Now what?

[Swimmin' Salmon]

This article is actually meaningful to me, as a parent. I'm certain I can make the parenting decisions necessary to keep my son drug free throughout adolescence, but it seems that is not the norm.

 

What has been your experience, either as a parent or a child, with prescription drugs, especially as they relate to your health and lifestyle? Where do you fit into the game? Are you sitting on the sidelines, on the bench, or are you in the game? Is it your choice?

[Niemand]

What exactly do you mean by 'taking prescription drugs'? Obviously the literal meaning of the phrase is having ever taken a drug which was prescribed by a doctor, but I get the impression here that the intended meaning includes 'for extended periods of time'.

 

On a couple of occasions that I can remember when I was a child I became sick enough that my parents took me to a doctor and I was given a prescription for antibiotics for a short period of time.

 

Whether my lifestyle is altogether healthy or particularly active is debatable. I try to eat in a sensible manner, and I'm certainly not overweight (the WHO puts me in the category of 'severe thinness', although it was funnier when they had a chart that put me in a category that was something like 'chronically undernourished'). On the other hand, I don't get a whole lot of exercise. I walk a couple of miles most days of the week, often carrying a fairly heavy backpack, but I avoid most deliberate exercise for the reasons that it is 1) mind numbingly boring and 2) unpleasantly painful.

[Dintiradan]

Missing option for both questions: Don't take prescription drugs and don't lead an active and healthy lifestyle.

[Enraged Slith]

My older brother had to take medication for certain difficulties, but I don't think they ever really helped. I'm not saying my parents didn't try to tackle the source of his problems, but I know that the medication didn't do any good.

 

As for myself, I went through a whole series of terrible anxieties in my early adolescence, but I coped without medicine and I think that made me stronger. I think a lot of the things doctors prescribe medicine for these days, are natural manifestations and responses to respective environments. It's much healthier to deal with the source of the problem and let the child learn to help themselves, than attack the problem directly. Physical health problems can be countered by healthy lifestyles, unless they're genetic. That's the only time I would honestly suggest resorting to medication.

 

As a whole, children are becoming increasingly difficult to handle, mainly due to poor parenting. Teachers are unable to discipline these children without their respective parents screaming about it. This difficulty manifests into "disorders" like ADD, when the problem might have been countered with proper attention. This is probably where a lot of those medicated children the article speaks of come from. We live in a safe but fearful society, that I think tends to forget that we cannot fully remove danger from this world. So we shelter ourselves and our children from reality, never accept responsibility, and ultimately wind up incapable of functioning outside of this sedative guise. I'm not sure if this is quite what you're asking, but I think it's related to the issue.

[Dikiyoba]

Edit: What Dintiradan said.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Swimmin' Salmon]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Missing option for both questions: Don't take prescription drugs and don't lead an active and healthy lifestyle.

If the answers don't fit you, then you are too fat and shouldn't be answering polls anyway, you should be climbing them.

Originally Posted By: Niemand

stuff

Assume that any phrases I am using are in the exact same context as the article to which I linked.

[Monroe]

The author of this book was on the Daily Show the other day and he basically spoke about how America is exporting its psychology to other nations in order to open up new markets for perception drugs. Sadly, he repeatedly dodged the questions on whether this was helpful or harmful to these other nations, choosing instead to focus on the economics of the phenomena. He was probably right to dodge it though. The drugs most likely help many people and most likely don't help many others, with the line being impossible to draw, even by experts.

 

I myself have never been prescribed long-term medications. I seem to be doing well enough.

[Khoth]

I had some twice-a-day inhaler for asthma for ages. Being able to breathe is quite helpful for having a healthy and active lifestyle.

[Student of Trinity]

Any kid who needs prescription antibiotics for an acute illness had better take them, or they'll probably die the way kids used to die before the 20th century. The article is talking about long-term prescriptions for chronic conditions, which is a different issue. It would be a clearer poll if it made this distinction.

