ADHD-Abuse

“ADHD-Abuse”

According to the Center for Disease Control, 15 percent of high school children are diagnosed with ADHD. The number of those on stimulant medication is at 3.5 million. ADHD is now the second most common long-term diagnosis in children. (Goodman, December).When you cut on your televisions or open a magazine today chances are you will see an ad for ADHD medication with an exaggerated idea of ADHD and its symptoms and how safe and effective the medication used to treat it is. ADHD drug makers have bombarded us with advertisements that play on parents’ fears that their child could be less than normal while overestimating the benefits of their drugs and underestimating the risks. They talk about stimulant medications as being used safely and effectively for decades. Doctors are diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication at an alarming rate. Parents are timidly accepting these diagnoses and filling the prescriptions without even seeking a second opinion. With these kinds of commercials and ads shoved down our throats, doctors who are quick to write a prescription, and parents who do not ask questions, causes our youth have no problem with sharing or even selling their medications to their peers or faking symptoms to obtain a prescription for the medication. They feel as though it is safe and that it will improve their ability to make higher marks in school. While the world sits idly by and points their fingers at each other, our youth are abusing these “safe and effective” medications.

Recent studies have shown that “ADHD-Abuse” as it will be referred to in this paper has, determined that 2.9% of 10th-graders and 3.4% of 12th-graders abuse methylphenidate. However, the abuse rate doubles when it comes to amphetamine-bas...

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...anding out prescriptions as though they are candy, and parents are quietly accepting whatever they are told. When will we turn off our televisions, rip up our magazines, and demand that they adhere to the, international treaty agreement signed over 30 years ago, not to advertise controlled substances that have high potential for abuse (Virtue, 2014)? When will we hold the doctors “feet to the fire” and demand that proper procedures are followed before a diagnosis? Why are we not challenging parent to step-up and demand more from the pharmaceutical companies, their children’s doctors, and from themselves? ADHD is real, medications do help, there are good doctors, and great parents, but things have gotten out of hand. It is time to call in the team from the outfield and revise the play. Our children need clear directions so they know how deadly “ADHD-Abuse” can be.