For many years, Ritalin and Adderell have been the most common treatment for the symptoms of ADHD. Many people, including doctors, who should know better, still believe that children suffering from attention deficit disorder have a “birth defect” that distinguishes them from supposedly “normal” children; as a result, central nervous system stimulants, such as Ritalin, have a “paradoxical effect” (the theory goes) on them, calming them down and helping them focus, rather than stimulate them. In a recent article from New York TimesDr. Alan Srouf of the Child Development Institute in Minnesota disputes this theory and shows that these drugs had exactly the same effect on radar operators during World War II; He also found that "all children, regardless of whether they had problems with attention or not, responded equally to stimulant medications."
In other words, children suffering from ADHD symptoms do not have a congenital defect, and there is no evidence of the alleged "paradoxical effect" of the most common ADHD medications. Ritalin and Adderell are stimulants — the “elite,” as we called them during my youth — and everyone who relied on them to pass the exam understands their short-term benefits. Like other amphetamines, these drugs help you focus your attention and tackle “boring” tasks (for example, study the endgame of your biology) for a long period of time - say, everything is fine while you're cramming.
As the body adapts to these drugs, short-term benefits often disappear (just as short-term benefits from antidepressants disappear after 6-8 weeks). They also have unpleasant side effects, such as insomnia and loss of appetite, a feeling of dullness and changes in personality; they were also associated with intermittent psychotic episodes. Anyone familiar with the side effects of other drugs that affect the neurotransmitters in the neural synapse (for example, SSRI) should ask whether nerve damage can also be the result of prolonged use of Ritalin and Adderall.
Like adults who stop taking SSRIs for depression, children who stop stimulating ADHD symptoms also show a “rebound effect”; their behavior worsens, which then convinces parents that the drugs really “work” when, in fact, their children's bodies adapted to the drug in their system and reacted strongly to his conclusion. Adults may have a similar answer if they suddenly stop drinking coffee or stop smoking. For similar reasons, the worsening of the symptoms of depression after cessation of use by SSRIs often convinces patients that the drugs actually “work”.
Due to the aggressive marketing of APA and the pharmaceutical industry, along with the almost universal desire to believe that psychiatric problems and social problems can be solved by taking the pill, doctors and parents began to rely on medicine as their preferred treatment, especially when they hear about research showing brain abnormalities in children suffering from ADHD symptoms. If you are familiar with the work of Allan Shor, you know that brain abnormalities are also the result of failure in early attachment during the first year of life. It is likely that the symptoms of ADHD and brain scan abnormalities found in children suffering from these symptoms by experience.
Since 1995, Dr. Srouf and his colleagues at the Minnesota Child Development Institute have followed 200 children born into poverty, thus more vulnerable to behavioral problems. His and other epidemiological studies have shown that the child’s environment is a better predictor of the development of ADD problems than IQ or children's temperament, including activity level. These studies tell us that what happens to you during infancy and early childhood will determine you (and your brain) for life.
I have close friends whose son, prematurely born, suffers from ADHD symptoms. His premature birth and the experience of those early months of life regard his family, equal and academic relations to this day. I know others who are suffering from attention deficit disorder, with family experience, full of chaos and instability, which probably influenced the development of ADHD symptoms. Helping someone recover from such an early shortage is a difficult and complex task; it is much easier and deceptively comforting to believe that you can prescribe your way out of the problem, rather than trying to do something for the complex interaction between social problems, family fragmentation and neurological development. In a similar vein, it is much easier to buy the common opinion that SSRIs will cure your depression than face the facts: a significant difference in your state of mind means participating in the complex and long-term work of psychotherapy.
