New FDA Warnings and a Testimonial

While I'm finishing up the illustrations for my double sized column for this week I wanted to pass along some warnings from the FDA. If you've followed my blog for a while you know that I stand against medications as a first line of attack for treating neurological problems. I see them as rife with side-effects and a poor substitute for coping strategies. This attitude doesn't make me popular. I'd wager that a more popular pro-meds stance would help me retain higher readership around here. Some could argue that my lack of a medical or psychological degree makes me ill-qualified for passing out advice of any kind concerning meds, and I would agree with them to a certain extent. If you really do read my column you know that I don't carelessly tell people to stop taking their meds. I simply encourage them to be careful.

What I can offer with absolute certainty is my life as a worse case scenario. My experience with meds has always been filled with almost every bizarre side-effect they could fit on the prescription printout. I have permanent neurological damage because I was trying to treat AD/HD and depression with desoxyn and zoloft. I now have Chronic Motor Tic Disorder as a permanent friend and let me tell you something - AD/HD and Depression were easier to handle. Nothing can stop me from flailing about uncontrollably or barking out non-sensical gibberish during dinner except a really long nap and sometimes that doesn't work either since I'm an insomniac. I am officially disabled because of side-effects. Doctors have offered me MORE meds to offset the tics, but they have their own side-effects. No thank you.

I have a great doctor now who helps me choose the safest meds possible when needing prescriptions for illnesses. I only wish the turkeys who were trying to help me 14 years ago had been as conscientious. The whole point of this diatribe is that I want you to understand WHY I am hostile towards meds. I cut a lot of jokes around here, but side-effects are no laughing matter. Besides, meds have their limitations. I saw a slogan on another website that summed my attitude perfectly: Pills Don't Teach Skills

Understanding that I have certain apprehensions about meds, also understand that I know everybody doesn't have issues with side-effects like I do and that some people need these meds to survive. It is not my intention to make you folks feel inferior to me. I don't believe you are ignorant dupes, but I would be doing you a disservice if I never spoke a word of caution. If only I had known how damaging side-effects could be. I took my medications for a few weeks despite what they were doing to me because I trusted my doctors and because the meds regulated all the things they were supposed to regulate. I hadn't had such a productive period in a long time. But it came to an end in a way that will last decades.

So take a gander at these new reports of aggression, hallucinations, and heart risk in children on common meds for treating AD/HD. If psychotropic meds work for you, just promise me that you'll educate yourself about the potential side-effects so you can be on the lookout for them. At first sign discontinue meds immediately and contact your physician or therapist. Why play Russian Roulette with your brain?

New Warnings Urged for ADHD Drugs (WebMD)
Panel Advises Disclosure of Drugs' Psychotic Effects (NY Times)
FDA Calls for Improved Warnings for ADD Drugs (LA Times)

Comments

Scarlet Sphinx said…
Taking an unpopular stand is difficult, especially when most people remain seated.

I feel the same way about medications of any kind. I very rarely take Tylenol, for instance. But most people want the band-aid quick fix that a pill promises.

another good post
Susan Och said…
Those hallucinations are all the more frightening when you consider that the people suffering from them are children who already have been told that they are in some way defective......

I'm wondering if you've read Dr. Mel Levine's book, A Mind at a Time. He lays out the many different components of the "simple" tasks that kids are trying to master in school. Though the process of, say, writing down a thought can derail at any one of many points, the end result looks like "not paying attention". How much better it would be if we were helping kids to understand their brains instead of lumping them all into one box and medicating them.
Anonymous said…
Douglas ~ i love ur stance.

i tend to pop pills when stressed. can be anything. self-poisoning? i dont know.

what do u make of MBTI tests?
pardon my brevity..
D.R. Cootey said…
Sphinx ~ Interesting. I don't have issues with medicines per se, for instance I don't have a problem using Tylenol, but I do have big issues with pychotropics.

