Jeremy
and Krissy
"Jeremy
was the perfect child while he was on Ritalin. If you could package
a little boy who was polite and sweet, that's how he would be.
But he still had trouble concentrating in school. He wouldn't
forget things and he got along great with other kids. It was a
nightmare when he stopped taking it for a few days or it wore
off . . . a rebound. After taking Ritalin for five years, Jeremy
developed tics. Now, several years later, he still has them. The
tics started like shivers. When the tics are bad, Jeremy is so
embarrassed that he doesn't even want to go to school. We tried
him on four different stimulant and antidepressant drugs but they
didn't work for him. They wanted to try Prozac, but I said no.
I didn't want a child of six on Prozac. I don't think I'd ever
put him back on Ritalin. "The same is true with my daughter Krissy.
She developed five different side effects from Ritalin. She couldn't
gain weight. She looked like a skeleton . . . like a stick figure
or someone with anorexia. She was on Ritalin for three years and
didn't gain weight until we took her off of it. She also chewed
her nails to the quick. Nailbiting is a side effect of Ritalin
in some children, you know. Krissy's anxiety level got really
high from the drug, too. She would start worrying at eleven in
the morning whether she would miss her school bus at three in
the afternoon. She got so anxious that she laid out her toothbrush
and clothes before going to bed. Sleep was another problem. While
she was on Ritalin Krissy didn't want to go to sleep at night.
"We discontinued the medicine a few months ago and now we want
to try homeopathy since it has helped her brother."
"It's Not the Real You. It's a Fake Person"
Not
all children with ADD feel better on Ritalin. John Merrow interviewed
four teenagers who clearly did not want to continue taking Ritalin.30
They complained, "It's not the real you. It's a fake person. It's
totally not me." One of the boys had discontinued the medication
by his own choice. A second had been on Ritalin for seven years
and begged his parents not to make him take it, but one of his
teachers would not allow him in her classroom unless he had a
note signed by the school nurse that he had received his Ritalin
at school that day. The boys complained of dizziness, stomach
upset, inability to sleep, a buzzed
feeling, and appetite loss as a result of taking Ritalin.
