Garden of Daisies

Please make it stop

November 23rd, 2006

One thing I will never understand is the societal choice we have made to begin medicating our children.

The individual choice as a parent? –I get that. It’s what is done now. It’s what teachers and doctors tell you is necessary. You want your child to do well and succeed–and in today’s day and age, this is the accepted way to make that happen.

But as a people what are we doing? We are deeming it necessary to medicate children who are active and curious (aka ADHD “sufferers”) into being able to sit still for hours while teachers drone on at them. We are allowing a growing number of our children to take very powerful (in some case even life-threatening) medication which effects their brain while their brains are still developing. Whether or not they were actually fucked up in the first place is debatable, but they’re sure as hell likely to be when the process is over…

Can we please stop? Seriously. These are children. Whether you believe in God or evolution, or both: they have been designed exactly the way they are for a reason. Leave them alone. Let them be. Teach them. Work with the people they are and the people they are becoming. Embrace their moods, both positive and negative. Teach them to deal with their anger, or their excessive energy, or their depression. Learn how to deal with those things yourself if that’s what it takes to teach them.

We can do this. As a people we can raise the next generation without anti-psychotic medication. I swear we can.

“i’m not crazy cause i take the right pills ever day” –jimmy eat world.

Entry Filed under: Drug use, Psychology, Education