I drove my daughter's friend home today and mentioned to her that she seemed happier. She said in that melodramatic tone of exasperation only teenage girls seem to master that she wasn't taking "those pills" anymore. It turns out she was on Zoloft and was happier OFF the meds. We compared side-effects briefly and I was amazed that she had the same problems I had had 14 years ago when she was a newborn! Namely, that Zoloft made us both moody and loopy - an anti-depressant that made us SADDER. And it's still being used to treat depression. Stupid industry.

susan och ~ I agree with you whole heartedly. I will resist medicating my own AD/HD child for as long as I can. I simply don't believe anymore that it's worth the risk. With luck her symptoms won't be severe as she gets older and I can teach her coping strategies. If she fails to cope, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Sol ~ I just took an online MBTI test. I'm INTJ. I'm not sure what insight into me it gives you, but there you are anyway! :)

I wish you wouldn't pop pills. Sounds dangerous and self-destructive. I don't judge you. We all have bad habits in our background, some worse than others, but I do hope you learn other methods of anchoring yourself when things get frenetic. Giving into bad habits only makes us like ourselves a little less each time, you know?
D.R. Cootey said…
Susan Och ~ I wish I could comment on your blog. I really enjoyed reading your entry on jobs for youth and responsibility. As for having my dad sit in on my next job interview, I don't think that would be advisable. ;)
Heidi the Hick said…
I found it really disturbing last fall when the new anti-dep I was supposed to take listed "suicidal thoughts" as a side effect. Like I wasn't already troubled!!! I got such nasties from it. Can't even describe...and yes I took it for about two weeks because I'd call my shrink and he'd say it takes time, give it time. finally I said I wanted off, so then I was only on celexa again. I felt evened out for the year that I was on this stuff but I sure didn't feel "better". And going off of it was one of the WORST experiences of my life. Now do you think I'm going to put my kid on that? Nope, I'm just going to fight with the school instead. I gotta do what I gotta do.

And Douglas, I like your new photo. It's kind of psycho-fun. Thanks for being a good hearted voice around here.
Anonymous said…
well, my freind..

INFJ here. extremely cynical and self-obsessed one @ that too. im not sure if the heightened self-awareness is a good thing or simply keeps me so different from the majority that its impossible to even feel, let alone think like they do!!

yeah..i know what u mean. on a good day, im okay with myself. its a rare thing though, to look into the mirror and like what i see.

just finished a fortnight of running round' tryin to get something done..that didnt fly eventually. you probably know what i mean..

im trying meditation. and try to look at the comical or lighter side of things..at other times simply desperately seek inspiration, anywhere..somewhere.

i feel lost, i just dont want to remain like that, eh?

thanks fer carin ;)
Anonymous said…
~Douglas~
psychiatric medication, imo can potentially make things very very bad.

when u have a condition, or even worldviews so different from the majority, people simply assume you must be sick cause theres no way you could believe all that and still be sane.

is there?? ::bitter smile::
achromic said…
Good. I am glad you said that. It isn't that I don't think meds have their place.... they do... but we will NEVER know how much the Riddlin given to me as a kid excabated other FAR more diffcult problems. That doesn't mean I think everyone should stop giving their kid Riddlin.... it can help... but that they should be aware of the risks.... and that they should allow their kids to know the risk too.
Unknown said…
I did see a news report recently about the FDA possibly labeling AD/HD drugs with a black label? I don't remember the exact details but the label is supposed to help physicians be more careful when prescribing certain drugs.

In the program they were interviewing a mother of three and her two young boys were both on AD/HD drugs and she swore by them. I'm not trying to "judge" here but I the impression I got is that it's easier to drug your kids than take the time to really help them. Kind of like giving a baby a nice dose of Tylenol before going on a long road trip. The big difference here is the "road trip" is the life of a child.

I probably shouldn't speak on this topic because I don't know a "lot" about it. Mostly just what I've seen in the news and read on your blog. But everyone has an opinion right? It won't hurt my feelings if ya'll tell me what a dork I am for not knowing what I'm talking about :p Basically to me it's the easy way out. To get a prescription to calm down your overly active child. I'm sure that's not the case with every child but it seems to be the majority.

PS thanks for the info on the Ben Stein thing Douglas. I know I should research stuff like that before posting it on my blog as a quote from someone :p I can't promise I will though. Just put me in my place when I'm wrong ;)
Susan Och said…
Douglas, thanks for the heads up on my comments. I'll fix them in the next few days.

