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Your Child's / Teen's Brain On Drugs
Big Pharma companies produce medications that can be used to treat ADHD and anxiety, such as anti-depressants and drug stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin. While these medications do help reduce the symptoms of ADHD and anxiety, it comes at a huge cost to you and your child / teen.
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Side Effects & Domino Effect: Taking ADHD and anxiety medications often encourages the need to seek additional medications to treat the side effects which include insomnia, headaches, stomach aches, decreased appetite, irritability, and changes in mood and behavior.
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Loss of Self: Many people have complained that ADHD and anxiety medications changed their child's personality or altered their essence by stifling their creativity, spontaneity, and other aspects of their personality.
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Drug / Alcohol Addiction: Long-term use of ADHD and anxiety medications can be addictive and lead to drug and/or alcohol abuse and addictions later in life by:
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developing a tolerance for the drug, therefore, requiring the body to need more or stronger drugs to do the trick.
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drug dependence as a person loses his or her ability to function without taking these medications.
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and withdrawal symptoms which is a clear sign that the body is addicted to the drug.
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A growing number of people have started to realize the cost and are speaking out about their concerns of:
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Overreliance on ADHD and Anxiety Medications: There is an overreliance on these medications as the primary treatment for ADHD and anxiety, they are overprescribed, and too many children and teens are being diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety and medicated unnecessarily.
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Marketing and Advertising: Big Pharma uses marketing and advertising tactics that overhype the benefits of their ADHD and anxiety medications and downplay the side effects and risks in order to increase sales and profits.
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Cost and Accessibility: For many people, other treatment options for ADHD and anxiety are inaccessible for them which leads doctors to prescribe medications rather than pursue other interventions. This goes back to the concern about there being an overreliance on these medications. In addition, these medications become expensive.
Children / teens with ADHD often exhibit UNDERactive theta brain wave activity, UNDERactive alpha brain wave, and OVERactive beta brain wave activity. This negatively impacts the following functions of the brain:
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working memory
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attention
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planning and decision-making
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impulse control
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emotional regulation
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cognitive flexibility
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self-awareness
​​While ADHD and anxiety medications can be an effective treatment for the symptoms of ADHD and anxiety, there are also potential negative effects on the brain that should be considered. Some of the potential negative effects of these medications on the brain include:
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Changes in Brain Chemistry: As a child's / teen's brain is developing the levels of these neurotransmitters naturally increase and fluctuate, shaping the development of neural circuits and connections in the brain. By simultaneously taking ADHD and/or anxiety medications these processes are negatively impacted, leading to changes in how the brain functions.
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Alterations in Brain Structure: In a 4-year study (2011-2015) published in 2019 in "Radiology", a peer-reviewed journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), reported that MRI scans revealed that children taking these medications experienced alterations in the distribution of white matter in their brain. White matter is responsible for communication between different areas of the brain.