Almost everyone knows that we live in a pill happy society nowadays, but few people are willing to take actions to change this. People bemoan the overuse and misuse of prescriptions, yet when they go to the doctor they want pills almost every time. In some ways, this is understandable. When you're sick, you want to be treated. Being told that you will get better with time or with changes in your lifestyle is not as reassuring as being told that a simple pill can make everything better. Yet ultimately, by using medicine when other solutions might suffice, we fail to address the underlying problems.
I got an attention deficit disorder diagnosis when I was about 13 years old. I had been having troubles in class, and my parents brought me to the doctor. He did what most doctors did back then and what most doctors still do. He gave me attention deficit disorder medication. There are many different attention deficit disorder medications, but Ritalin is still by far the most common. My parents were anxious for a quick solution, and my doctor thought that he had found one. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple.
Don't get me wrong attention deficit disorder medication does make some positive changes. It helps you to study and focus, calms you down, and takes the edge off of anxiety. Nonetheless, it also has some pretty bad side effects. Anyone who has taken Ritalin will tell you that it makes them feel stoned. You feel disconnected from your surroundings and unable to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. Although there are new attention deficit disorder medicines nowadays, almost all of these have the same unfortunate side effect.
An even bigger problem with attention deficit disorder medications is that when they are used, no other steps are taken to fight the ADD. The doctor was quick to write a script for attention deficit disorder medication, but he never bothered to send me to someone who could help me with my study skills. You see, giving someone with ADD a pill doesn't immediately fix things. It helps us to concentrate, but they still have the same problems with organization and time management that they did before. There would be no problem with people using attention deficit disorder medication in addition to other kinds of treatment, but usually it's one or the other. Like thousands of other sufferers of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, I never got the help I needed.
3/07/2015
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