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Remembering Ritalin: A Doctor and Generation Rx Reflect on Life and Psychiatric Drugs
How are the kids of Generation Rx doing now? This groundbreaking book reveals the answers—and raises some important new questions.Written by a clinician with more than thirty years of experience with child patients, Remembering Ritalin offers an intimate and revealing look at the ADHD generation—how they’re doing now and the long-term effects of their diagnoses, medication, and treatment. Revisiting former patients who are now in their twenties, Dr. Diller takes a fresh look at the issue of treating our kids. Is ADHD a useful diagnosis, or an oversimplified, harmful label? What are Ritalin’s long-term effects—good and bad? Together with his articulate former patients, Remembering Ritalin provides insights into one of the most controversial treatment methods of our time. Parents, professionals, and anyone who has been prescribed Ritalin will find these observations illuminating as they delve into the healing process and attempt to answer the question, “Was it the right choice?”
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 3, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 9, 2018
This book is a great resource for parents, adults with ADHD, or anyone wanting an overview of the interventions that are currently used to treat ADHD. I appreciated the candid conversations with those who had taken the medication as children and how they viewed their experience as adults. Dr. Diller is thoughtful, truthful and explains the reasoning behind his treatments with a language that anyone can understand.
August 5, 2022
It was an okay read. It gave a new perspective on Ritalin use in America.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2016
Interesting because it was relevant to me, but felt like a lot of filler. A child psych catches up with ten patients treated with Ritalin for add/ADHD and reviews where they are now and how they reflect on their past.
His premise was that the current long term ADHD studies suggest very negative outcomes that he did not feel in line with his experience. He suggests the higher socio economic status of the clients he works with in a wealthy San Francisco suburb are the reason. It is reasonable, but ten people are not statistically significant (a fact he acknowledges).
There's a certain cognitive dissonance in the fact that he regularly prescribes Ritalin, believes it helps people with ADHD, and says he does not believe it is harmful, yet continues to rail against it in society. He is aware of this, but it's still difficult not to view him as someone who is disingenuous or at least selling out a bit. He does not believe in Prescribing so much Ritalin (or Ritalin type drugs) but does so anyways, then to clear his conscience, publishes a book challenging society for wanting Ritalin.
He captures the problem succinctly in the ending sentences of the book: "The practice of using performance – enhancing drugs for the treatment of a disorder or improving a lifestyle may make sense for the individual. But I deeply worry about an America running on Ritalin, because a society that copes with life's challenges by using a drug does so at its own peril."
So while it seems he agrees that individuals are justified in using medication, he is concerned for society. However, what does he think society is composed of? The answer is: the very individuals he agreed were justified in using medication.
This is a side note, and not mentioned in the book, but I was very disappointed to read an article in which the author suggests spanking kids with ADHD. This seems to run completely counter to prevailing scientific attitudes on spanking, and is dangerous especially for children with ADHD who act impulsively and are already more likely to be physically abused by caregivers. This information causes me to give serious pause in my estimation of his advice on any matter concerning best practices for kids with ADHD.
His premise was that the current long term ADHD studies suggest very negative outcomes that he did not feel in line with his experience. He suggests the higher socio economic status of the clients he works with in a wealthy San Francisco suburb are the reason. It is reasonable, but ten people are not statistically significant (a fact he acknowledges).
There's a certain cognitive dissonance in the fact that he regularly prescribes Ritalin, believes it helps people with ADHD, and says he does not believe it is harmful, yet continues to rail against it in society. He is aware of this, but it's still difficult not to view him as someone who is disingenuous or at least selling out a bit. He does not believe in Prescribing so much Ritalin (or Ritalin type drugs) but does so anyways, then to clear his conscience, publishes a book challenging society for wanting Ritalin.
He captures the problem succinctly in the ending sentences of the book: "The practice of using performance – enhancing drugs for the treatment of a disorder or improving a lifestyle may make sense for the individual. But I deeply worry about an America running on Ritalin, because a society that copes with life's challenges by using a drug does so at its own peril."
So while it seems he agrees that individuals are justified in using medication, he is concerned for society. However, what does he think society is composed of? The answer is: the very individuals he agreed were justified in using medication.
This is a side note, and not mentioned in the book, but I was very disappointed to read an article in which the author suggests spanking kids with ADHD. This seems to run completely counter to prevailing scientific attitudes on spanking, and is dangerous especially for children with ADHD who act impulsively and are already more likely to be physically abused by caregivers. This information causes me to give serious pause in my estimation of his advice on any matter concerning best practices for kids with ADHD.
February 28, 2013
Check out my comment in Spanish: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2...
This is a doctor that after years and years of prescribing Ritalin to a lot of children; wants to go back to the lives to thos now-adults; and check how are they doing and what they think about the drug that was used on them when they were children. Almost everyone coincides saying that the drug wasn't at all beneficial to the kid; but to the people that had to take care of them. It is better to have a kid that behaves himself; than one that wants to run around all the time. This drug is very helpful to keep discipline in the classroom; but it is of dubious help when it comes to the health of the actual subject. Obviously; dr. Diller won't say that to administer the drug is wrong; or that it would have an adverse health consequence; but he is honest enough to acknowledge that the drug is better remembered by those caregivers that had to deal with the kids; than by the kids themselves. And there is also the matter of the industry: billions and billions of dollars are made every day by those pharmaceuticals; and they are not a bit interested in placing the effectiveness of the drug under the spotlight.
This is a doctor that after years and years of prescribing Ritalin to a lot of children; wants to go back to the lives to thos now-adults; and check how are they doing and what they think about the drug that was used on them when they were children. Almost everyone coincides saying that the drug wasn't at all beneficial to the kid; but to the people that had to take care of them. It is better to have a kid that behaves himself; than one that wants to run around all the time. This drug is very helpful to keep discipline in the classroom; but it is of dubious help when it comes to the health of the actual subject. Obviously; dr. Diller won't say that to administer the drug is wrong; or that it would have an adverse health consequence; but he is honest enough to acknowledge that the drug is better remembered by those caregivers that had to deal with the kids; than by the kids themselves. And there is also the matter of the industry: billions and billions of dollars are made every day by those pharmaceuticals; and they are not a bit interested in placing the effectiveness of the drug under the spotlight.
February 11, 2014
Another re-read . . . I think it's an important part of the literature.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews