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Bethany Graham
Dr. Cassel
8 May 2019
When I was about seven years old my little sister Jessica was born.
When she was growing up she was a normal healthy little girl. When she got
to the age of four she started to develop different signs of aggression and
seeming like she was kind of lost when someone would start a conversation
with her. She then began school and teachers started waving red flags and
ADHD. In first grade my little sister was held back. Ever since then she has
taken different medications trying to help her focus in school and not be all
over the place when it comes to the classroom environment. After awhile
Jessica would come home not interested in talking about her day and her
lunch box would still be full of the food she hadn’t ate. She wouldn’t have an
appetite in the evening either. This went on for years. She tried different
ADHD medications until the day my mom took her off them. She got off
medicine the middle of eighth grade year. Ever since then she has been
more active in school and even an took interest in art. Over all those years of
Were they effecting her in a way that maybe she would have been better off
doctors or my mom could have took a deeper look into what was really going
on in Jessica’s head. More and more we come across people who say they
have ADHD and take a medication related to this disorder. Do some of these
people taking medication for ADHD really need to be consuming this drug? I
If you don’t know what ADHD is let’s take a look into a little bit of
history that comes along with this abbreviated term. The term ADHD stands
ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Having this disorder can cause many
different things to occur in someone's day to day life that causes issues.
People may having learning disabilities, trouble staying focused, trouble with
sleep, depression, and extreme highs and lows of anxiety. Not only are
children being diagnosed with it but it’s found among adults as well.
Medication is key to helping people with ADHD. Medicine like Adderall and
Ritalin are the number one medications taken for this condition. Initially back
testified that, what was then called hyperkinetic disorder or minimal brain
In today’s society everyone knows at least one person who claims they
year after year with the number of people diagnosed with this condition.
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Why? Think of someone who has trouble with waiting their turn, moving
sharing with others, and making careless mistakes. Do all of these different
things make you think of a child? Yes, but these are all the different signs of
someone who has ADHD. Studies show that there is at least one child with
examination came from teachers, not parents (Meyer). "Teachers are good at
spotting a child who's different," says Mina K. Dulcan, MD, head of child and
Medicine (Marsa). The child may cause distractions in the classroom or not
pay attention to what the teacher is saying. The child is then taken before a
doctor and with no questions asked most of the time and prescribed
medicine right then and there for it. Barbara M. Korsch a professor of
parents and teachers ignoring all the facts? Jumping right to the conclusion
that taking medicine is going to be the fixer for everything. If such claims are
made that a child may have ADHD there needs to be a careful evaluation
carelessly. Approximately 9.4% of children 2-17 years of age (6.1 million) had
ever been diagnosed with ADHD, according to parent report in 2016 (Data
and Statistics..).
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Some people believe that though a child may have signs of ADHD that
maybe medicine at such a young age isn’t the best route to take. The
64% of the kids on drugs experienced side effects sometimes and 30%
almost always; more than half complained of insomnia, 54% of loss appetite,
and 40% of facial tics (Meyer). Dr. Timothy Wilens stated, “The Medicines
should bring out the true child; they should not be chemical straightjackets”
(Meyer). It seems taking the proper time to evaluate what your child needs
over trying to fix the problem in a fast paced manor, could benefit from your
question that some kids who take this medicine may actually need it. The
problem does not reside there, the problem is that there are to many kids
taking it, who don’t need it. “In the past, diagnosing ADHD was looked upon
with great skepticism, but now it’s almost as if any child behavior problem is
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(Meyer).
comes with the chance of addiction. Most of the time you only hear of people
ADHD can now fall under this category of addiction now. It actually falls
under the category of drugs such as cocaine and and opium. Children are not
the only people who are prescribed ADHD medicine, adults take it as well.
Adderall is one of the largest drugs consumed for ADHD. People who do not
have ADHD and take this drug can have side effects that relate to the effects
similar to cocaine. It gives them a high boost of energy and makes them be
able to focus and get tasks done. The biggest consumers of this drug fall
upon college students. College students take this drug to help them stay up
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and study for a long exam or to help finish long homework assignments.
according to IMS Health (Twohey). With that many people being prescribed
students who come in and say they got it just asking for it at other clinics”
need two things will come from it, they will either misuse the drug, or sell
them to someone else who doesn’t need the medication. When someone
abuses a drug that they don’t need serious problems can occur. Addiction
would come as the number one problem. Students would start to take to
much which would give them the opposite effects. Instead of being able to
focus they would lose focus and not be able to finish assignments. Adderall
makes people stay awake and gives them a lot of energy. If someone is not
able to sleep from taking to much of a substance the effects would become
extremely worse. Not sleeping can make people go crazy. Abusing adderall
past year (Twohey). The study also showed that the rates were higher at
colleges that were more competitive. People with ADHD have to show a
interferes with the person functions or development in their life (Data and
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types of medications they are finding young mothers to abuse this drug as
well. Drug firms see a lot of moms calling in to get their child's prescription
filled early when they still have a lot of time before it’s suppose to be filled
again. "Much as kids are stressed by having to go through school and all
their outside activities, their moms are right there with them," says Stephen
Odom, a Newport Beach addiction specialist (Ellison). You could see why a
mother would take their kids medication, easy access. Maybe the child
doesn’t really need it and has been doing fine without it. The mom takes a
few in the beginning because she knows that it will give her more energy to
get house chores done or cook dinner. The problem is when someone
becomes dependent on something they start to abuse it and take more than
what the script offers for the month. “There’s a lot of denial around these
drugs, and the danger is easy to minimize because that prescription label
can make you feel what you’re doing is safe,” says Brad Lamm, the president
every month early, there is a problem. “Just like with any drug, if you can’t
stop, despite adverse consequences, you have an issue,” says Dee Owens,
who has worked in addiction prevention for more than 20 years (Ellison).
some people raise questions. What is the real cause to the numbers rising so
condition?
I do believe ADHD is a real condition. I think there are people out there
who really do need medication to help with whatever they are dealing with. I
am sure there are children and adults who suffer from this condition whether
that is in their brain. The overall understanding so far is that this condition
and the medications provided for ADHD should be taken more seriously when
than the actual illness. A famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, once said
“if the only tool that you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”
(Lawlis). That saying can be taken many different ways, but for this topic, it
seems like doctors look at any child now who has a behavior problem and
first thing that comes to mind is to prescribe the person medicine. America
the problem is the first solution to anything. Maybe there wouldn’t be such a
high number of ADHD medicine given out to people across the country if the
time was taken to actually evaluate and take notes on the person that needs
to focused on.
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while she was growing up that she needed medication. I do think my sister
needed the medicine while she was going through her early years of school.
She was able to finally focus and get good grades. The only downfall was the
side effects left her struggling with other things she never struggled with.
When my sister was taken off the medicine she was finally able to go through
school continuing to get the good grades and focus more. I think there are
people who do take medicine for ADHD and benefit from it because they
actually need it. My sister only took it for a certain amount of years, and that
may be the answer for some. Taking adderall or whichever medication that is
prescribed to that person for their ADD condition may only be needed for a
ADHD medicine and some people who actually suffer from this disease might
not ever get the right medication needed. When it comes to children I think
have to take medicine, especially at such a young age. There are other
symptoms like depression that are overlooked when thinking a child has
ADHD. Looking over all the information given it seems like ADHD can be
Works Cited
http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/EJ3010640234/
18 May 2011.
“Data and Statistics About ADHD | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control
2018, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html.
http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/EJ3010471218/
http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/EJ3010351203/
Viewpoints in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/EJ3010691210/