Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder continues to be a hotly debated diagnosis among mental health professionals. Some believe ADHD/ADD to be a “legitimate,” identifiable diagnosis best treated with pharmaceuticals such as Ritalin or Adderall. Others believe that the naming of the thing itself – the fairly common human problem of focusing on the task at hand – has largely been a way for Big Pharma to cash in by convincing people they have a “disease” that can only be treated with synthetic meds.
The head of Merck Pharmaceuticals may have revealed Big Pharma’s most valuable secret way back in 1952 when he was on the cover of TIME magazine: “Before you sell a drug, you have to sell the disease.” You can’t sell somebody your solution until you can convince them that they have the problem your solution is touted to “cure” or “alleviate.”
Leon Eisenberg, known as the the father of ADHD, was reported to have said in an interview published in the German magazine Der Spiegel, seven months before his death, that “ADHD is a fictitious disease.” But something may have been lost in the translation. (http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/adhd.asp). Eisenberg may have been saying ADHD is overdiagnosed.
The debate continues among experts in a load of literature arguing whether ADD or ADHD is real at all and whether or not it is overdiagnosed, but you can count on one thing: most of the relevant studies paid for by Big Pharma accept that ADD/ADHD is a legitimate, non-fictitious disease that can be effectively treated by drugs like Ritalin or Adderall.
Snopes.com wrote: “Given Dr. Eisenberg’s recognized authority and expertise in this field, therefore, those who feel that ADD and ADHD are misused and over-employed diagnosis which ‘serve to excuse bullying and recklessness’ and ‘offer a sense of alleviation of personal responsibility among those diagnosed’ would indeed find validation if Dr. Eisenberg had proclaimed ‘ADHD is a fictitious disease.’”
In a 2009 interview in his Harvard Square apartment shortly before his death, Dr. Eisenberg told an interviewer, according to the snopes.com story: “ADHD is a primary example of a fabricated disorder.”
Regardless, Adderall may work to help some people concentrate and focus for a certain period of time, but the long-term effects of the drug can cause users severe problems and they may also have a tendency to become addicted to Adderall; so that the “cure” may be worse than the “disease.”
“The problem is,” according to Harvard psychologist Dr. Jerome Kagan, speaking of the overuse of drugs used for behavioral problems in children, “if a drug is available to doctors, they’ll make the corresponding diagnosis.”
Hazardous Side Effects of Adderall
While most patients can apparently tolerate low dosages of Adderall, users can experience dangerous or hazardous side effects that include:
- Dangerous increase in blood pressure
- Tachycardia or a high pulse rate
- Irregular heart rate
- Difficulty breathing
- Chest pain
- Allergic reaction that includes swelling and redness in the eyes or throat
- Migraine headaches
- Syncope or losing consciousness
- Blurry or double vision
- Seizure activity and excessive and uncontrollable shaking
- Extreme nervousness and paranoid delusions
- Mood swings that include hostility and severe aggression
- Depression
Naturalnews.com writes that “Adderall is basically a cocktail of various amphetamine stimulants and is often referred to as ‘prescription speed.’”
A concoction similar to illegal methamphetamines, Adderall is highly addictive. In addition to its many side effects, users will have a difficult time functioning without Adderall once they start using it.
Ironically, the drug can actually cause behavior to become worse. With all its side effects, and the well-known side effects of any type of speed, one can legitimately wonder why such a drug was ever approved as a legitimate medicine to treat a disorder (if ADHD is indeed an actual disorder in the cases for which it is being prescribed) that it may actually aggravate.
In addition, one Ask.com post reports that the generic Adderall now widely available fails to work as well as the original, which was made by Shire. Generic equivalency is another highly debatable topic, but Ask.com reports that the generic versions cut corners, that “the Shire version is far superior.”
While the debate about whether the risk-reward profile of Adderall justifies its being prescribed to millions of people will rage on as long as Adderall’s maker can keep producing it, Naturalnews.com recommends good nutrition and body cleansing to treat the symptoms for which Adderall is prescribed.
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by Matthews & Associates
