Can the James Holmes and Adam Lanza Shootings Be Linked to ADHD?
I’ve been toiling for days over how to attack the issue of gun control, but before civilian disarmament can be addressed I was forced to first look at the doping of society through pharmaceutical drugs.
The entire Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder diagnosis, to me, comes off as an insane theory. I’ve read the studies which call this a genetic disorder, but honestly that’s a cop-out. Which of us growing up wasn’t distracted, jumpy, or inattentive? I know I was ... it was called being a kid, not a genetic disorder. Sure, if your mother drinks during pregnancy, you may end up slightly handicapped or worse, but to treat birth defects or intellectual disabilities with speed-like drugs doesn’t make any sense either. To have a child hooked on speed ... meaning Adderall, Ritalin, or Strattera, etc. ... to boost focus and impulse when they haven’t even hit puberty can only lead to a destructive path. These drugs aren’t good for adults so why in the hell would they be advised for children? How about parenting, the lost art form? Can we start there before throwing our children on drugs? Are better grades worth the risk of turning our schools in warzones?
Mass school shootings weren’t prevalent until the massacre in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999. The two students killed 12 classmates in a school library, and one of the shooters was on Luvox (fluvoxamine maleate) an antidepressant, which states:
WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS: Antidepressants increased the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders …and so on.
There have been killings in schools in the past, but these mass shootings started popping up at the end of the 90’s, which can be followed with the rise of ADHD drug use across the country.
Upon leaving childhood behind us, we as adults face this crazy thing called life. In facing the ups and downs some can’t seem to deal with the stress, and depression. If addressed medically this will usually lead to drugs, and again, we are just tuning out rather than facing our daily problems. Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, and drugs as such may be prescribed, but life still doesn’t go away. Sure, maybe the Prozac nation mentality will get us through the day, but are we really dealing with life head-on or just distracting ourselves from taking control? Like the Ritalin given to children, these selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) all have some terrible side-effects. When a precaution reads; may cause suicidal tendencies, we may need to rethink our run to the pills as a rescue. We all get depressed, it’s a natural part of living, and how we each deal is certainly our own business, but when we see the effects of turning to drugs as a scapegoat destroying our children, the issue of neglect needs to be addressed.
Video games, movies, and television all play a part in our child’s development, but they are a reflection of society. Are we, as adults too doped up to care, or even see what reflection is staring back at us? Neglect is staring back at us. The Newtown massacre was a product of neglect. “Neighbors described Adam Lanza to ABC as “odd” and displaying characteristics associated with mental illness.”
Mental illness is normally treated with pharmaceutical drugs, although the verdict of what Adam Lanza was taking is not public yet. Regardless of an Asperger’s syndrome, or a supposed mental disorder, neglect of the mother’s appropriate gun storage is surely evident.
If Adam Lanza was mentally unstable, why would his mother’s arsenal be so easily accessible? Neglect, and passing the puck along and not facing the issues ourselves seems to be a major issue here. It’s easy to pop a pill, and forget your worries, but when children are grabbing semi-automatics and taking them to school, we have a problem. We should have taken heed to Nancy Reagan’s advice and have just said no.
