I have encountered a great many people who have the belief that ADHD drugs and other psychotropic medications WORK on children.

First off let’s define WORK.  What exactly does this mean?

I think it all depends on the premise held by the person saying it.  Many of you operate from a premise that says these drugs do WORK.  I will go more deeply into that aspect as a viewpoint in this essay.  I will also look at it from the viewpoint of Common Sense and Spirituality and viewing from this premise we get an answer that shows that these drugs unequivocally do not WORK.

I know many of you have children of your own or know children who have been diagnosed with varying degrees of attention deficit and non-optimum behaviors that require drug prescriptions according to the opinions of psychiatrists, psychologists and or medical doctors.  These behaviors might include loud or demanding behavior, has trouble staying focused, constantly fidgets or squirms, talks excessively, interrupts, has difficulty playing quietly and many other similar symptoms of which you can find by googling ADHD symptoms.

The premise that psychiatrists, many psychologists and medical doctors subscribe to is that the body somehow dictates the function of these symptoms and that function can be positively altered or corrected by subjecting the body and mind to various chemicals.  If these chemicals APPEAR to remove the symptoms of ADHD then these chemicals are said to WORK.  The child that wouldn’t shut-up can now sit still and be quiet.  SUCCESS!  The child that wouldn’t study mathematics can now sit still long enough to read a mathematics text.  MY GOD, THESE DRUGS REALLY WORK!

That is how it appears, at least on the surface.  I would like to stress that the above is just that though, a premise.  It is not a fact.  Colleges are in the business of churning out thousands of cookie cutter graduates that are taught in accordance with this non-spiritual premise.  It is a point of view.  It is established and carried forward by Institutional Thinking and by those that would most benefit from having drug subdued children.  Those that most benefit are those that want and perceive kids as a physical commodity having a certain set standard of behavior and an optimum personality, a child that is made willing and so that he can be taught within the parameters of modern education. This standard personality is perceived to be most desirable for reasons of institutionalized learning and ease of control in school and social settings.  Anyone falling outside of this perceived norm is classified and labeled to have such disorders as ADHD, depression, bipolar personality, dyslexia or any other of various learning and mental disabilities.  Being classified to have any of these mental and social abnormalities is for the purpose of putting the child into special education programs and onto any of the various drugs designed to bring about an appearance of normality.  This label does not go away.

But I will tell you, children have had and acted out these so called ADHD symptoms from time immemorial.  I am absolutely certain that my friends and I would have been classified and labeled with having ADHD if we were in school with this generation.  We were smart and easily bored to the point of doing all manner of what would have been deemed “disturbing behavior” to modern day psychiatrists and psychologists.  I have to say that we turned out better adjusted than those who would deem it necessary to label us and drug us. These ADHD symptoms are none other than symptoms of being a child and the environmental circumstances within which that child was born and learns to socialize.  Even more basic than that is the child’s inherent personality.  He may be shy or talkative, happy or morose,  mentally or physically handicapped, or any diverse individual traits fitting the gamut of human existence.  To say the least, divorces, deaths, alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence, etc. are all potential detrimental environments that can cause a variety of symptoms.  Too much sugar, caffeine, poor diet and nutrition, bad sleep habits, poor or no exercise, etc. are just as detrimental in the majority of cases.  Everyone is an individual and different.  Some kids naturally have more energy or talk more, can’t sit still, are demanding, etc.  That these things do exist and are affecting the child’s behavior does not constitute drugging as a means to supplant the real issues and the inherent personality of the child.

The others that benefit from the institutional premise are the drug makers.  They benefit to the tune of billions of dollars annually.  They are happy to drug anyone and everyone to fill their coffers.  The School Boards and their Schools benefit through receiving thousands of dollars in State and Federal grant money for classifying kids as special needs.  Parents can even benefit by receiving government support money to help their special needs child.  It WORKS!  Right!

On an institutional premise, yes.  On the humanistic and spiritual premise, it’s a two thumbs down equivocal NO!  These drugs do not WORK at all.  One of the most important entities left out of the institutional premise is the child.  Being drugged does not positively alter or correct his environment or his social issues.  It does not correct his diet, sleep or exercise routines.  Most kids do not want or do not agree with having their behavior modified through the use of these powerful psychotropic chemicals.  They don’t want their emotions pared down to apathy.  What they want is to live life as an emotional and sentient being.  They don’t want to be made to sit in a chair involuntarily and drool or tic uncontrollably as a result of being medicated.  They do not want to be artificially happy.  They are kids wanting to be kids.  They want to live in control of their bodies instead of their bodies and minds controlled by chemicals the like of Ritalin, Adderall, Xanax, etc.

Once under the influence of these drugs a child tends to go out of touch with himself on various levels, he loses touch with reality and real emotional responses.  When he should be sad he is happy, when he should be enthused he doesn’t care, etc.  They become a handicap to themselves because their responses are inappropriate and they are under the delusion that they are acting “normal”.  They can have their depressions and manic behaviors intensified to the point of hurting themselves or committing suicide.  They can become a handicap to their parents and teachers by appearing to be something that a drug altered person is not; in control.  They can secretly stop their medications and have a psychotic break as a direct result of those medications and then pick up a gun and shoot up a school of their peers and teachers.  It is happening more and more at an alarming rate.  These school shootings are a direct result in a majority of cases of psychotropic medications gone very wrong and has nothing to do with guns or unmedicated personalities.

From a spiritual premise and perspective it is a known fact that all chemicals are simply poisons and adversely effect the person on a spiritual level.  In minute quantities these chemicals can have a therapeutic value on the physical level to speed up or slow down mental and physical reactions but they have absolutely no curative value.  NONE.  They are masks.  Several million children are wearing these masks because they are forced to do so by the institutional mindset that has lost touch with the spiritual nature of their species.  When you are talking about health, happiness, sadness, anger, well-being, pain,creativity, communication, passion, etc. you are talking about those things which are part and parcel to human existence.  These are the things these psychotropic drugs are designed to extinguish.  The person is replaced by a chemical personality that is delusional.  He losses his ability to discern the consequences of his actions or in other words he does not have a conscience when it comes to right and wrong.  He is a liability to himself and others even if he doesn’t necessarily appear so.  These drugs do not WORK from a humanistic and spiritual premise.  They are fooling nature.  They are fooling a grossly under informed and naive society.  They are a Pandora’s box full of disaster just waiting to happen.

Richard Rensberry, Author at QuickTurtle Books™