGHT NOW! TO SCHOLARLY SOURCES AND NOT ARTBELL.COM!!!!

Sorry, but I can't let you get away with this one. Jeez, what some people believe because it suits their predilections!

I didnt even think this was worth mentioning.........ANYONE with half a brain would realize this is COMPLETE and utter NONSENSE........the VAST majority of american drinking water comes from aquifiers deep, deep below the soil.

Rain water which falls today, takes 50 years to get into that water in many areas......

Then factor in the small % that antidepresents take up in a humans body, then the small % that it urinated/excreted out, then factor in the 5 miles of soil it goes through till it gets to the water table.....

This is a REDICULOUS claim.