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Revisiting this topic...I just had a conversation with a young man who admits he is extremely depressed and has suicidal thoughts. Unfortunately he will not even consider therapy because as he put it "I'm not crazy." He also tells me that he has too much faith in God to take medication.

I pray to God that he gets the help he needs and doesn't continue to suffer needlessly.

I reacted so strongly to this thread because I believe that some of the things written here are why people like this young man won't get the help they need.

I've only gotten halfway through the posts on this thread, but I simply have to interject something here.

My little brother, at three years old, was too much for my mom, a single parent, to handle. She went to a psychiatrist to help her not become abusive. They put my brother on Ritalin for "hyperactivity" (that's what they called it back then). He was the skinniest, palest, littlest kid in his class. One year when he was about 10, he went to summer camp. The camp nurse told him that if he would behave himself he wouldn't have to take his pills. He did behave, and the nurse told my mom about it. My mom was able to take him off the medication permanently and use the mere threat of putting him backon to keep him in line. So apparently he didn't like being medicated. Anyway, he actually grew and got some color in his cheeks and became a normal looking kid. But now he's gay. I often wonder if putting such a young child on this type of drug messed up his hormones.

When I was 18 my mother was diagnosed as manic depressive. She had lived a normal fulfilling life until that point. But once she was diagnosed as manic depressive and put on drugs, she became the most helpless, spineless person I have ever met. Her life for the past 19 years has been one of group therapy and doctor appointments.

I don't think labelling someone and putting them on drugs for the rest of their life is the right answer. Yes, my mother was depressed and suicidal. She probably needed short-term drugs and therapy. So yes, there is a place for psychiatry. But not the modern psychiatry that diagnoses everyone with the disorder that is the flavor of the day, and treats them all the same. I remember that when my mom was first diagnosed, there was a woman in her group that had miscarried twins and been diagnosed as manic depressive because of her anger and depression over losing her children. Come on, it's only natural to react that way!

To the person who has Catholic psychiatrists in their family: Great! In general I think psychiatry HAS become a godless profession, and it's about time that changed. Would there were more Catholic psychiatrists around. People who recognize the sanctity of life and recognize that drugs aren't always the answer. People who know that love cures a multitude of ailments.

I think we have all met people who have been helped by medicine, just as we have all met people who seem to eager to rely upon it.

I have a dear friend who had OCD to an extreme. We just thought he was quirky and hoarded stuff; but he lost control and eventually became depressed - dangerously so - he became afraid to be alone with himself and his thoughts. He is brilliant. He is religious. He also took up to three hours to leave his home in the a.m., having to return again and again to see if the stove was off. He fixed this fear by declaring the kitchen off limits. Then he'd go back again and again over the tub and realized he needed to get some help, because he couldn't go anywhere or do anything without these rituals. I don't know why he did those things - it's easy for me to think, "hey, why don't you just stop?" - but I'm not him. And he was declining rapidly.

At the other extreme, one of my sister-in-laws is insistent that every time her kids don't listen to her is more evidence of ADHD, despite what doctors have told her. She was trying to get her second grader and her pre-schooler on pills. Why? Because the little girls absent-mindedly kicks their legs when she's happy (woah, big crime there!) and the kids run around the yard and don't come right away when she calls them. The kids have no problem in school. She tried to get the older one "treated." Fortunately, the doctors she went to would give her pills, suggesting that part of childhood was exuberance and, these days, kids are so scheduled that when they act like kids, we are all shocked. There is some responsibility in the medical profession, really.

Speaking of shock, I have an elderly relative who had shock therapy and medication to follow. She was profoundly depressed, suicidal, and hopelessly confused. She didn't know where she was. Some of these therapies are not what they used to be, especially in the hands of compassionate medical people. When she did die (at nearly 90), she was at peace and in control of her faculties.

There has to be some common sense. I agree with something you said earlier, Jennifer: When people need medical help, they seek it. There is a stigma for people whose problems seem to be focused in the mind or the brain. That shouldn't be. We should not drug people, or over-drug people, out of convenience - I was so encouraged to find out doctors turned the aforementioned sister-in-law away. Her reasons were wrong and, although she didn't mean it that way, potentially harmful.

