Who let this BBVtard out of the Bastard Biggot Virgin forum?

So was I OP. Don't do it.

Anyone else think it's strange how 100,000 generations of human children have been raised before the year 2000, yet now the standard acceptable solution to any sort of behavior problem is "TAKE THE BLUE PILLS"?

I know, right? It's like humankind survived all those years without that silly polio vaccine, and now everyone is forced to get it.

If the kid has an actual medical issue, then medication may be perfectly fine.

However the larger issue people have already pointed out, kids these days are typically way over-medicated.

Parents and doctors will throw some really serious medications at kids for little to no reason.

Not the same thing at all.

Vaccines are to prevent you from catching something.

Brain medications are basically saying "there's something CURRENTLY wrong with you and we're gonna monkey with the chemicals in your brain to fix it"

I just find it hard to believe that human brains have begun malfunctioning dramatically over the last two decades.

In truth, we're just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding brain chemistry and function and pretty much everything we're doing at this point really is a crap shoot.

I'm not sure about this. I've heard and seen the opposite, parents wanting to put their kids on every medication in the world at the drop of a hat. Although the last few years the whole "are we over-medicating kids" discussion has gotten some tractions.

The overmedicating argument is based on actual science, not Jenny McCarthy fear mongering ignorance.

Well put. I think this is what a lot of people are trying to say.

Polio vaccine analogy there was HoF ludicrous.

LOL ... say the loonies who purport to know more about medicine and medications than people who actually, like, went to medical school.

I think that diet is a big part of it. Humans have never before eaten GMOs, foods covered in pesticides, meat from factory farms where the animals are all given god knows what. I think that the soil that most of our crops are grown in are completely devoid of nutrients.

Everyone has a cell phone now. Kids get a lot more vaccines. Some kids aren't breast fed. A lot of people are on some sort of prescription drug. There's fluoride and many other chemicals in our drinking water.

These days, we're exposed to a lot of chemicals and all sorts of other stuff. If you compare what we expose ourselves to now compared to 100 years ago, it's night and day.

I think that part of it is that there is an over-diagnosis of things. These days, we give kids coca-cola, candy bars and other garbage to eat, and then wonder why they can't sit still in school. How many hours of TV and video games are kids playing these days? It's hard to know how all these things end up affecting us.

But I do believe that we are generally sicker and less healthy today than even just 30 or 40 years ago. Even though there is some over-diagnosis in our quest to prescribe some sort of medication to everyone... I think that just in the last few decades we're getting sicker. I've heard today that a lot of kids have really bad allergies to stuff to the point where most schools are peanut-free. I'm only 30, but most of the kids I went to school with were normal and healthy. I don't think that's the case these days. There are a lot of kids with real problems. And a lot of kids who probably don't have real problems, are getting medicated anyways and then they end up having problems as a result of years of heavy drugging.

There are important degrees of certainty regarding this science ****.

at the very least mainstreaming is happening at really high levels these days:

there's a reason you can't find many respected medical professionals who believe that.

the seminal study that started the autism/vaccine thing was conducted by a fraud.

Wakefield's fraud caused the death of children (no1 knows how many) and morons who STILL believe in that BS are unfit to be parents.

^^^

never said that... don't misquote me *******

Well, you're mixing in a lot of pseudo-science hysertical babble in with some things that might be geniune concerns.

My assertion is not that we're not all extra sick with malfunctioning brains. We're too quick to declare normal variations in human behavior as "disorders" and attempt to treat them.

The corporate medicine industry just trying to sell **** and people who think they can "quick fix" everything with a pill make a dangerous combination.

I'm not anti-medicine at all, medicine is a godsend and medical science is obviously an awesomething thing. Autism and ADD are very real things and need to be treated, but I just are pretty sure they're also way overdiagnosed.

I don't think this is a problem that just started recently, but now we're certainly more aware of the issue and know that we have options to treat it. We're also learning how serious a problem this is -- kids/adults with untreated ADHD do worse in school, are less likely to attend college, have problems socializing, get into more car accidents, etc. This isn't just bad behavior, it's an issue that impacts their future and physical health.

I also don't agree with your assessment that our treatments are just crap shoots. Sure, there's a ton we don't know, but we're not totally ignorant and without evidence. And I'm still not entirely sure I understand this great aversion to medications. I mean, if you had a brain infection, I'm sure you'd happily suck down some powerful antibiotics. So what is it that makes some medications so scary to take just by their nature of being a medication?

*after reading more carefully your most recent/other posts, I'm not sure how much of this should really be directed towards you, and I'm not sure how much we actually disagree, but I have stuff to do and can't be bothered to fix this.

As someone who's actually worked on diagnosing and treating kids with ADHD, I'll say that there's a pretty good mix. Some parents are deathly afraid of medications, and some are ready to give the pills before I've said a word.

Hmm, I think I have a better way to ask my question above about why meds are so scary. We all know being overweight is bad. If someone wants to lose weight, let's say they can choose between eating more apples or taking some stimulant pill. It sounds like many here are saying that it's crazy to even consider the pill instead of the apple. Why?

Ganstaman,
Using your analory, I think most of us are saying you should try eating healthy and exercising before trying the pill. The pill should be a last resort.

The psych industry has tried to legitimize itself by trying to be more like mainstream medicine, thus the whole "chemical imbalance" in the brain angle. You have strep throat? Take an antibiotic. Have ADHD? Take a pill. There has yet to be a study proving the chemical imbalance theory. Medicating someone, especially at such a young age, with a drug that may or may not be effective more effective than a placebo(or worse, may cause long term problems) is something that should not be taken lightly.

Of course that's what you're saying. But my question is why?

Because most drugs have not been shown to be any better than a placebo and when given to young kids, they have shown an increase in behavioral problems down the road.

Meds that cause only side effects and no positive effects -- those sound terrible! Was I wrong to assume we would instead have a useful discussion involving the meds that actually work?

thegreenmagi needs to stfu about things he has no clue about.

you're dumb dude

And something tells me that you have been told this plenty of times in your life

Putting chemicals into your body with tons of unknown effects is clearly going to be worse than an apple.

Well, the main reason is that medications frequently have side effects, sometimes really bad ones.

If the benefits of the drugs outweigh the risks or if the side effects are pretty mild, you go ahead and take em.

However if you can do hypothetically something that gets you the benefits without the side effects, clearly that's superior.

Also medication isn't exactly free. Neither are doctors, blood work, etc.

Plus there's the spectre of unknown drug interactions, etc.

So ya, to your weight loss example, opting for a pill as first choice would be a bad idea.