Ritalin Is Not the Answer: A Drug-Free, Practical Program for Children Diagnosed with Add or ADHD

This book was a real eye opener. It actually had a frightening tone to its information - that I'm sure was designed to grasp the attention of the reader who most likely is a parent with questions about the drug Ritalin. It was useful. Everyone with "active" children should read it before doing the extreme.

The sheer numbers of diagnoses and the sheer numbers of kids on ADD/ADHD meds scares the bejeezus out of me. It just doesn't make rational sense to me that these 'diseases' could appear out of nowhere in such numbers. Somebody has to stand up and question the road that ADD/ADHD adherents are leading our society down before we turn into a nation of pill-popping fools. My 5 year old was labeled with ADHD. Nothing any of the professionals said could rationally explain to me how it was that my thoughtful, loving, intelligent but energetic kid could suddenly turn into this horror of a wild being the moment he stepped foot into their classroom that they claimed. It made no sense to me. I am a good parent. Consistent and clear. Patient. Praising, but using consequences. All those things you should do. But Dr. Stein provided guidelines for another whole level of interaction that I could use with my son that brought results! And no, I did not feel invalidated or insulted as some reviewers did. Dr. Stein isn't saying 'you are a bad parent' -- he's saying, 'there's more you can do, and here's how'. I highly recommend this book to any parent that is seeking an alternative to medications. Give the parenting guidelines an honest and sincere try and see if you don't get good results.

I am the mother of Ben, who has had lots of labels...Adhd, Autism, PDD, brat. Somehow he has made it through to the fourth grade and basically is a bright kid.Ben was languaged delayed and might not have made it in the regular classroom without ritalin because he was just out of control and I was clueless as to how to change. In earlier days, we literally had to "show" Ben how to talk, with pictures... he had to "see" it to understand it, as he didn't pick up language as most kids do. He was different from the beginning!!!He is the most frustrating, and the most enjoyable of kids I have ever had the pleasure to love. But when it came to correction, I just believed I would have to spend the rest of my life ignoring his oppositionality. It was like I had no control...and just kept getting more and more frustrated, and giving more and more negative vibes off because I was just at my wits end. I don't like the idea of spanking or yelling at all, and it always just seemed to make matters worse. Ben took no responsibility for his behavior.When I came across this book initially I ignored it because it was that crazy "anti-ritalin" crowd, or so I thought. You know, the "zealots". After having read it and applied it somewhat, I wonder if Dr. Stein hasn't serendipitously (sp?) come across a way to help our kids behave, in the same way Catherine Maurice's book helped provide me with a way to teach Ben language!! Hey, we're on this earth to help each other out!I really do believe Ben has a difference that makes it hard to deal with some aspects of schooling. I don't recall anywhere in this book Dr. Stein saying that it's easy. But if I only give in and say, "He can't do it, he's handicapped..." am I really helping him? It isn't a matter of ritalin or not...what this book forces you to think about is how we as parents unfortunately handicap our children by having such low expectations of them.How can a form of discipline that includes no yelling or spanking, no belittlement; that encourages positive behavior and encourages thinking of the consequences of actions beforehand; that requires us as parents to refuse to see our children as handicapped and to enrich their lives and show them unconditional love, be bad? Got me....(...)

"One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, but the ones the doctor gives you don't do anything at all." I'm being jokingly sarcastic but the experiences my step-son and I had with ADHD and Ritalin were not far from this. My step-son came into my life as a high school senior who had been diagnosed as ADHD ten years earlier and who had been on Ritalin that whole time. He came to me because he had attempted suicide and after his release from the hospital he needed somewhere to go. His mother had "had it with him." He was in the ED and LD program at school, getting F's in every single class, had "no hope" of graduating according to his LD teachers, could not read above a 3rd grade level, was disruptive, rude, and inattentive. So, why, I asked myself is he still on Ritalin when it obviously isn't helping? He was unable to eat much, having no appetite, and was underweight and nervous. He acted out in school and had no respect for anyone. I weaned him off the Ritalin and the Zoloft he took because of Ritalin induced depression. The ideas I found outlined in this book were and are an enormous help to us and it is my earnest prayer that every parent who is either allowing or considering the use of Ritalin or other mood-altering drugs on their children read this book and think long and hard about it before deciding to continue with the chemical restraint method. You have one easy book to read but your child has a lifetime of misery with which to contend. Please be educated on the subject. We learn in this book that nearly one-tenth of all school-aged kids in the U.S. are being given stimulant drugs with side effects that include insomnia, tearfulness, rebound irritability, personality change, nervousness, anorexia, nausea, dizziness, headaches,heart palpitations, and cardiac arrhytmia. Millions of children are taking speed, the same class 2 drug that dopers on the street have been getting high on and getting arrested for taking and selling for decades. Speed is illegal to take without perscription because it is dangerous even life-threatening. Dr. Stein, himself a practicing clinical psychologist and father of two sons who were diagnosed with ADD points out, in very clear, compassionate and thoughtful terms, seven misconceptions or myths surrounding attentional disorders. He carefully explains the dangers of chemical restraints and also talks about their monumental ineffectivness. He offers very sound and proven and actually common sense approaches for the effective parenting of not only the ADD and ADHD kids who so desperately need it but also for each and every child growing up. This book does require that as a parent we take responsibility, we slow down, we modify our own behaviors, and we do this with consistency. It can be hard to modify our own behavior, let alone that of our troubled children, but we must stop relying on a dangerous little pill to modify and restrain creative, unique and individual children into a national army

This book contains practical information about how to address typical "ADHD" behaviors. It teaches the child to think independently and teaches consequenses for both positive and negative behaviors. I highly recommend this book unless you cannot see past the myth that ADHD is some mysterious brain disease that researchers cannot seem to pin point. A disease that is selective in its symptoms. An "ADHD" child can pay close attention an interesting TV program or game, but can't seem to pay attention and misbehaves in boring Math class. Dr. Stein's program is more effective than admistering drugs because the child learns coping skills. And although it takes more effort for parents initially, the results are lasting. Ritalin on the other hand, is easy to administer but the effects wear off after a few hours. My 8 year old son has responded postively to this program. His behavior is far more appropriate and positive now than when he was taking Ritalin.