[Slawbug]

*facepalm*

[Randomizer]

It depends what the perscription drug is for and you should always look up possible side effects in a reference like The Physcian's Desk Reference that you can find at a library. Most doctors will just prescribe without monitoring side effects so if you or your child has problems you should watch for them. There is are tests for genetic defects that makes some people more prone to adverse reactions.

[A less presumptuous name.]

What about prescription medications that don't affect your physical lifestyle, like antidepressants? I've been on them for a while now. I've always been healthy (although my eating and exercise habits leave a bit to be desired).

[Sudanna]

I was a chubby, but healthy kid, until about 12. As a teenager, I have gotten taller and begun regular exercise, and so slimmed out. I still have the strongest immune system of anyone I know.

[Frozen Feet]

I think part of the problem are jumpy parents. Some things that were thought of as 'normal' before are know seen as symptoms by paranoid guardians, which might lead to more prescriptions overall, even unnecessary ones.

 

On mental side of things, some can be contributed to people seeing symptoms as the disease. Some 'disorderous' behaviour is direct result from poor parenting. While prescripts might make the 'problem child' calm and sit down, scolding the parents would have the same effect and make the drugs useless.

 

I myself have never needed long-term conscriptions, and lead a healthy life style. I hope to pass these qualities to my future children.

[Monroe]

Originally Posted By: ZIPPERLITH ZEPPELINICLES

*facepalm*

How does posting nothing but this in multiple threads not count as spam in the same vein as LOL?

[keira]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Missing option for both questions: Don't take prescription drugs and don't lead an active and healthy lifestyle.

This. That'd be me.

[Swimmin' Salmon]

Originally Posted By: 12899

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Missing option for both questions: Don't take prescription drugs and don't lead an active and healthy lifestyle.

This. That'd be me.

Just remember this:

"Everything isn't about me, and I don't have to answer every poll, or post in every thread."

[Rowen]

The only real run-in with prescription drugs I had as a child was when my brother left his riddlin on the counter and I ate the whole bottle in one go. As a result I got my stomach pumped for the third time. This was when I was a little over two years of age.

 

EDIT: Worse the prescription drugs, I seemed to find house hold cleaners and drink them. One stomach pumping was for drinking half a bottle of condensed lysol cleaner and the other was for drinking window cleaner.

 

Both of these were made available for me to drink due to my older brothers not picking up after they finished their chores, just as my older brother left the riddlin in a place that I could reach. I think my brothers were trying to get rid of me. >_<

 

 

[Alorael at Large]

Part of it is the fact that we can treat so many more things now than we once did. We also exercise less. The two phenomena correlate, but correlation does not prove causation, and there isn't exactly a prescription for couch-potato-itis.

 

My guess, and it's entirely a guess, is that the vast majority of prescriptions for kids are prescriptions that have nothing to do with fitness. AD(H)D medication is a booming industry. Does it help? Sometimes quite a lot; often, however, it's probably unnecessary. Does it have anything to do with activity? Besides that pesky H, not really.

 

—Alorael, who recommends increasing exercise regardless of medication. Maybe some medications will prove unnecessary. Some obviously won't. Either way, kids are healthier for it.

[Sporefrog]

/agrees completely with Alorael.

[Ephesos]

I've somehow remained off of prescriptions for my entire life, barring short-term things like recovering from nasty cases of poison ivy.

 

Working as a camp counselor, I've seen some pretty ludicrous cases of kids on up to 11 medications. Some of them need it, some of them benefit from it, and some of them get their dosages adjusted right before camp and nobody seems to think that's a horrible idea. Because we're strict about medications, I've never seen a kid off of his or her meds for an extended period of time.

 

And in the end, all I can say is that it varies from case to case. Sometimes, the problem is completely behavioral, and meds will do nothing. Sometimes, the reverse is true.

 

EDIT: I also pretty much agree with Alorael. Who is a ninja.

[Alorael at Large]

Another factor is our desired to take nature and our natures in hand and make them behave. Unfortunately, our reach handily exceeds our grasp. We want to fix problems real and perceived, and we do so with medication. Decreasing the range of normal and acceptable means we have more and more deviants to correct.

