From: Rick Smith <smith@sctc.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 03:44:20 +0800
To: tcmay@got.net
Subject: Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
Message-ID: <199607091507.KAA21447@shade.sctc.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Tim writes more about Ritalin:

>From what I've read--and I'm no expert, having long had essentially the
>_opposite_ of "attention deficit disorder," assuming it really even
>exists!--most children getting Ritalin are just being sedated. Behavior
>control in its purest form. While the kids stop their wandering attention
>and constant physical motions, it's because they're in a mental fog, just
>one step away from drooling. (The 8-year-old friend of my friend's son is
>so zoned out he can't play video games well at all...until the drugs wear
>off.)

That's very interesting, especially the part about video games. It
sounds like overdosing to me. My wife says that a Ritalin overdose can
also affect your heart rate and ability to sleep.

Regarding video games, we went through some elaborate assessment
process before Alex ended up on Ritalin. The school people did an
assessment declaring he wasn't "learning disabled" but may have ADHD.
Then he saw a behavioral psychologist for a few hours of observation,
yielding the diagnosis. Lastly a different psychologist measured his
behavior using some computer based game/test. The actual dosage was
calibrated according to his effectiveness on the game/test, which
involved memory, coordination, and ability to concentrate on something
fundamentally boring. The test was performed 3 times to compare his
performance before and after dosage.

The point of all this is that there are other ways of using Ritalin.
I don't think I'd tolerate its use on Alex if I didn't trust my wife.
She has a much better background in such things than I, as well as a
family doctor's experience with seeing the results of drug abuse.

>>BarelyObCrypto: ADD is more about lack of attention *control* than lack of
>>attention itself. Hyperfocus is also a trait of ADHD, and computers tend to
>>cause hyperfocus for a lot of ADDers.

>BTW, I saw a comment that Bill Gates is almost certainly an ADD person...or
>maybe the comment was that he is borderline autistic?

This matches my own experiences with ADHD.  That's the thing about the
raw phenomenon and its overall lifestyle effect: you either find your
niche and do OK, or you get sidelined.

Rick.