<p>I was in my parents cabinet, getting hydrocortisone cream when I found a prescription for my brother. for Ritalin. My parents had always threatened to put my brother on Ritalin but I hoped it was an empty threat. My brother is fine. He’s quiet around other people but extremely talkative around the house, sometimes standoffish but definetly does not have ADHD. I think my parents want to put him on ritalin because they think he is slow and does not communicate fast enough when that is just his style. I know Ritalin has bad side effects. I hid the Ritalin but I just don’t know what to do. Please help me.</p>
<p>I understand your concern but I don’t think hiding the medicine is a good strategy. Was it prescribed by the family physician or by a specialist? Do you currently live at home? If you’re only home for brief periods, you’re not really in a position to assess whether your brother has it or not. He may not have ADHD, but he could have ADD instead. </p>
<p>My husband has ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed and treated until he was well into adulthood. He struggled in college. Made impulsive decisions with sometimes disastrous results, went through a lot of ups and downs in his career and lost three jobs because of it. His parents—his mother was an elementary school principal—bemoaned his bad grades and bad decisions and never bothered to look at why those issues were occurring. He floundered. He felt lousy about himself. And now, at 47, he’s finally starting to see some success in his life and some stability. Imagine if he’d had treatment and medication—he could’ve avoided a lot of suffering.</p>
<p>So, I don’t know if your brother has a need for it or not, but it has to be prescribed by a medical professional. Maybe you should read up and take some online quizzes before you approach your parents. They symptoms of it are much more varied and confusing—people generally have the wrong idea about what it really is. If after doing all the reading you’re still convinced there’s no possibility your brother has it, then maybe you can sit down with your parents and share your concerns about side effects and ask them what behaviors they see that make them think he has ADHD, and maybe they can tell you more about the diagnostic process. </p>
<p>I know you’re trying to protect your brother, but on the small chance that you’re wrong and he actually does need the ritalin, then you’re actually hurting him. And the thing is, unless they’ve obtained it illegally or are overmedicating him, there really isn’t anything you can do. They are the parents and if they’ve followed the proper procedures it’s up to them to decide to treat the issue with medication. You could actually end up in trouble if you take the ritalin out of the house.</p>
<p>How old is your brother? If he’s a minor, his health is your parents’ responsibility. Hiding the medication your parents have obtained for him, presumably from a qualified professional, is not going to keep your brother from taking it for long. Have you discussed your concerns with your parents in a calm, respectful way?</p>
<p>My brother is a minor. So in this respect, my hands are tied. I’ve also unhid the prescription because i’ve reasoned that hiding the medicine was a spur-of-the-moment decision that would do no help in the long term. I looked up the ADHD symptoms, but they are extremely vague. Looking at those symptoms, I would conclude that I had ADHD and so does my mother…</p>
<p>You need to let your parents and your brother’s doctor handle this situation. It sounds like you really care about your brother and that is wonderful. He’s still the same brother even IF he takes medication. </p>
<p>ADHD comes in many varieties…and the characteristics and how they impact folks also varies from person to person.</p>
<p>Hopefully your parents made a wise informed decision and your brother was seen by a physician qualified to make the decision. No one here can assess that decision. I can only tell you this…all my kids know kids on Ritalin or other prescription drugs of that type. When your brother is old enough to make his own decisions he can decide for himself whether it is beneficial or whether he no longer wishes to take it. You should not “hide” the medication but I don’t see anything wrong with having a private conversation with your parents about your concerns.</p>
<p>“Looking at those symptoms, I would conclude that I had ADHD and so does my mother.”</p>
<p>And both of you may well have. Whether you or your mother could benefit from medication, from behavioral modification, from talk therapy, or any other therapy is a completely different issue. The popular image of the entire ADD/ADHD range is very different from what professionals in the field understand. Not everyone benefits from medication, but most of us know people for whom medication has truly been life-changing, if not life-saving.</p>
<p>I believe that ADHD is over diagnosed and kids are over medicated, but there is no way for you to know under what circumstances any medication is prescribed. When I taught kids with learning disabilities, I had several kids who were taking Ritalin. The medication may have been improved since then, but back then, it was crucial that it be taken at the same time every day so hiding it is definitely not a good idea.</p>
<p>cartera45, my brother doesn’t use Ritalin. he’s been getting a’s and b’s in school and one c on a midterm. My parents think he’s not focused enough, so they got ritalin for him. I also have unhid the medication long ago because I decided that hiding things was pointless. My problem is that my brother is a perfectly healthy kid, with friends, no learning disabilities and so on. When is there a line between the normal, " I’m a kid, I’m silly and I like to daydream," to " there is a problem." I worry that medication is prescribed because my parents weren’t happy with my brother’s B’s and wanted an A.</p>
<p>Talk to your brother and find out what he thinks. He may have difficulty concentrating that you’re not aware of, he may be in agreement with your parents, and he may be fine with this whole thing.</p>
<p>In which case, back away.</p>
