Drugging Our Kids

Several years ago, I met with a woman  who had recently moved to this area.  She and her husband had one son who was 7 at the time.

The woman was having a lot of anxiety, stemming in large part from having moved 11 times since the birth of her son.  Her husband's career success was based in large part on their family moving frequently.

In the course of our initial intake, this woman mentioned that her son was going to be medicated for ADD/ADHD.  Apparently, his private school teacher felt that the boy was a disruptive influence in her class because he had difficulty sitting still.  This teacher had referred the boy to a physician who prescribed medication, without even doing a full  evaluation.  I got the feeling that the physician in question was the go-to resource for this school because of his liberal prescribing of medications to make behavior problems "go away."

I asked my client to reconsider the physician's recommendation, pointing out that if she was having a hard time coping with all the moves, her little boy may be experiencing similar stress that he had even fewer tools to cope with than she.  She said she'd never thought of that.

At our second appointment, I asked about her son's situation.  She said that she had spoken to his teacher about my concerns.  The teacher's only response was to say that if the boy wasn't going to be medicated, he had no place at that school.

I was horrified and said so.  I suggested that with such policies, perhaps this was not the right school for her son after all.

After that second session, I never saw that woman again.

I'm not qualified to assess whether a child needs to be medicated or not.  But neither are many of the people making that determination.  I urge parents to try every other avenue of help for a child struggling with emotional problems before turning to medication. 

For those of you who are really interested in this subject, here is a stellar documentary on the subject.  Thanks, as always, to Michael Ellner, for the link.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26e5PqrCePk#at=115