Drugs and Kids

Schools kill creativity. The one-track modus operandi by which all schools seem to live and breathe stifles imaginative thinking. Our education system grew out of the industrialization of America that occurred during the 19^th century. Rather than educating the full human, we focus and build upon one area of the brain. Our education system exploits humans in the same way in which we exploit the Earth. Since the turn of the century this phenomenon has only been perpetuated. But in the early 1990s new drugs treating Attention Deficit Disorder and similar disorders were brought to the market. These new drugs were more expensive than the ones used in prior years and thus provided an incentive for aggressive marketing. Around the same time the FDA deregulated the industry allowing for direct company to consumer advertising. Since then the rates of ADD diagnosis has tripled. Today, about ten percent of children have been diagnosed with ADD more than half of which are receiving medication.

            I became aware of this growing problem when two of my friends were diagnosed with ADD in sixth grade. My friend Collin’s parents started him on Vyvanse, while the other friend Dillon’s parents declined. Over the course of the next few years, Collin grew distant and removed. While his schoolwork improved a bit, he stopped going out on the weekends and hanging out with his friends. On the other side of the spectrum, Dillon continued to struggle in school with a C average and constant trouble. But through all of this, he continued to have fun, play the guitar and do things he was truly interested in. We all went to high school together and gradually Collin stopped taking his Vyvanse. He began to come out with us on the weekends and he started playing lacrosse again. Slowly, he returned to his old self. And while he still had to focus more than the person next to him in class, he got by. By eleventh grade he had told his parents that he did not need or want the medication. Adderall, Vyvanse, Concerta, and other drugs like them can and do help kids who actually need them. But the numbers that truly do is a fraction of those taking them. These drugs can often lead to more serious disorders when used at too young of an age. In adults the side effects are non-severe, but children can be affected heavily. Overuse, or use when not needed can lead to depression, bi-polar disorders, migraines, difficulty sleeping and tiredness. Many factors that road block a healthy childhood.

            In the classroom, yes, medication can be helpful but if that costs children their youth and creativity, then it should not be tampered with. I have talked with my mother, an elementary school teacher, about children being overmedicated. She and the rest of the teachers at her school are required to fill out forms once every two weeks about which kids are being rambunctious or unfocused in class. The way the system works is if a child receives a certain number of complaints from enough teachers, their parents are called.  From there it is up to both the counselor and parent’s discretion whether or not to take their child to the doctor to check for ADD. Too often parents and counselors take the easy way out and go to the doctor.        An subjective process of a doctors diagnosis follows the equally subjective process of deciding whether or not to take a child to see a doctor. Because there is no definitive test that determines whether or not a child has Attention Deficit Disorder the doctor will usually just do what he or she feels, or what the parent is pushing for. Drugs that can tamper with or even ruin a child’s pre-teen and teen years should not be so readily available to any parent who is fed up with their kid. The only defining characteristics of Attention Deficit Disorder are hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity. All of these “symptoms” can be a product of neglect or simple boredom. To rob a child of his or her interests and passions is not worth the focus that these drugs offer. I asked my mother about these bi-monthly reports that she has to fill out and she explained that she has never given a child any assessment that would point to ADD or ADHD. She realizes, working at a Title One school in Baltimore that the kids are unruly and rambunctious simply because they need an outlet for their energy. When no outlets are provided at home this energy can be disruptive and problematic in the classroom. She comes homes with all types of stories about what the kids in her art classes do. Whether it’s laughing at a bodily function for far too long or getting sidetracked by a bee on the ceiling her students need constant attention from her in order to complete their assignments. I feel that my mom sees the brunt of it being an art teacher in Baltimore for grades Kindergarten through fifth grade.  Her students will drive her up the wall some days but she can always come home and laugh about it. I’ve been in her classroom once and sitting in on her classes for a day made it easy to see how some teachers get frustrated and write kids up repeatedly. But it is not the kids that need to be “fixed”; it is the system in which they become “disruptive” or “impulsive”.

            I have seen the effects of over diagnosing and over medicating children in two lights and there is no doubt in my mind that it can be harmful. The practice of over-medication needs to be slowed. We need to take steps to both educate the public about these drugs and their effects while also placing more stringent regulations on the corporations that produce them.