Got ADD? Better take your weed!

[Force of Green]

I don't understand how someone can just come out and say, "You've heard that ritalin can cause permenant brain damage right?" Oh no!

Regardless of the pharmaceutical propaganda and the 'conspiracies', etc. medicines can give people a better quality of life. My own definition and philosophy of 'quality of life' pertaining to medicine is that: When a medicine offers benefits that outweigh the side effects and KNOWN risks, it is considered to be therapeudic.

If ritalin can offer me a better quality of life, I'll take it now so I can actually start living and experiencing life to the fullest. If there are some studies saying that decades down the line, I may have some abnormality I'm not going to sit around and be dissuaded.

There are substances with NO therapeudic benefit whatsoever that can be purchased without a prescription (ex. cigarettes and alcohol). People can suck down cigarettes day by day knowing that it MAY cause cancer or a hundred other problems. People have no problem endorsing alcohol commercials. Oh wait, that's because when you 'drink responsibly' nothing bad will happen.

In certain studies in vitro, Ritalin may cause some irreversible damage.

Multivitamins MAY do more harm than good...
Eating sushi MAY cause cancer...

What the hell do we know about consuming creatine ethyl ester? What do we know about consuming gamma hydroxy norvaline or any of the other experimental chems in these crazy supplements?

Millions of Americans neglected the warnings of ephedrine consumption, steroid use, and will continue to try and consume supplements that contain things that can never exist in nature. Why? Because we want bigger biceps, stronger legs, higher bench press, chizzled abs, etc. All this to feed an ego, but to what extent will we take it to?

Hey. Did you know that excessive exercise can cause a diminished immune system?

Hey. What about coffee? Caffeine? The DSM IV now recognizes caffeine intoxication, caffeine induced psychosis, and caffeine withdrawal syndrome....

Taking medicine as prescribed can offer many benefits. Just do your research, get educated, and make the choice responsibly.

[bioman]

"Taking medicine as prescribed can offer many benefits. Just do your research, get educated, and make the choice responsibly."


Agreed but that's not always easy to do when a good portion of the industry conspires to downplay the significance of said side effects. Just ask all the dead Vioxx recipients what they think.

MOST of the supplements sold in the US have a fairly lengthy safety record behind them, oftentimes dating back thousands of years. With the exception of PH's and similar compounds that were purposely created to slip through loopholes, vitamins, herbs and minerals are not killing even a thousandth of the people that pharmceuticals do. Prove that statement wrong and you can go on ad infinitum about the wonders of man made chemicals without contest.

[Force of Green]

"Taking medicine as prescribed can offer many benefits. Just do your research, get educated, and make the choice responsibly."


Agreed but that's not always easy to do when a good portion of the industry conspires to downplay the significance of said side effects. Just ask all the dead Vioxx recipients what they think.

MOST of the supplements sold in the US have a fairly lengthy safety record behind them, oftentimes dating back thousands of years. With the exception of PH's and similar compounds that were purposely created to slip through loopholes, vitamins, herbs and minerals are not killing even a thousandth of the people that pharmceuticals do. Prove that statement wrong and you can go on ad infinitum about the wonders of man made chemicals without contest.

That's true. I somehow knew that Vioxx would be brought up! HAHA. But yeah, pharmaceutical companies are in it to make money first at foremost.

The way I see it:

Pharmaceutical companies fund political campaignes.

High executives put pressure on the FDA to accept and pass pharmaceutical drugs without resistance.

Elected parties appoint legislators to keep laws in favor of companies that funded the party and judges to favor class action lawsuits towards the defendants (pharmaceutical companies)

Whenever a 'food supplement' proves to be effective enough to cure an ailment (tryptophan as effective or more effective than SSRIs for treating depression), the pharmaceutical companies b*tch that sales are going down and the FDA steps in and removes it.
*Prozac being first released in 1988 and the tryptophan disaster being documented in 1989 (although cases have been reported before that) is a big coincidence.

FDA reaps it's power by *****ing around food and agricultural associations and companies, occasionally stepping into the supplement industry.

[BodyWizard]

don't even get me started on the DSM, which is little more than an effort to re-neurosis-ize the post-Freudian landscape.

that said, appropriate treatment by a knowledgeable and experienced professional can do wonderful things.

Don't buy the whole expanded ADD thing, though.

[Force of Green]

don't even get me started on the DSM, which is little more than an effort to re-neurosis-ize the post-Freudian landscape.

that said, appropriate treatment by a knowledgeable and experienced professional can do wonderful things.

Don't buy the whole expanded ADD thing, though.

The entire world we live in is full of contradiction in EVERY direction we look in.
We can find hypocrisy, faultiness, distrust, etc. in just about anything that exists (except for maybe a perfect circle or other symmetrically correct, geometrical shapes and figures).

Regardless of why the DSM was created, what it has been evolved and revised to, and what propaganda, theories about, and opposition that has become of it, I believe that it can stand as a decent marker for some individuals in my experience and for a medication that MAY control the symptoms of one's specified disorder.

Whether or not the DSM tricks many unknowing, uneducated, or gullible people into thinking they chaulk a label onto something that they don't really have, I believe that I do have something neurologically wrong that can be corrected with proper medication.

If you have an endless amount of monkeys playing pianos, eventually you'll come to one that plays the National Anthem.

I don't agree with one doctor. Not 2, 3, 4... When I dedicate months of my life to studying day and night on diagnoses typical and subtypical with mine and read and reflect on the experience and journeys of others with the same condition who've each had his/her own personal experiences and revelation... when 3 independant doctors suggest I may have something and a team of 5 psychologists, 2 psychiatrists, and a social worker acting together to give an accurate diagnosis as a foundation for a treatment plan.... when I weigh out all of my known possibilities and debate it over and over with 3rd parties... when I rule out the confounding variables up to and including: maybe it's all in my mind? maybe I read so many cases that I actually transcend their disorder onto me? etc...

After all of that, that's enough for me to make a conclusion for myself that is concurrent with statements and diagnoses made by professionals for whom have no alterior motive to misdiagnose me.

As for other people, sure the DSM is a tool. Tools can be used for the good or bad of mankind. Take it for what it is. It's a reference. It can help people synthesize proper treatment protocol, or it can trick people into believing that they need 'this' or 'that' medicine in order to live a normal life and be accepted by society.

Open-minded people get help to help themselves.
Close-minded people always look for someone to help them.

[Nightwanderer]

gotta say,
I was diagnosed with ADD as a child and probably have learning disabilities related to cerebral palsy too. I was a stoner from my mid
teens to my early 20's and never noticed pot doing any particular good for me. No harm either though. Yeah, there were many times i thought the weed was actually helping me concentrate, but then I also think sometimes you're worried about people realizing you're high, so you make an effort to concentrate more on your own.

[IvyLeaguePump]

I heard pot lowers your test levels

[Force of Green]

I heard pot lowers your test levels

It can give ya b*tch titties.