But you're giving me pause, here. I thought about the job interview situation as a parent. Now you're making me envision my dad accompanying me on an interview. Dredging up every "cute" boneheaded thing I've every done and explaining the "phases" I've been through.... And me, with that thin forced smile, trying to endure until it's over....
grkgrl88 said…
Hi, I've been reading this blog for a while now but haven't commented yet. My friend recently found out that she has ADD and when she told me, the first thing I thought of was this site. Thank you for your unique insight each week.
D.R. Cootey said…
Heidi the Hick ~ Yes, that is definitely messed up. Suicidal thoughts as a side-effect for medicine that treats depression. Perfect. :p And this week I read that sleep eating is turning out to be a side-effect of Ambien, as well as sleep driving. Oh happy days. Ambien on low dosages made me hallucinate for the first time in my life. When I complained about it to my psychologist (who always asked me if I was having feelings of grandeur whenever we met. He was fixated on bipolar and kept trying to trick me into admitting I had it. What a crackpot.) he nonchalantly told me to not take as much next time. I had taken ONE FOURTH the recommended dose and my ceiling light became an eyeball. What did he want me to do? Lick it like Alice in Wonderland? I couldn't cut it any smaller. No thank you. ::)

Sol ~ It's a slow process, but you're on the right track. Your mind is working against you right now. Keep celebrating those tiny victories. At first, it seems rather pathetic. Like:

yay. i smiled once today. whoopee.

But eventually you start to pick up momentum in the right direction. Personally, I found anti-depressants were keeping me depressed. I took myself off Zoloft (the last of many meds I had been on), had a pretty rocky month, but then leveled out and could finally get in touch with my real feelings. I don't know if that can work for everybody; I was highly motivated. I just got fed up with being sad all the time. I decided I had been moody before the doctor told me I had depression and put me on meds, so I figured I could just go back to being moody again and deal with it.

Take today. I'm completely down. My heart feels so heavy. There's no reason for it - just depression again. So I tried catching up on some photocasts over at flickr to distract me, and that perked me up, but it wasn't enough. So I am over here commenting on comments and if that doesn't work I'll go draw something. I just keep slamming at the depression until it stops shouting at me and settles down to a dull murmur I can ignore. Eventually, it will pass.

I wish I could help you feel better.

As for sanity, I think it's highly overrated. ;)

achromic ~ Not everybody suffers from side-effects as I do. So I can't assume everybody's experience on AD/HD meds is the same. But I can caution people. All you need is one bad dosage.

KristieSue ~ Yes, that's part of the story I didn't relate in those articles I linked. I believe the black label is for us, not the physicians.

Now, if the side-effects affected politicians you could be certain something would be done immediately.

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE YOU CHANGE POLITICAL PARTIES. TAKE WITH CAUTION IF YOU ARE A REGISTERED VOTER.

Until then expect only death to affect any change in the pharmaceutical industry. The drug companies can't make any money off us if we keep dying on them...

I think that the abuses of medication are hot topics for the press. Makes great headlines, but we must be careful to not let people use these extreme cases to justify the elimination of all treatment. An old neighbor of mine didn't believe in AD/HD. I suppose it didn't leave any quarters under her pillow when she was a young child. She was a teacher and saw cases where kids with AD/HD used it as an excuse for bad behavior. Her conclusion: All people claiming to have AD/HD are trying to use it as an excuse for failure. It's really sad to see an adult brain atrophy and waste away like that. :p I worry for the children she has to teach.

Hope the Ben Stein thing didn't embarrass you. I just thought you'd like to know.

Susan Och ~ LOL

grkgrl88 ~ Hey, thanks for reading. Glad you popped in to make a comment. I hope you share this site with your friend. Getting diagnosed with ADD can make you feel both happy to have a label for what you're experiencing and sad because there's now a name for how broken you are. Hopefully, your friend's family will be supportive. There are plus sides to ADD. As long as she learns how to minimize the downsides, she can use the pluses to stand out from the crowd and make a mark in this world. I'm going to be discussing some of these pluses in the column after next...
Anonymous said…
Douglas ~ u already have ;)

i tend to get depressed when heavily frustrated. of course, there are times when it happens for no visible reason..

my real problem is people can't handle my volatile feelings and moods. they prefer to live in their spiced-down, humdrum world without too much stimulation.

its like, they'd rather be a lil plastic?

im tired of apologizing for who i am. its not like i choose to be different, i just am. theres a difference.

being 'crazy' carries a heavier stigma than say being gay, imo. then again, i havent seen that side of da fence!
Susan Och said…
Douglas, I think i fixed my comments, but I'm not entirely sure.

Meantime, here's a sweet poem.
D.R. Cootey said…
Sol ~ "...my real problem is people can't handle my volatile feelings and moods. they prefer to live in their spiced-down, humdrum world without too much stimulation."

I don't know, Sol. Are you throwing people around and laughing maniacally? I might be able to see their point. LOL

Chomskyite ~ I'm glad to hear you finally found a solution that works for you. Friends and family offer great support when they are understanding of the issues at hand.

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