None
of the Conventional Medications Worked
"Jared
is irritable, defensive, and highly offended. He is obsessive
about all kinds of things and doesn't show a lot of common sense.
He doesn't think before he does things. He has a very hard time
in the classroom focusing if something else is going on. He is
very intense and interrupts all the time. He is easily touched.
Sentimentality and rage are both very close to the surface. "We
tried Ritalin, Cylert, and Prozac. None of them worked. Ritalin
made him very frantic and racing and kept him up until two in
the morning on even the smallest dose. He became very weepy. With
Prozac, he had absolutely no initiative. That's why we're bringing
him now to you to try homeopathy." (Quotes from a mother whose
child just began homeopathic treatment.)
Ritalin Rebound
"Clay,
thirteen, has been on Ritalin for seven years. Because of hormonal
changes during puberty, each dose only lasts three hours. What
Ritalin does to Clay after he has been off the medication and
goes back on is frightening-the tears, the anger. It's that chemical
adjustment, like falling off a mountain. The rebound symptoms
are worse than when he's off Ritalin entirely. When we tried to
stop the medicine for a period of time, it took him four to six
weeks to readjust. He had real problems with appetite from the
Ritalin. If I wouldn't time the dose and a meal just right, he'd
skip a whole meal. Now he just has less of an appetite because
of the Ritalin but doesn't skip meals. Other rebound symptoms
are headaches and stomach aches. "Dexadrine also causes a rebound
effect with Clay. It lasts only four to six weeks then, if we
try to increase the dosage, he becomes terribly angry and unmotivated."
When we asked Clay how he felt about taking Ritalin, he replied,
"I don't like it. I have to wait to eat. I need to leave class
to take my medicine and it messes up my sports because sometimes
I have too much energy and other times too little."
"Ritalin
Worked Really Well Sometimes- Sometimes Not"
"Brad
has trouble paying attention. Without Ritalin and before he was
under homeopathic treatment, he became hyper. Brad had a terrible
time paying attention and filtering out the environment. He was
constantly asking "What did they say?" He had no restraint. He
would eat a whole pack of gum or a sack of candy in one day. He
was either very sweet or very awful. There were days when he was
easy to get along with and others when he became frustrated and
angry, and you couldn't reason with him. He can just get higher
and higher and higher. "Ritalin worked really well sometimes;
sometimes not. We wanted to try a more natural treatment so that
Brad would have fewer ups and downs."
