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Are We Overdrugging our Children
By
Johann Christoph Arnold
Ask
anyone to name the chief dangers facing children today, and they're likely to
tick off a predictable list-homelessness and malnutrition, poor education and
inadequate healthcare. They're not wrong. But the longer I
work
with children, the more concerned I am about another quiet wave that carries
just as a great a menace: the mindset of avoidance. Call it what you
want-convenience, denial, or stubbornness-but if there's anything that
characterizes
education across the board, it's the persistent habit of turning our backs on
the hardest questions, and falling for the answers that soothe us back to
sleep. Though the tendency to settle for the most painless
solution
to a problem is a normal human trait, it is rarely a healthy approach to child
rearing.
From
parenting journals to popular books, the wisdom is the same: children may be
cute, but raising them is a thankless chore. Childhood itself has come to be
viewed as a suspect phase. Children of all ages and means are
Ritalin
is surely a legitimate drug for certain specific conditions. But given the
threefold increase in its use in the last decade, one has to wonder if it
isn't being misused as an easy cure-all for problems such as ADHD (attention
deficit-hyperactivity disorder) and to rein in lively children who may not
even have the disorder. After all, much of what is designated as ADHD is
nothing more than a defense against over-structuring-a natural reflex
that used to be called letting off steam-or alternately, a symptom of various
unmet emotional needs. Jeff, an old friend, gives a poignant example:
"Jerome,
an eight-year-old from Seattle, came and stayed with us last summer for a
break from the city. When he arrived he was a mess, though he was on Ritalin.
After two or three days, however, we weaned him off his dose, because with all
the room to play he was no longer bouncing off the walls, but beginning to
take himself in hand. (At home in his apartment building there was nothing for
him to do but watch TV.) I could definitely see the change.
When
this little guy first arrived he could barely keep his attention on anything
for more than a minute, he was so keyed up and distracted. I laid down some
ground rules and gave him some time. I took him out with a bike,
since he
was unsure of how to ride...By the end of his stay he was so settled and happy
that at one point he even asked me if he could call me Dad. I just about lost
it. This child didn't need Ritalin: all he needed was fresh air-and
love."
Put
Jerome back in the projects, and he will probably revert. He'll be put back on
Ritalin, and his "symptoms" will be re-suppressed. Whether he'll
ever get the attention he really needs, either at home or at school, is quite
another question. Fortunately it's one that increasing numbers of people are
asking, like Peter Breggin, a pediatrician and author:
"People
call drugs like Ritalin a godsend for emotional and behavioral problems...But
I think the way they're overused is absolutely horrifying. When I was asked by
the National Institutes of Health to be a scientific discussant on the effects
of these drugs at a conference they held, I reviewed the important literature,
and I found that when animals are given
them,
they stop playing; they stop being curious; they stop socializing; they stop
trying to escape. Ritalin makes good caged animals...We're making good caged
kids. It's all very well to talk about it taking a whole village to raise a
child, but in practice, we're acting as if we think it only takes
a
pill."
Given
the dismal state of the culture described above, parenting in the 21st century
is clearly going to involve a lot of hard work. But why should that frighten
us? As long as we run from the responsibilities that will always be there, we
will not only squander the most formative moments of bringing up children, but
rob ourselves as well of its most meaningful joys.
Excerpted
from "ENDANGERED: Your Child in a Hostile World" by Johann
Christoph
Arnold.
Order
the paperback 1-800-521-8011(US), 0800 018 0799(UK)
