Notes on life, art, photography and technology, by a Danish dropout bohemian.
When you drink the water, remember the river.
▼
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Children on drugs
This is a trailer from a film about the growing problem about the wholesale drugging of children. Where is the "think of the children" brigade when it's actually needed?
Thank you very much for posting this, Eo. This is an issue that I am very adamant about working towards getting to the bottom of, to the best of my ability, when I am able. I have been studying to become a sleep technician and we have been studying the effects of ALL drugs...not only on adults but, of course, children, too.
I believe that the real issues begin with the children having sleep disorders from a very young age. Not having proper sleep...even from birth...will, eventually affect the child.
Issues such as sleep apnea causes the child's autonomic nervous system to have to *revive* the child (and this goes for adults, too.) after every apneic event, throughout the night, in order for the person to get the next breath. The interruptions of the sleep cycles (inadequate sleep) causes hyperactivity; the teachers have children who are bouncing off the walls and no one knows why. Of course everyone wants to put the child (usually boys...who are already *wired* with extra energy (testosterone, of course) anyway) on Ritilin to *get them under control*...no one realizing that the kid actually has sleep apnea or some other sleep disorder that prevents him/her from getting their proper amount of sleep.
A friend of mine had her son on anti-depressants...years before he was the *tween* that he is, now. He tried to attempt suicide, this past year, and was hospitalized!
When I started learning the side affects of a child's lack of sleep...hyperactivity being one of the symptoms; depression being another, among others...I asked her why she didn't go to his doctor and ask him to refer them to have him evaluated for any sleep orders via an overnight sleep study.
She told me that she had gone to 2 pediatricians who refused to give her the referral! I recommended that she keep going until she find one who WILL give them the referral to be sure that any sleep disorders have been ruled out.
Anyhow...as with all of us, a large majority of the issues that we suffer from are the accumulative affects of either improper and/or insufficient sleep which...doctors are slowing coming around to realizing.
So...yes...drugging children and even adults...is usually the bandaid for the symptom(s) of many other things that happen, eventually, when the body is deprived of it's much-needed rejuvenating/repairing time during sleep. Do you know what is even more ironic? ALL DRUGS affect our sleep cycles in one way or another so...add that to an already sleep-deprived child and...yes...you do have an *ticking time bomb* running! :-(
I am hoping that physicians everywhere will...uh...[seriously] WAKE UP to this HUGE PROBLEM and SOON! We need doctors to become better educated on the affects of sleep-deprivation in our children. Most of the time, I don't believe that drugs are the answer.
Thank you very much for posting this, Eo. This is an issue that I am very adamant about working towards getting to the bottom of, to the best of my ability, when I am able. I have been studying to become a sleep technician and we have been studying the effects of ALL drugs...not only on adults but, of course, children, too.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the real issues begin with the children having sleep disorders from a very young age. Not having proper sleep...even from birth...will, eventually affect the child.
Issues such as sleep apnea causes the child's autonomic nervous system to have to *revive* the child (and this goes for adults, too.) after every apneic event, throughout the night, in order for the person to get the next breath. The interruptions of the sleep cycles (inadequate sleep) causes hyperactivity; the teachers have children who are bouncing off the walls and no one knows why. Of course everyone wants to put the child (usually boys...who are already *wired* with extra energy (testosterone, of course) anyway) on Ritilin to *get them under control*...no one realizing that the kid actually has sleep apnea or some other sleep disorder that prevents him/her from getting their proper amount of sleep.
A friend of mine had her son on anti-depressants...years before he was the *tween* that he is, now. He tried to attempt suicide, this past year, and was hospitalized!
When I started learning the side affects of a child's lack of sleep...hyperactivity being one of the symptoms; depression being another, among others...I asked her why she didn't go to his doctor and ask him to refer them to have him evaluated for any sleep orders via an overnight sleep study.
She told me that she had gone to 2 pediatricians who refused to give her the referral! I recommended that she keep going until she find one who WILL give them the referral to be sure that any sleep disorders have been ruled out.
Anyhow...as with all of us, a large majority of the issues that we suffer from are the accumulative affects of either improper and/or insufficient sleep which...doctors are slowing coming around to realizing.
So...yes...drugging children and even adults...is usually the bandaid for the symptom(s) of many other things that happen, eventually, when the body is deprived of it's much-needed rejuvenating/repairing time during sleep. Do you know what is even more ironic? ALL DRUGS affect our sleep cycles in one way or another so...add that to an already sleep-deprived child and...yes...you do have an *ticking time bomb* running! :-(
I am hoping that physicians everywhere will...uh...[seriously] WAKE UP to this HUGE PROBLEM and SOON! We need doctors to become better educated on the affects of sleep-deprivation in our children. Most of the time, I don't believe that drugs are the answer.