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December 2, 2004
Two Sides to Every Story
A special woman in Nawlins messaged me this morning about a rather incendiary site: World Talk Radio: Annie Armen Live: ADD/ADHD in which the talk show host features guests who claim that proscribing Ritalin for sufferers of ADHD/ADD is a fraud. While I'll be the first to agree that Ritalin is over-prescribed, and more often than not, used for children with behavior problems and learning disorders, they do nothing to explain how it also saves lives, and helps people.
My letter is as follows:
Dear Annie Armen,
While I commend you on your efforts to save children who have been improperly diagnosed or medicated, I am disturbed that your program only presents one side of the issue.
In 1976, at the age of 9, I was diagnosed by a child psychiatrist as "hyperactive." I don't know the status of prescribing Ritalin in those days, but either this physician didn't consider it appropriate or it wasn't in wide use.
My simple diagnosis of "hyperactive" didn't help me in later years. It led my parents to treat it as if it were something "I would grow out of," rather than a chronic and debilitating condition. I dealt with continuous lack of control that caused problems in school--I got into fights with other students, although my intelligence had been tested to be of a genius level, I nevertheless failed necessary courses because of my lack of enthusiasm. I nearly dropped out of school in the twelfth grade, but my mother decided to move us out of town to a smaller (and easier) school, one which I managed to graduate by the skin of my teeth, but in August, after Summer School.
Things didn't get better, however. I went into and left the Air Force in three weeks. I had a series of jobs that I couldn't keep, found the joys of alcohol, and moved around from place to place, always searching for relationships who could deal with me and take care of me. Because of my control problems, those relationships never lasted long. I compromised myself with sexual liaisons and developed HIV.
I discovered marijuana, cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine, which I fell in love with. Strangely enough, it was a drug that immediately made me feel more normal. Suddenly, I was funnier, and I could think more clearly. It was why I wanted to have more...and more...and more.
My abuse of meth grew to ridiculous proportions, well beyond the small beneficial effects, and it didn't substantially reduce my consumption of other drugs. It was during a time that I was seeing a therapist to try to figure out what was wrong with me (I was in denial about the drugs) that my mother read an article on ADD and called me up. "This is you!" she said. I discussed it with the therapist and was tested for ADD. I got on Ritalin soon thereafter and (by some miracle) realized that I had a drug problem.
While my life hasn't been perfect--the Ritalin tends to lose its effectiveness with me over time, and I've switched over to other drugs, such as Adderall and Strattera, I have never had any ill effects from any of these medications, and can only cite the positive influence that they've had.
I've stopped taking the "speedy" medications several times, and my self-control problems returned in spades.
If I had not found Ritalin or been diagnosed with ADD, I might never have discovered that I had a "normal" man inside of me. Between the drugs the HIV and my self-control problems, I'd be in a mental institution, in prison, or dead.
You need to acknowledge that Ritalin helps some people, children and adults both. How many people will die because you haven't told both sides?
You can email annie at info@anniearmenlive.org with your own opinion.
Posted by Bastique at December 2, 2004 11:00 AM