But my aunt and my OCD friend needed the medical help. My aunt was a devout Orthodox Christian. Her priest was involved in her recovery. I think he had a lot to do with it. But he, like everyone else who loved her, supported the good medical treatment she received. Therapy and medicine got her back on her feet - she was on few medicines (most for physical conditions) when she died.

Gaudior,

I agree that this story is indeed scary. Adderal is a powerful drug. In some children with ADHD/ADD, it appears to have the effect of disrupting factors which cause hyperactivity, thus allowing them to focus and accomplish things that they would otherwise be unable to do because of frenetic behavior and a mind that races far faster than they can cope with.

My son is currently on a low dose of it and has been for about 4 months now. In his case, it has accomplished what proved impossible with any of 3 prior meds and has made life more pleasant and safer for him, and considerably less stressful for us and his baby sister. But, there is nothing I would like more than to be able to jettison it; at the moment, I don't believe that it's practical or good for him to do so. As he gets older and can hopefully bring more impulse control to bear through his own inner strength and maturity, I am hopeful that the time will come that allows us to put it aside - but I don't know with certainty that this will be possible.

It was prescribed for the high school age daughter of my best friend, also afflicted with ADD/ADHD, a few years ago. For this sweet girl, whom I've known since she was carried off a plane as an adopted infant 17 years ago, it has made a world of difference also. She is now able to channel her incredible energy in useful, fun, and personally satisfying ways that have included sports participation and vastly improved school performance versus the prior years when, despite a variety of medication trials and non-pharmaceutical interventions, she often most resembled a whirling dervish, unable to focus long enough to accomplish anything.

Both she and my Conor are much like Daniel's godchild, lovely dreamy children with very intuitive ways. The difference is that with this medication they seem to have an opportunity to explore their creativity, exercise their imagination, and learn - without being in a constant state of physical and psychological turmoil. All is not perfect - give Conor an apple and, for all practical purposes, he may as well be back in his drug-free state, distracted by anything and everything, unable to concentrate long enough to express a thought, frenetic in his physical activity - we live and learn what his triggers are.

As someone who is vehemently opposed to medicating children in circumstances such as Annie describes with her neices, I still must acknowledge that there are times and instances in which medication, properly selected and appropriately dosed, allows a child or adult to function in circumstances in which they might otherwise have never had the opportunity.

Many years,

Neil

My godchild, it should be pointed out, was never frenetic, and was capable of extended periods of concentration -she was a voracious reader. She was inclined to daydreaming, and often inattentive to her parents' instruction. I am convinced that it was a mistaken diagnosis, based more than anything else on her parents' very different temperments.
While it may be true that sometimes these drugs can be helpful, it is also widely accepted that they are overused.
-Daniel

I've personally witnessed two lives being ruined by psychiatric diagnosis. A lady I had known to be intelligent, outgoing, althletic and hardworking for over 12 years, began having bouts of severe depression after the sudden death of a family member. Quite an understandable reaction, but at the same time she was still able to hold down a regular job. After being persuaded to see a psychiatrist, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a short time later she quit her job, lost her apartment and had to move back into her parents home. Almost a year and a half later, she's an unemployed recluse, afraid that she may never be able to hold a job again because a "highly trained professional" told her she's schizophrenic.

Another friend of mine, was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder about 14 years ago, and since then he's been on a variety of medications with only negative results. In that time I've watched him become increasingly anti-social and manipulative, threatening family members, neighbors and even co-workers while becoming amazingly civil and cooperative when the police have been called in. This friend has had little contact with me in recent months after I told him that his number one problem was not with Bipolar Disorder, but rather with self control. Unfortunately his parents had a long history of tolerating and excusing his every action many years before he was diagnosed. Now as a side effect of his medication, he also has Diabetes to contend with.

The problem with your anecdotes Lawrence is the lack of a control for comparison. What would the progression have been if there had not been a diagnosis or treatment? It is fair to say that diagnosis and therapy did not help. It is fair to say that errors in diagnosis and therapy are sometimes made. But the idea that the diagnosis ruined lives goes a bit over the top.

Daniel,

Could not agree with you more. My only issue is with those who fail to understand and believe that they do have a place and a use.

Many years,

Neil

I think you have hit on something of real significance here. While there are many kids who benefit from medical diagnosis and treatment, there are others who could be helped greatly if we teachers were allowed to beat the parents severely. Oh well, wishful thinking.