You know, it just struck me why Douglas Cootey and I are like oil and water.
It’s the Charles Barber issue.
Cootey, like Barber, projects his experience with ADD (serious in both cases, please don’t get me wrong) onto others’ experiences with unipolar and bipolar depression. (In Cootey’s case, projecting also his difficulty taking medication for ADD onto those with depression too, which is downright infuriating — Barber goes in the same direction, of course.)
THEY’RE DIFFERENT DISEASES.
All you have to do is look at any school playground today to see that America’s kids are overmedicated for ADD.
All you have to do is go to any hospital to see that America’s adults, unknowingly suffering from depression, are if anything undermedicated.

Larry: You’re 100% correct in terms of the over medication of ourldren! What’s weird for me as an educator was discovering that most HDAD meds (ike Ritalin)are actually a kind of speed but rather than exacerbating the activity as speed does for adults, it actually slows things down for kids. Early on in my stroke rehab, my pdoc put me om=n speed to attempt to jumpstart exeutive functioning, but it made me so shaky I couldn’t handle it. Strangely enough, he recommended that I actually take it shortly befrte I took my on-oad driving test in order to be relicensed (Maybe if I had, I might have passsed; who knows but the shakiness it caused didn’t see like an apropriate state of mind for driving to me– isn’tthat
‘t that why there are DUI laws on the books?My own experience with the generic ritalin made me wonder if perhaps all those who advocate medicating children shouln;t have to take the drug themselves for a space in time to see how it made THEM feel. Certainly a child with ADHD presents a different set of needs within the classroom setting, but so do sleep-deprived children (a major side effect experienced by many children who are medicated.) I watched several little ones fall asleep in class on mornings they “forgot” to take their medications and while it surely made the teacher’s life easier, the child(obviously) got no value out of his or her schooling on those days.

I have experienced a different route for a child with ADD. My son was diagnosed at 8. he is now 18, and very capable, well adjusted and mentally , and physically healthy. I gave him Glyconutrition by the time he was 9 on a daily basis. At the time it was touted as a great alternative to drugs, then mostly Ritalan and Aderol were the lead management drugs for children. I can tell you that it was the best choice I could have made. Not that he has been the drone student that teachers wish for so that all goes smoothly through out the day, but he has learned that his capabilities are high, his potential is strong and it is OK to challenge in conversation, when it is appropriate. And he hasn’t had the mentaland emotional ups and downs, i see medicated children go through in teen years. I feel treating ADD/ADHD in this way and being a positive , and supportive parent will raise a healthy child into a capable and healthy adult. I would reccomend anyone troubled by the drugging of children with social and academic difficulties really think twice about what we are doing as a society. Look at Glyconutrition as an alternative, along with other nutritional changes and positive emotional support. Nothing is worse than a child who thinks he or she is broken and needs a drug to fix them. What kind of a message are we sending? I can help with Glyconutrition info and ordering. I have been educating about this for several years.
Only one company holds the patten for a true glyconutritent. Don’t buy the fakes, they aren’t the same.

Hi. I’m a mother with an ADHD Kid and I believe that those drugs for ADHD cause drg useage. My son Hasbeen giong cold turkry for 1 year now. He’s coming , slowly, and healthy. I would like to find out more info about the Glyconutritent.