<p>It is quite possible your parents have NOT thought it through, and doctors are all-too-ready to prescribe without a real diagnosis. Indeed, that is the entire history of ADHD, with the vast majority of diagnoses essentially provided by schoolteachers, and rubber-stamped by physicians. </p>
<p>It is worth a good discussion, first with your brother and with your parents. I’m sure they only want the best for him, but that’s also how we’ve ended up with a massive number of childhood bipolar diagnoses which may, or may not, be linked to the use of ADHD drugs when they weren’t warranted.</p>
<p>So you’re thinking that your parents just called a doctor and said, “Hey, I want some of those Ritalin pills for my loser kid. I read about them online and they sound awesome.” And you also think a doctor just said, “Yeah sure, no problem. I’ll just write up a prescription without evaluating the kid, because, hey, that’s what doctors do.” Or am I misunderstanding you?</p>
<p>OP, I’m confused. You say you found your brother’s Ritalin in the medicine cabinet, but then in post #9 you say that your brother doesn’t use Ritalin. </p>
<p>Did you talk to him and he said he doesn’t actually take the pills, even though he has them? Or do you mean you just found the prescription slip, which has not yet been filled at the pharmacy? Or what??</p>
<p>The bottle is in my parents room, in it’s delivery bag. It has never been opened or used. It is full of little white pills.</p>
<p>“So you’re thinking that your parents just called a doctor and said, “Hey, I want some of those Ritalin pills for my loser kid. I read about them online and they sound awesome.” And you also think a doctor just said, “Yeah sure, no problem. I’ll just write up a prescription without evaluating the kid, because, hey, that’s what doctors do.” Or am I misunderstanding you?”</p>
<p>It’s actually worse than that. In 1991, the federal government issued rules that provided extra payment to school districts with children who suffered from disabilities, and for the first time included ADHD as one of those disabilities. As a result, schoolteachers (without any training whatsoever) were encouraged to report to parents what they thought were ADHD symptoms. Parents would go to doctors (who also had no training in ADHD diagnosis) and, guess what - within five years, the number of prescriptions written for children multiplied by 6x. </p>
<p>Enough for now. It is a long, long story. A really good read is Robert Whittaker’s “Anatomy of an Epidemic.” [Amazon.com:</a> Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (9780307452429): Robert Whitaker: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312444229&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Epidemic-Bullets-Psychiatric-Astonishing/dp/0307452425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312444229&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>(P.S. I work in the alcohol/drug/mental health field, and I see how we are reaping the results of this epidemic all the time.)</p>
<p>Most doctors will not write a presrription for a controlled substance without adequate justification/documentation. While yes, Ritalin has been overprescribed, I would agree that your concern about your brother is sweet, but perhaps unjustified. Let the parents and doctors decide what is best for him. Besides, the bottle is unopened anyway. No need for the strong reaction. Whats the date ont he prescription?</p>
<p>Well sure, mini, but that was 1991. Haven’t the procedures tightened up quite a bit?</p>
<p>Actually, it has gotten much worse. Now, mind you, I work in the field; I know the usefulness of the drugs - short-term. In the largest study ever undertaken of stimulants for ADHD by the National Institutes of Health, published in 2007, the drugs were found to be effective (above placebo) for two years. By the end of the third year, those taking the drugs were behind their placebo-taking counterparts in every category - social, mental health, scholastic. And thereafter got worse.</p>
<p>Yet, there is virtually no warning given to doctors, and very, very rarely any given to parents that these drugs are a short-term fix, should not be used for more than two years, and (again from the literature) with often some very negative longer-term consequences. And certainly none from the drug pushers (the pharmaceutical companies). The FDA does not require any long-term testing for efficacy. </p>
<p>Jym626 - my professional work deals much with doctors (and I’m not talking about one or two, but thousands of them) prescribing overwhelming amounts of controlled substances (especially Schedules IIs) without adequate justification/documentation. My state has (finally) passed a law requiring same, and at least requiring (in the case of pain drugs) consultation with a pain specialist before prescribing substance known to be dangerous (and in some cases, fatal.) By my estimates, and I do this for a living, there may be as many as 30,000 drug-addicted individuals in my state, who became addicted (first to prescription opiates, then, many, to heroin) because of the failure of doctors to monitor medical usage.</p>
<p>mini- I am in the field too. There is a big difference between pain management treatment with opiates, etc and stimulant medication usage. Addiction can be a big issue with the former, not so much with the latter.</p>
<p>You wrote, “Most doctors will not write a presrription for a controlled substance without adequate justification/documentation.”</p>
<p>My very extensive experience, with both opiates, and with stimulants, is this is simply not true. And if, as you state (and I agree), addiction is less of an issue with stimulants, it is likely that doctors are even MORE lackadaisical with the latter.</p>
<p>I think (and time will tell) that we will find that the new epidemic of child bipolar disorder is specifically linked to the longer term use of stimulant medications. At any rate, interviews we’ve done with students at all the universities in our state tell us that there are plenty of doctors who prescribe stimulants like candy - for patients they have never even seen before.</p>