ADD and “drugs” — ADD Tip o the day 182

warning: this is something of a rant, about my personal viewpoint.  Yours may be different.

I am old fashioned; at my age I am entitled to that.  I am a physician, not a “provider” or a “vendor”, and I see patients, not “clients” -no matter what the insurance companies say.  And sometimes I prescribe medicines, but never “drugs”.  To me, drugs means illicit.

Some people do not want to take medicines, which is their right.  But I am sometimes bewildered by their reasons:

‘I don’t want to put chemicals into my body.”  How do they get by without H2O and O2, and carbohydrates and proteins and sugars? And if instead they want “natural” substances, what do they think they are made of?

Which is really a good question. What are the natural products made of?  Who knows?    What you buy in the store can contain anything. 

” I only want natural substances, not artificial ones.”  What are the main differences?  The “artificial” ones are produced in a factory with regulatory control.  You know what is in them and what is not and how much.  Not so with the natural ones, which are  also produced in a factory, without controls,  and which contain God only knows what.  And some natural substance are in fact quite dangerous.  The “artificial” ones have been approved by the FDA, after reviewing long term scientific studies.  Granted both the studies and the FDA have significant flaws; this is not a perfect scheme, but it does have some value. 

An exception to this viewpoint might be natural substances (which consist, by the way, of chemicals) which you have gathered yourself if you are a very knowledgeable herbalist, or given to you by a trusted friend who is. Still, you wouldn’t really know the dose.  Another exception is beneficial foods (ie. those containing helpful chemicals), most of which are also produced with some regulatory controls.

But some people just don’t like the idea of medicines and maybe  can’t really offer a reason, and I can easily respect that.  There are many non-medical things which help, and though Ritalin (or antidepressants, for example) can be very helpful to many people, the medicines are not helpful for everyone.

So if you have ADD or ADHD, you might want to try the Ritalin, or you might not.  If not, maybe you can think through your reasons and see if they make sense – and “I just don’t like the idea” actually does make some sense.

doug

I will try not to rant anymore.  If you want to refute this one I will welcome your comments.

ps  the foto should read “opinions”- the label was produced without regulatory controls and i cant figure out how to correct it.  but it is “natural”.