Parker, you continue to prove how little you’ve read my blog, or understood what I’ve written. Please provide a link where I project my experience with ADD onto unipolar and bipolar depression, or where I confuse ADD with Depression. You seem to excel at making assumptions about me that are not only hurtful, but regrettably ignorant. It’s truly a shame.
As for me, I have both ADHD *AND* Depression. I don’t project one onto the other. They are separate issues that I deal with. Treating both conditions with medication damaged me neurologically 15 years ago. I am an American on disability and have been disabled since I was 25. I struggle with Depression and, thanks to the meds, Chronic Motor Tic Disorder, each and every day of my life.
The Depression I can manage and keep from significantly impacting my life, though days like today are difficult. I usually just have to ride it out. Sometimes ADHD can trigger Depression as in the case of Depression After Success (when an ADHD mind comes out of hyperfocus). Sometimes Depression can worsen ADHD by adding to the mental fog, but the only person confused about how I deal with the two issues is you.
How you can take a silly ADHD moment (i.e. the example Therese claims is evidence of my brain shrinkage. Thanks, Therese! :p) into an opportunity for ad hominem attacks is beyond me. I often will do silly things to lift my spirits when Depression is overwhelming. You should try it sometime. You sound like you’re overly grumpy. Be sure to visit my blog and leave a link to the photo if you decide to join in the fun.
Margaret, it is an interesting paradox that speed class ADHD medications have a seemingly opposite affect on the ADHD mind. The best way I’ve heard it explained to me is that the medication, such as Ritalin, cranks up the ADHD mind as well, but in this case the impulse center, which usually mishandles impulse control, benefits from the increased activity can finally compensate for the ADHD. The effect is behavior that outwardly slows down, though internally the mind is racing along at a hefty clip.
Andrea, would you please follow the link of the photo above and post information on Glyconutrition? I’m sure your heart pales at clicking on the face of an Adult with ADHD so demented as I, but rest assured that my mother still loves me and my wife of 19 years found the photo quite funny. Well, funny looking at any rate. A quick browse over at Google for Glyconutrition shows an awful lot of snake oil salesman. I’m sure my readers would love to benefit from the research of bona fide links you have done. Or you can contact me via email. There is a link on the sidebar of my blog. I agree that it is a terrible thing to teach ADHD children that they are broken. I am helping my own ADHD daughter to like herself and to control herself. ADHD can be an asset if we learn coping strategies that prevent its detriments from destroying our lives. Great comment.
Tina, I haven’t actually heard that before, but I can see how it could happen in some individuals. For me Ritalin and its ilk didn’t lead me to drug usage because Ritalin had no high for me. It worked for a while, and eventually stopped working (which led me to new medicines as an adult that damaged me), but never promoted recreational drug usage. Obviously, I can only speak for myself. Do you feel Ritalin influenced your boy? If so, I’m sorry to hear that and I’m glad he’s doing better.
Therese, brain shrinkage? Now really. LOL My elastic face has nothing to do with ADHD. But I’m afraid my compulsion to be silly in front of a camera does. Sometimes I am thankful for my ADHD because it has helped me with my Depression due to these impulsive silly moments I have. My mother was less than enthusiastic about it, especially during family portraits.
~Douglas
☆ The Splintered Mind – Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Douglas:
You remind me of a certain blogger on this very Web site (a political guy, not Therese) who is far too sensitive about his comment boxes — so much so that he kicked me off because I made clear I don’t agree with his extremist ideology.
But at least he got angry about his own comment boxes, not those ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BLOG.
(Of course, as I’ve told you many times, your blog puts a virus into my computer and shuts it down, so I CAN’T read it.)
BTW, it’s not an ad hominem attack from everything I’ve read from you on THIS blog.
I’m sure you’re a great person (and I have never doubted you suffer terribly from your various ailments, AS I EMPHASIZED ABOVE).
I just don’t agree with you on the topic of the experience and treatment of mental illness. At all.
A disagreement (both speaking from our own experiences, mind you) that is worth going to someone else’s blog and reaming out a comboxer?
Puh-leez.

PS — Since you have said I disrespected you for not calling you “Douglas” in the past, might I remind you that my first name is “Larry,” for future reference.

Larry, I only used your last name since that’s how you referred to me. I’d love to be on a first name basis with you.
I do admit I’m a bit puzzled by your “virus” comment. I don’t have any viruses on my site. And I have no plugins that force-install things onto people’s computers. I admit I own and develop on a Mac, but I test my website on PCs and I have many readers who access my site with a PC without trouble. Perhaps it was a browser issue on your end? At any rate, I welcome you to come back and give it another try.
As for your comments on commenting: I’m not angry. I don’t type angry. And I comment here because that’s where people are commenting about me. That should be logical enough. I wish people from Therese’s site would leave comments and start a dialog over on my site, but they don’t and I find myself back here again. Then I read critical comments from people such as yourself and I can dismiss our differences in opinion, but when you make assumptions about my motives, criticize how I handle Depression, or accuse me of hiding weapons of mass destruction again, and I feel compelled to speak up. Call it a weakness.
But you mustn’t think that I “reamed” you. I am merely as openly opinionated as you. However, I do find it humorous that you consider posting here some sort of safe haven, as if there’s a commenters code of conduct where we can only defend ourselves on our own site, or that you are free to criticize me here but I am not free to defend myself here. But there I go again being openly opinionated.
Be that all as it may, and to get the conversation back on topic, Therese’s original purpose was to tease me and I’m afraid your displeasure with me was so intense that you failed to get the joke. My photo was a silly little ploy to pick up my spirits. Because I have ADHD my methods are a touch zany, but then that’s just how I am. My methods are not for everyone, but I do wish you could have laughed along with Therese instead.
~Douglas
☆ The Splintered Mind – Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

Douglas:
I was a journalist for years. You have the First Amendment right to chase people you don’t like just because they disagree with you to “ream” them (which you most certainly did) on any Web site you want, this one or otherwise.
I just consider it extremely strange behavior for a mainstream, recognized blogger. Honestly, don’t you have better things to do? (And — though yes, I know you and Therese have had a colloquy on this point — shouldn’t a certain amount of emotional immunity to criticism come with the territory of blogging?)
THOSE were the motives I was criticizing. NOT the motives of how you (it seems understandably) came to your views about medication, etc., much as I disagree with them.
On another point, I said “Cootey” on second reference because Therese had already supplied the “Douglas” on first reference. Sheesh.
BTW, I wasn’t at all making fun of your picture. It was cute, actually.
What it did, though, was REMIND me of the issue differences I have with you, and I made a link in my mind between your views and those of Charles Barber (whom I have discussed ad infinitum on here). And thus, I wrote about the comparison, however ill-founded you find it.
Or does the First Amendment only apply to you?
PS — We’ve been through this virus argument before. Splintered Mind crashes my computer at home, EVERY TIME, for whatever reason. It doesn’t on my work computer, however. So I now have access, theoretically.
But of course, at this stage, you’re not exactly the most welcoming blog host in any case, are you?

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