 

—Alorael, who assumes, again on no evidence, that this is more common for mental, emotional, and behavioral issues than for more purely physical issues. Asthma is asthma, diabetes is diabetes, and even diseases with iffy diagnoses tend not to have their diagnoses expand over time.

[The Mystic]

For the first question in the poll: I took prescription drugs only when I was sick. My lifestyle is healthy but not all that active outside work.

 

For the second question in the poll: It's impossible for me to answer, as I don't have any children.

[Triumph]

When I was younger, I was put on a medication for OCD; it caused me to suffer from depression for the years on it (something I didn't realize until I went off the medication after several years; even later after that, I learned that med. was no longer prescribed to juveniles because it could cause suicidal tendencies - thankfully not something I had, though).

 

I also had another prescription, for allergies, that caused me insomnia for a month. No doctors were able to figure this out, but eventually I figured it out on my own.

 

Though it's not traditional medication, I've also received allergy shots for years and years, and they have been a huge blessing, making my life much easier (and just making breathing much easier!).

 

These experiences, both quite negative and positive, give me a strong mistrust of prescription medications. They are very serious, and potentially dangerous. That DOES NOT mean you take them. Sometimes they can do great good (in my case, allergy shots are a wonderful boon and I've never had any bad reactions!). Not quite sure how to answer your poll. I've had prescription drugs that affected me quite adversely, but also the good experience of allergy shots. Basically, I think medication should be approached with distrust, extreme caution, and careful investigation, and you should never be afraid to drop it if you suspect there's a problem.

[inni]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Missing option for both questions: Don't take prescription drugs and don't lead an active and healthy lifestyle.

Originally Posted By: Delicious Salmon

Just remember this:

"Everything isn't about me, and I don't have to answer every poll, or post in every thread."

you need all options to make a accurate poll.

Originally Posted By: Delicious Salmon

If the answers don't fit you, then you are too fat and shouldn't be answering polls anyway, you should be climbing them.

picking on fatties, shame on you.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: I need no introduction

this is the only good emoticon

[Dantius]

The whole point of a prescription drug company is to make money. They simply do not make money on things like antibiotics and actually useful medicine. As a result, they sell the medicines they do make money off of, like Lipitor or Nexium, to people who don't actually need them, or who could do without them. That's just called good business sense.

 

That said, I in no way endorse the "Big Pharma is evil" "We're killing ourselves with medicine", or "homeopathy/alternative medicine" viewpoints. That, if anything, is even worse.

 

Also,

.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

The whole point of a prescription drug company is to make money. They simply do not make money on things like antibiotics and actually useful medicine. As a result, they sell the medicines they do make money off of, like Lipitor or Nexium, to people who don't actually need them, or who could do without them. That's just called good business sense.

That said, I in no way endorse the "Big Pharma is evil" "We're killing ourselves with medicine", or "homeopathy/alternative medicine" viewpoints. That, if anything, is even worse.

Also,

.

hey ghaldring how's that pharmacy degree coming along

[Alorael at Large]

Plenty of drugs are useful medicine. Drug companies are after either the drugs that will be widely used, and therefore lucrative, or absolutely necessary, and therefore a seller's market. Oh, and they will make money on novel antibiotics if our current batch of generics keeps picking up resistances.

 

—Alorael, who is pretty sure nobody has grimaced at the idea of new and improved chemotherapy. Well, okay, a lot of people have, but they grimace slightly less than they did at the old and unimproved variety.

[Toby-Linn]

Very interesting article!

 

As a child, I was healthy and never took prescription drugs.

 

Now as an adult, I am overweight and should be exercising more. To my relief however, my daughter is healthy and active and doesn't need to take drugs. She watches tv, but she also plays outside a lot in the summer.

 

It seems in this day and age that so many kids take medication for something, whether it be anxiety or diabetes or ADHD. I hope my daughter is always lucky enough not to need to take medicines.