Remembering Ritalin

I was at the park one day with one of my kids, who was about 6 or 7 at the time. He was wriggling, as kids do, when another parent looked over and asked, “Is he ADHD?” I was horrified.

Later I learned that several of the other kids at the park were on Ritalin. I heard the subject discussed several times and most parents nodded understandingly, as though drugging your kid was the most normal thing in the world. That may seem like inflammatory language but these were parents who apparently did not appreciate it when their energetic sons let off steam. They were just being kids. Then one parent would say “Oh he looks fine now but you wait and see what he’s like when he is off his meds.” Those parents had persuaded themselves that there was no choice but drugs. Over the past decade I think there has been a swing back in favor of counseling, which is a good thing, but statistics indicate that millions of kids are still on Ritalin. If I have learnt anything about kids, it is that you have to be patient and ride out the bad times and yes, if it is difficult, it does eventually get better and drugs may rob the child of his or her independence.

This week I was reminded of this on seeing a new book out, “Remembering Ritalin: A Doctor and Generation Rx Reflect on Life and Psychiatric Drugs,” by Dr. Lawrence Diller. He caused a stir in the ‘90s by arguing that ADHD was over-diagnosed and recently he revisited some of his old patients (who had been on Ritalin) to see how they were doing. If you are interested in this subject, this is the book to read. Here is the Amazon link and here is an excellent LA Times interview he did last month. The bottom line for me is that affluent kids survive these difficult teenage years pretty well, but families who are struggling financially or with substance abuse or with the juvenile justice system or zero tolerance policies at school are forced into medication as a last resort and many of those kids are still messed up long after they become adults.