Let's Talk About Drugs
Published January 22, 2006
AUTISTIC, ATTENTION DEFICIT, OR JUST PLAIN WEIRD?
There's no getting around it — I was a weird kid — but I did have my good points. Thanks to my dad, I started to read before they taught me in school, which at least gave me the moniker of "best reader in the class" — and was probably one of the reasons I eventually became a writer.
But aside from that, my name was mud in grade school. I was always "daydreaming." Although I was in the "smart" class, and always did well academically, I remember blanking out whenever the teacher would give directions for a project or exercise. Then I would try to ask a classmate what it was all about, and they would sometimes help me, but I do remember a lot of "ooh, you're gonna get in big trouble" remarks. Thanks, kid.
Now that they have a label for everything — the DSM (aka the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has fancy sounding names for many personality and other "disorders" that just used to be called "being an asshole" — I've tried to imagine in retrospect what my problem was.
When looking on Wikipedia for info on Syd Barret for another blog post, I followed a link to Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism, or autism spectrum disorder, to be exact. Of course, since it had a cachet of glamor surrounding it, I decided that this was what I had back then. See their cool link to a list of prominent people — including, in addition to Barret, Steven Spielberg, Andy Warhol, Dan Ackroyd, Michelangelo, and Isaac Newton — who were either diagnosed with, or have symptoms consistent with, autistic spectrum disorder. This made me feel cool and hip.
Although they are often intelligent and proficient in many ways, Asperger's sufferers often have significant problems functioning socially, and are often the target of bullies. The theory is that there is some kind of deficit involving processing social information correctly and deciphering such things as tone of voice and body language. A super-simple question can confuse and frustrate an Asperger's sufferer. And sure enough, I recall instances where this seemed to happen to me. Here are two that stand out:
On the first day of school — I guess kindergarten or first grade — the teacher took attendance. She slightly mispronounced my first name, which set off a paralyzing dilemma in my mind. One part of me said — she must be referring to me. Another part of my brain said — maybe there's another person with the same name but a different pronunciation. She had to call my name three times before I finally said "here."
- Let's Talk About Drugs
- Published: January 22, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Culture: Education, Culture: Family and Relationships, Sci/Tech: Science
- Writer: Elvira Black
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Comments on this articleComments
Paula:
Many thanks for your comment. I've heard other parents say that Ritalin did wonders for their child, and if so, perhaps the benefits outweighed the risks. But I still do wonder if this was the only "solution": available, really. Not being in that situation, I can't say.
As someone with bipolar disorder, I see a psychiatrist every two or three months to adjust and monitor my meds. Although my shrink is superb, he is, like most today, focusing almost solely on meds and is quite eager and willing to try all varieties in order to try to find the right "cocktail" for me.
I have learned (as he has assured me) that it is ok to speak up and say, "I don't feel comfortable about trying this med" or "I'd like to try to lower my dose of this med due to side effects." As he has made clear, I'm the one who has to take the meds, and he will never try to force a particular med on anyone.
But it did throw me for a loop when he mentioned ampetamines and Ritalin, although I think in this case he was trying to treat some of my loss of energy and motivation, rather than my bipolar disorder.
But I thought it particularly questionable considering that I have bipolar disorder, and certain drugs may induce a hypomania. In fact, being in a hypomanic state is very similar to how one feels on "ups"--this from someone who's experienced both states.
I know someone else who is struggling with depression, and her doctor put her on Ritalin. From what I've heard, this doctor sounds like a quack. I don't think he has tried the full array of meds available to try to treat her depression. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and trial and error to get the right combo, but it can and does happen.
Now this doc is recommending either electroshock or surgery on the vagus nerve performed by a neurosurgeon. I have been through electroshock, and it is usually reserved for the most severe cases, after drug treatments have not been effective. From what I've read, the surgery route probably works in a similar fashion to the anti-seizure med Lamictal. Both Lamictal and the surgery in question were initially used to treat epilepsy, and now it has been found that these same treatments work for depression. Wouldn't it, then, make more sense to try the Lamictal before resorting to the more invasive and expensive route of surgery?
(Remember when lobotomies were all the rage?)
I know I am getting off on a tangent here. But my point is that sometimes doctors, parents, and teachers may be all too willing to seek a "quick fix" to a problem that may very well be resolved less radically. In the case of clinical depression, meds are probably in order. But how many people with mild to moderate depression are having these meds pushed on them, and is this always the wisest course of action?
In addition, children do not have the luxury of questioning whether their meds are warranted. Their parents and other authority figures have deemed it necessary to drug them, whether they agree or not. This, quite frankly, scares me. I'm sure I would not have been given a choice "back then" either. Sounds a little too much like 1984-ish social engineering to me, and the scary implications of the phrase "children should be seen and not heard" carried to its radical conclusion.
I think i'll be taking a bit of ritalin this saturday -
this topic's still as good as it was elvira.
Snake bites are natural.
Elvira, I think the whole idea of ADD, ADHD, etc. other disorders treated with Ritalin is a topic we don't know much about yet. I think we shoot cannonballs at a problem instead of the .22 shot we may need. Here's to more research.
Justine:
LOL--Yep,it was soooo tempting in a way to just say yes to a bit of the old Ritalin, but I knew that for me it would entail traveling a very slippery slope...
Digibrill:
I love that cannonball analogy--that's what I always think of when it comes to drugs and side effects. The brain is such a finely tuned organ--and the interplay of our hormones and brain chemicals is so intricate--that drugs often consitute a very crude tool indeed.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/42604)
I agree with you that Ritalin is overprescribed.
Ritalin should be a last resort. Obviously, there are chidren who struggle greatly with ADD and do need the help that prescription drugs can provide. My next door neighbor's child was having the worst time focusing at school, and Ritalin changed his life for the better.
It's the borderline cases that bother me; the quickly written prescription so the doctor can move on to the next patient, and the teacher and the parent won't have to deal with the child.
Children's brains are not fully developed. What is the long term effect that these drugs will have on them both physically and emotionally?