My mom had her gallbladder out and since then, anytime someone gets a bad stomachache, it's gotta be their gallbladder. Happened to me, and my mom dragged me out of the house and to the emergency room, with me protesting the entire way that it was
not my gallbladder and please take me home. Turns out I was right. It was my appendix.
Have to comment on the conversation earlier in the thread. I can't listen to (or read) debates on depression or ritalin use without jumping in. And JM, I'm ignoring you again,
. First off, I've mentioned before on this forum that I have been diagnosed with depression. Dysthymia (did I spell that right, Veilchen?) with recurring major depression. When I first was diagnosed, I'd never heard of depression as a mental illness before. Depression was just "being sad" about a break-up or something. In fact, I hate that the illness is called "depression", because that's what puts the idea in peoples' heads that it is something that can be cured by just "getting over it". It doesn't help that now everybody and his brother are now diagnosed with some form of depression or other psychological disorder. That, of course, leads to the over-prescribing of medications, which leads to those "diagnosed" believing that the drugs do more harm than good because of side effects, or effects caused because they never needed the medication in the first place. Add to that the drug companies pushing their pills, and you have the recipe for a whole lot of cynical people. But for the people who really are suffering, the drugs can be, quite literally, a life saver. I had to go through many cocktails of prescriptions before finally hitting the right combination. I feel pretty good these days. I do not feel "high". I feel normal. That's all I wanted. I've been on antidepressants that caused me to become hypomanic, and obviously those weren't the right ones for me. And JM, I was well aware of the fact that I had a chemical imbalance, but there's no logic to your belief that since you know what it is you can ignore it. That makes as much sense as telling someone who has appendicitis that since they know what it is they can just ignore it. Or diabetes. Or a broken leg. You can't ignore it. Maybe some people with a less severe version can get through their days okay and function pretty much normally, but in severe cases they can't. And, unless you've actually experienced severe, major depression, there really is no way to describe what it's like. Same with panic attacks. Panic attacks can have symptoms others can see, yet there still is a lot of skepticism about that, too. People can get so judgemental about psychiatric disorders.
Now for the drugging of children. It's ridiculously widespread and unnecessary. Even dangerous. My mom has a friend who is a teacher, and she (my mother) could not believe it when her friend told her that she hadactually suggested to parents to look into medicating their child for hyperactivity. That's medicating the child for the teacher's convenience. Sick, sick, sick. I've talked about my son with asperger's syndrome before, and he is on medication. He's on Risperdal, Luvox and Clonidine. It was a last resort for me to go that route, but I'm glad I did. We tried diet modification, therapy, special schools, but his hyperactivity was out of control. When he got hyperactive, it wasn't a playful hyperactive. He had violent rages. I was in the grocery store and he took off while I was in line at the register. I finally tracked him down with the help of store managers, and it was all I could do to hold onto him. I literally dragged him to the car with his teeth imbedded in my wrist. I still have a pretty deep scar. He tore my sweater, pulled my hair out, and I had people running across the parking lot to me with cellphones. One lady offered to call the police. Another lady followed me home to make sure I got there okay. He tried to stab me with scissors when we got home, and he tried to strangle my husband during another episode. We have holes in our walls, doors, screens from him kicking them. He ran away from home and was gone for two hours. We had the police on the scene who were getting the search and rescue team ready, my neighbor was on the phone to FOX news and we were scanning pictures in for broadcast. A lady found him asleep in a ditch on the side of the road 3 miles from our house at 9:45 that night. He was seriously in danger of hurting not just others, but himself. When he'd rage like that, he had no awareness of pain. And he had unbelievable strength. Discipline? Yes, we disciplined. My husband and I spanked him on occasion, took away various privileges, the normal disciplinary actions. It would always end up with the two of us straddling Jamie on the floor to keep him from hurting someone or himself. After the grocery store incident, we admitted him to a rehab/mental health hospital for observation. He was put on medication, and since then, except for when he hits a growth spurt and needs to adjust the dosage to his new weight, he's been relatively melt-down free. The weird thing is that when he was not in a rage, he was the sweetest, nicest kid. You would never have guessed he had this Jekyll/Hyde thing. Poor child still has OCD, and it distresses him. He has bad ticks, obsessive thoughts, and he'll develop other symptoms like having to touch everything and everyone around him as he walks. For a while, he had a problem with screaming. He'd just let out one scream, at random, and it was keeping him awake at night. He would cry over his frustration with that. He was afraid to go anywhere for fear of screaming in public.
Anyway, I just wanted to give my opinions on those matters. It's hurts to bite my tongue.
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