Consider our children: Thoughts on hyperactivity and mind-altering drugs

Candice apologised for her son Amo. He was, she said, just hyperactive. He was destroying my home and possessions, and spreading my tools round the whole house. I grabbed my two little pull-back toy cars, sat myself on the floor and we played for 20 minutes, until I became bored.

He concentrated on making the cars go straight. He focused on directing them and quickly learned how to make them go further and faster. This three-year-old guy was intelligent and inquisitive, and seemed to have a normal ability to focus on a specific activity.

I asked his mother how she knew Amo was hyperactive (attention-deficit hyperactive disorder — ADHD or ADD). The preschool teacher had said so, she said, and had suggested she get a script for Ritalin from her doctor when Amo starts school.

Forty-five years ago, when I was losing my education battle, the mass use of mind-altering drugs was the thing of horror and science-fiction novels. Today, in some communities, many children are dosed up before being shoved off to school. It’s been estimated that in the United States, one child in four is on an amphetamine like Ritalin.

It can be very good for the child, but it can also be very bad — a disaster. We need to understand that the use of Ritalin is a parent’s reaction to a problem, not the problem itself.

Ritalin and other amphetamines are used to assist children with attention problems so they can focus. In normal individuals, amphetamines hype up a person and their level of activity increases. In most types of attention-deficit disorders, just the opposite happens. The person becomes much more focused when using the drug and, in many cases, their level of hyperactivity decreases. It’s important to grasp this apparent reversal.

As an example of the effect of amphetamine on someone with ADHD, I took an Ecstasy tablet (another amphetamine) at a club some time ago. My brain has always been like a beehive, thousands of crazy thoughts buzzing round aimlessly. Half an hour after taking the tablet, my thoughts became like a flight of ducks, all flying in one direction and in a neat row. I was also able to direct my thoughts, something I’ve battled with my whole life. I felt I couldn’t waste this clear thinking, so I left the club, found a spot overlooking the harbour and sat quietly doing the best thinking I had ever done up to then. It was amazing!

At that stage, I didn’t know that a 50-year-old could be suffering from ADHD. This was a childhood problem, wasn’t it? I was sufficiently disturbed by my atypical reaction to the drug that I spent days researching the phenomenon. I discovered that amphetamines are used to do just this for sufferers of ADHD, and I then did a bit of reverse engineering. The drug works for ADHD and it had amazing effects on me — could I suffer from ADHD? I went off to some professionals for evaluation and they came back with the same diagnosis: ADHD.

By the way, I’ve never enjoyed alcohol or other narcotic drugs. My brain is muddled enough as it is, so why do I need to spend money on getting drunk? I later tried a couple of the other non-amphetamine narcotics and found that, like alcohol, these just made me disoriented, depressed and sick.

So my problem isn’t with Ritalin, it’s with the loose diagnosis of “hyperactive” and ADHD for normal, energetic and intelligent children. Read about the symptoms here.

Having undergone the evaluation myself, I would suggest that a teacher, no matter how capable, would only be able to suggest that a child had ADHD, and not make an accurate diagnosis. A professional evaluation is needed. If one can afford it, both psychological and psychometric evaluation gives a much clearer picture.

If your child is just energetic, intelligent and delightfully naughty, treat him as a normal, intelligent and energetic but naughty child. Please, I beg you — don’t label him hyperactive. I plead that you don’t confuse some childish mischief with ADHD. A little discipline will improve his future; drugging him will surely just mess up his life.

If your child has ADHD, your next step is to learn about the disorder. The most important component of coping with ADHD is becoming an expert ADHD parent. It’s also important to understand that every child with ADHD is different, and a treatment regime that works miracles with Joe may well be totally ineffective with Fred. I’ve learned to recognise the expert ADHD mother; she’s the one who has odd rules regarding her child’s diet, worked out from experience. She’s the one whose child has a structured, organised day. She’s the one that uses appropriate discipline.

I don’t intend giving detailed information on bringing up an ADHD child because it’s all on the web, and it’s much better presented than I can do. I just hope to give you a little insight from someone who’s spent years trying to cope with ADHD.

A few sites with information on ADHD:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd/ complete-publication.shtml
http://www.chadd.org/

Ritalin is a tool; the same as the other tools to help a child cope with ADHD. It may work for a particular child, or it may not. You as a parent should try to evaluate this impartially and accurately. On its own, it will do little to help the little guy cope. One needs to try the whole selection of tools to find what fits best.

Be careful when researching Ritalin on the web because an organisation called the Church of Scientology abhors any mind-altering drugs and has produced dozens of bogus informal websites condemning Ritalin. You do need to research both the positive and the genuinely negative aspects of this treatment, so take a little time to recognise those misleading Scientology sites. You’ll soon recognise them because they always show the same sort of rubbish. The question one needs to ask is: Do you want the child to get all his ducks in a row or is a disorganised beehive for a brain acceptable?

ADHD is a disorder that most sufferers will drag with them for their whole life. This means that coping skills and strategies are vital. Sixty percent of boys will continue to battle the disability throughout their adult life.

Structure is important. My life has always been unstructured, and for this I have paid a very heavy price. An ADHD child needs structure. His day must be planned (and when he is older, he must learn to plan his own day). He must do things and complete the tasks. If he can’t complete them, the parent should gently direct and assist him to complete them. Every task must be completed. It is far better to have a few completed tasks than many uncompleted ones. A parent must try not to do something for his child that the child can do for himself.

My biggest challenge is “learned helplessness”. I have always had a strong conviction that I am unable to do anything and that I am totally useless. A patent overcomes this by helping a child set small goals, sometimes referred to as small wins. When the child achieves a goal, the parent recognises the win, but not too effusively because the child is no fool — he knows that tidying his room is well … just tidying his room, not scoring the winning try for the Sharks.

Depression often travels with ADHD. It is sometimes masked by the ADHD symptoms, so many parents don’t notice it. This is frustrating for the child because he feels so useless and shameful, and then those whose job it is to guide him may set about correcting his faults too vigorously, which can reinforce his sense of uselessness and his depressed outlook. If you suspect depression, speak to a professional or Childline because attempted suicide is a significant problem among depressed children.

Other learning difficulties and psychological problems are much more common in ADHD children that in society at large. Don’t fret, but keep this in the back of your mind.

As the guy grows up, direct him to develop activities he enjoys and is good at. Therein lies his future. Great bridge players always say that they play to their strength, and that is a good philosophy for all of us. Helping him identify and develop something that he excels at is often the difference between an acceptable existence and a life that is absolute hell.

We ADHD sufferers are different, usually hyperactive, often creative, generally quite scattered and sometimes absolutely frustrating. The disability is almost three times more common in boys than in girls. Please just remember that we were not born of a lesser god. Just try to respect us as human beings. This is crucial if the sufferer is still a child.

And finally, scientists have identified a couple of genes associated with ADHD. This has prompted the British courts to rule that ADHD is a disability, in the same way that hereditary deafness or muscular dystrophy is a disability.

John Bond is a strange old guy who enjoys bombing round the remotest parts of KwaZulu-Natal on his small, high-powered scrambler. He loves South Africa’s diversity, both in its people and its nature. He is forever thinking, reasoning and pondering and he often confounds both friends and critics with his wacky, off-the-wall ideas