Give 'em amphetamines

Recently the kids and I visited my parents, while my husband was away on a rare business trip. A. and T. are lucky enough to have grandparents with quite a bit of land, a tractor, two veggie gardens, etc. We hunted for frogs, and A. and her grandpa flew a kite and took a long trek along the trail by the lake.

After two days, my daughter was exhausted. Any non-routine surroundings or experiences tend to be tiring to an intense and focused kid like A. When she was 3 months old she'd get obsessed with her bumblebee rattle to the point where it was distressing her, and I'd have to take it away. We took her to the zoo at age 2, and after an hour or so she broke down crying, just from sheer overstimulation.

Interestingly, as many parents will be familiar with, her behavior gets more physical and wilder when she's tired, not more lethargic. When she was a toddler we referred to this as arm-y and leg-y, which was apt, if not particularly poetic. Now we just call it hyper.

Because A. is calmer when rested, and hyper when tired, it makes sense to me that they give children Ritalin, a stimulant, to address hyperactivity. When you haven't been around an exhausted child who is bouncing off the walls, that might seem counterintuitive.

According to the Physician's Desk Reference entry on Ritalin:

This drug should not be prescribed for anyone experiencing anxiety, tension, and agitation, since the drug may aggravate these symptoms.

...

This drug is not intended for use in children whose symptoms may be caused by stress....

This medication should not be used for the prevention or treatment of normal fatigue....

If we were forced to have two incomes and the school district only offered all-day kindergarten, my daughter would experience stress, anxiety, inability to focus, rambunctious behavior, and fatigue, and somewhere along the line we would be advised to consider Ritalin, even though ostensibly this stimulant is not to be used for this purpose.

I was reading comments on a teacher's forum today and came across a teacher who was getting complaints from a student's parents. The student, he explained, "is untreated ADHD," and the mother had refused to medicate her son. Where does that guy get off making medical diagnoses?! According to the teacher, the student was never going to live up to his academic potential without medication.

Apparently in today's government-run schools, the generous use of amphetamines is required to be successful.

It's common now for college students to borrow a few doses of Ritalin from a friend, crush them up, and snort the powder. The drug is released more quickly that way, and has a greater effect. The students say it helps them study and pull all-nighters, and that it improves their academic performance.

I consider that a natural continuation of the way Ritalin is used K through 12.