[Sca-cooks] children/ADD and ADHD

Georgia Foster jo_foster81 at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 7 08:44:12 PDT 2006


OK ... I have intentionally been staying out of this ... but it is a button 
for me.

RANT WARNING RANT WARNING RANT WARNING


Pretty much every child I have ever seen that has

socially immature
socially overmature
daydreams
overly active imagination
anger management issues (even if for cause)
results of poor or absent parenting

have all been diagnosed as ADD or ADHD by the armchair medics of the world.  
I, for one, an thoroughly sick to sorrowing of seeing the mass mis-diagnosis 
of children whom the teachers would like to see doped into oblivion so that 
the classroom is more 'controllable'.  I offer as example, my brother’s two 
children.  They came to live with me when both parents were sent to prison, 
one for forgery and one for spouse abuse.  Both children were on Ritalin.  
Within two weeks of regular meals that they didn’t have to shoplift to get, 
a bed that they knew was their own, and clothes that they didn’t have to 
wash in the sink themselves the night before school, both were normally 
functioning children, WITHOUT the little orange pill.  Within three weeks of 
my brother and his wife being released from prison and getting the kids 
back, both kids were back on the little orange pill.  Very very sad.

AND

I offer as a second example, my own four.  ALL of my own have been accused 
of being ADD.  The issues came to light between second and fourth grades, 
each child.  I took each one to the doctor for diagnosis.  NONE have ADD.  
My children have simply experienced more LIFE that most.

My kids have seen mom go off to war, dad with an alcohol and drug addiction 
severe enough that he threatened to kill mom at one point.  They have known 
a Thanksgiving Dinner provided only because mom shoveled sidewalks before 
she left for work and after she got home in order to buy the food.  They 
have experienced shopping for school clothes at the local thrift store.  
They have also been shopping at ‘Old Navy’, ‘Gap’ and ‘Banana Republic’ for 
summer clothes.  They have seen birth of puppies, divorce of parents, death 
of grandparents, and the crowning of kings.  Because my children have 
different experience than the rest of their peers, they are frequently 
accused of lying, having an over-active imagination , being socially 
over-mature or socially immature.

Interestingly enough, when we got a digital camera, and took pictures of the 
kids digging snow shelters, ascending Sweetwater Rocks in a climbing 
harness, or curled in a sleeping bag in Sheep Creek Caves, or dressed in 
pre-1600 clothing with a whole host of other folks, the accusations stopped. 
  The proof of life-experience did not make them popular with the beautiful 
people, but it did garner enough respect from the real kids that they each 
made a circle of friends, and along the way, the outings have grown in size 
by a kid or two.  Interestingly, the school system never caught on.  I went 
through it for each of the four, now ages 21, 20, 16, and 10.

AND

A very staggering statistic … one in ten of the kids in the school district 
here are on prescription medication for behavior modification.

WARNING EXPIRED WARNING EXPIRED WARNING EXPIRED

Sorry

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion


Malkin
Otherhill
Artemisia


Jo (Georgia L.) Foster
jo_foster81 at hotmail.com

Never knock on death's door........ Ring the doorbell and run. He hates 
that.





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