'How I weaned my son off Ritalin and proved discipline IS better than drugs'

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Interesting article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1074175/How-I-weaned-son-Ritalin-prove\

d-discipline-IS-better-drugs.html

'How I weaned my son off Ritalin and proved discipline IS better than

drugs'

By Appleyard

Last updated at 9:49 AM on 09th October 2008

Earlier this year, Dixon's 14-year-old son Jake turned to his

mother during the car journey home from school and said calmly: 'If I

was still on Ritalin, I think I would have killed myself by now.

'I used to think about throwing myself headfirst through a window. I

would sit in my bedroom and cry all the time.

'I didn't want to worry you - I didn't think I could tell anyone what

I was feeling.'

Jake, who lives with , 44, a nurse, and his stepfather , a

44-year-old retail manager, is one of the 5 per cent of children

diagnosed with ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

What is remarkable about Jake is that he appears cured.

His mother doesn't think that is because he spent three years on

Ritalin and a similar drug, dexanphetamin, but is down to

old-fashioned discipline.

'I know some parents and medical experts may scoff, but I have seen a

miraculous change in my son,' says .

'It hasn't been an overnight change, just a steady and consistent

improvement in his behaviour over the past six years since I took him

off Ritalin.'

, who lives in a four-bedroom house in Ingoldsby, Lincolnshire,

had been told Jake would have to be educated in a special school and

need support for the rest of his life.

Instead, he is now a bright, articulate teenager who attends a

mainstream school and has learned to curb his impulses.

'He holds up a time-out card in class when he feels himself becoming

agitated and his concentration goes,' says .

'His teacher lets him walk about outside until he feels himself

calming down. He is in control of his condition, instead of the other

way round.'

Once branded as 'hopelessly disruptive', Jake is taking Btec courses

in advanced maths, IT, engineering and travel & tourism. He spends his

spare time mending computers for friends and family.

And yet he was condemned to a life of chemical dependency from the age

of four.

'He was like a zombie on Ritalin,' says . 'It was as if all the

life had been taken out of him.

'He would rock himself backwards and forwards, crying. All the drug

did was keep him quiet and sitting still in class - he didn't learn

anything.

'Then, on the way home, tears would be sliding silently down his face.

He was utterly miserable.

'I'd relied on the medical profession - of which I am a part - to give

me the best advice.

'But I looked at Jake and thought: 'This can't be right. You can't go

on like this'.'

believes Ritalin is used to stop children making a nuisance of

themselves in overcrowded classrooms. 'It's a scandal,' she says.

However, she accepts Jake has problems. As her second child - she has

a 19-year-old daughter - she knew there was something different about

him before he was a year old.

'There was no eye contact,' she says. 'He didn't like being touched or

hugged, and he developed an obsession with lightbulbs.

'He did not take any interest in toys and would never sit still.

Jake did not speak until he was three, so called in a speech

therapist.

'She said he was OK, but he'd wake at 5am and take all of his clothes

out of the drawers, peel off the wallpaper and once took all the

fronts off his chest of drawers.

'His father was in the RAF and was away a lot when Jake was young.

'I do think the stress of coping with our son had a bearing on our

marital problems, but it wasn't the whole story.

'It certainly made our time together more fraught because Jake

constantly interrupts when you are talking - he can't read social

interaction.'

The couple separated when Jake was three, but she claims this did not

overly affect him because he does not become emotionally engaged with

other people.

However, his behavioural problems were all too apparent at nursery.

'He'd run around knocking all the cups out of the other children's

hands. The staff would strap him into a chair to keep him still.

'In the past, children like Jake would have just been called naughty,

but I believe there is a chemical imbalance in their brains - perhaps

they have too much adrenaline.

'What I firmly do not believe is that they should be prescribed

powerful drugs.'

'Convenient labels'

At four, Jake was referred by his GP to a paediatrician at Grantham

hospital.

'She told us he had ADHD and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Very

convenient labels, but I still don't believe they should be controlled

by drugs,' says .

Despite grave reservations, but exhausted by Jake's behaviour and lack

of sleep, she agreed to have him put on dexanphetamin.

'This drug, like Ritalin, works on the chemical balance of the brain

and has the effect of calming down a child immediately.

'He took it twice a day and the effect was instant. He was like a zombie.

'At first, he would calm down and then, as the effects left him, he

went into withdrawal and became utterly miserable. It was terrifying.'

A year later, under the advice of the paediatrician, Jake was taken

off this drug and put onto Ritalin.

'The effect was the same. I moved him from a big state primary into a

village school, but they couldn't cope.

'He just sat there in class, drugged up and learning nothing. It was

heartbreaking.'

When Jake was eight, his mother took him off Ritalin.

'I tried an additive-free diet, fish oils and other so-called cures,

but nothing worked. He went back to being hyperactive and running

round and round,' she says.

A year after her divorce, had met , who became her second

husband. He took a no-nonsense approach to Jake.

'We decided the way forward was good, old-fashioned discipline.

'In the past, I might have been guilty of giving in to Jake, because

he was so persistent.

'I was tired and it was easier to let him race around than try to

contain him.'

created a set routine for Jake: every morning, he gets up at

the same time.

He is expected to tidy his room and lay out the breakfast things. He

has to make eye contact and reply to questions. Manners are vital.

'He has to say please and thank you. I never raise my voice to him,

and the atmosphere in the house is always calm,' says .

'Everything happens in a specified sequence of events.

'Coming home from school, he has a cup of tea, a snack and then is

allowed to go to his bedroom and work on his computer.

Set routine

'Bedtime is always at the same time, after a bath and reading a book.

'We operate a reward system - if he is late or becomes agitated, he is

not allowed to work on his computers. He has learned to control his

own behaviour.

'It sounds easy, but it has been a long, slow road. We've had lots of

setbacks, because if he can't have what he wants immediately, he could

get frustrated.

'But he has learned that I am not going to change my mind and give in

to him.

'I have given him boundaries and discipline, and it has worked

miracles on his behaviour. The time-out system works at home, too.

'If he feels he is becoming agitated, he has to sit down or go for a

walk until he calms down.'

Finding an interest for him was the key to his improvement.

'He gets on fine with his family, but he still does not have friends

at school.

'He has friends he has met over the internet, though - boys of his own

age who are also fascinated by gadgets and computer games, and they

play interactive games.

'Jake also has an extraordinary affinity with animals. It is as if he

tunes in to them.

'He is closer to our two Siberian huskies than anyone else.

'On a walk, dogs will just come up to him. It's as if they sense he is

different, that he understands them.'

knows Jake will never have a completely 'normal' life.

'I am sure he will be able to get a job and live independently, but I

am fearful for him. He has problems forming relationships, but he is

happy in his own world.

'For some parents at the end of their tether, I accept Ritalin can be

seen as the answer. But I believe there should be an alternative.

'In my career, I have seen too many children with ADHD who are treated

as if they are wild animals who can be contained only with drugs.

'This doesn't cure anything - all it does is turn them into zombies.

'Are they to stay this way for the rest of their lives? And who knows

what the long-term effects will be?

'I have proven with Jake that if children are given clear boundaries,

consistency, structure and a lot of love, they can live relatively

normal lives without medication.

'It isn't an instant cure, and it may take years. But it has given

Jake hope for a more positive future.

'And that is a priceless gift.'