Many parents of ADHD children are worried about giving their children medication to treat their child’s ADHD. There are many reasons for their concern, but one of the greatest concerns is the fear that parents have that they are setting up their children to have a future drug abuse problem.

Most parents know that ADHD teens have a much higher level of drug abuse than their normal counterparts. Parents have also heard theories that taking drugs like Ritalin increases the risk of drug abuse. The idea is that routinely taking Ritalin, which is actually very similar to cocaine, will expose children to habitual drug taking and will make them more open to experimenting with hard drugs when they become teenagers.

These theories were first proposed by physicians. The ideas were later picked up and expanded upon by distributors of natural treatments for ADHD and are used to play upon the fears of parent in order to sell their ‘drug free’ alternatives.



So the question is, is there a connection with Ritalin and other stimulant medication use in children and future drug abuse problems? That is what we are going to explore in this article.



Ritalin Treatment and Future Drug Abuse



The truth is that this question has been researched and we have a very clear answer. In fact, researchers have found a very strong connection between childhood use of Ritalin and other stimulant medication to treat ADHD and the risk of future drug abuse in ADHD teenagers.



However, the results are exactly the opposite of what most parents think. Use of stimulant medication in ADHD children does not increase the risk of future drug abuse. It reduces the risk of drug abuse, and reduces it dramatically.

In 1999, a study funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health compared three groups of boys – those with ADHD who had been treated with stimulants, those with ADHD who had not been treated with stimulants, and those without ADHD. The researchers followed the children to determine their susceptibility to substance use disorder.

This research project was a combined effort of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School. The scientists divided 212 boys into three groups and followed them for several years.

The first group consisted of 56 boys with ADHD who received on the average four years of drug treatment for their ADHD. The second group was made up of 19 boys also with ADHD, but who received no drug treatment for their condition. The third group consisted of 137 boys who did not have ADHD.

When the boys were 15 or older, they were evaluated for substance abuse disorders involving alcohol, marijuana, hallucinogens, stimulants, or cocaine.

(I want to point out that there is a difference between substance abuse and a substance abuse disorder. Substance abuse is recreational use of medications. This may include inappropriate use of alcohol or other drugs. This is fairly common in our society and does not always indicate a significant problem. Our real concern is when recreational use of medication becomes a disorder. A substance abuse disorder is where the person continues to use a mood- or behavior-altering substance despite the fact that this substance causes significant problems in the person’s life.)

Results of the study were fairly dramatic. 18 percent of children without ADHD had at least one substance abuse disorder, when surveyed in their mid teens. The group of ADHD children who received medical treatment fared almost as well. Only 25 percent of that group had at least one substance abuse disorder.

However, among the ADHD children that did not receive medical treatment, 75 percent of that group had at least one substance use disorder during the follow up study.

This study suggests that if your child has ADHD and does not take medication, he is three times as likely to get seriously involved with drugs, than if he does receive medication.

Other researchers have found that the younger age that medical treatment began, the lower the risk of a future drug abuse problem.

Other Risk Factors

Other factors have been identified that predict a higher risk of future drug abuse.

Wilens found that the two biggest indicators of future substance abuse disorder in ADHD children were coexistent conduct disorder and coexistent bipolar disorder. Other researchers found that with regard to conduct disorder, IQ played a factor.

Children with conduct disorder and high IQ scores were more likely to later develop a drug problem. In contrast, in children who did not have a conduct disorder, those with a lower IQ were more likely to develop a substance abuse disorder.

Conclusion

Most parents are concerned about starting their ADHD children on stimulant medications. This is for a variety of reasons and many of these reasons are valid. However, what many of these well meaning parents fail to consider is that there are concrete risks involved with not starting their children on drug treatment. One very measurable risk is the risk of future drug involvement.

Parents must consider that the risk of future drug abuse gets larger the longer they withhold medical treatment from their children. The risk becomes three times as great when they withhold medical treatment completely from their ADHD children. If ADHD is complicated by conduct disorder or bipolar disorder there is even a greater chance of future drug abuse developing.

So if your child has ADHD it could be that giving medication may not be the best approach. But you should know that not giving medication also carries with it some danger. When you manage the ADHD treatment of your child be sure to consider all the risks before you make your decision.

Warmly,

Anthony Kane, MD
ADD ADHD Advances

If your child is stealing, then you are probably extremely worried about it. You also may be wondering what exactly is the best way to handle the problem. In this article we will discuss the reasons why children steal and what you should do to help your child with this problem.

Preschool children do not steal. Until a child reaches the age of four or five he does not have a well-developed concept of ownership. As a result, he cannot understand viagra taking things that don’t belong to him is wrong. A preschooler is too young to understand the concept of stealing.

Elementary school children do understand the concept of possession. A child in elementary school steals because he sees something that he wants and he lacks the self- control to hold himself back. A child this age knows that stealing is wrong. Since the child knows what he did was inappropriate this is the age where you can begin to give discipline for stealing.

Preteens or teens steal for the thrill of it. They are also highly influenced by peer pressure and they fall into a crowd that steals for fun, they will steal too. Preteens or teens may steal to fill an emotional void, or to gain a sense of control.

Whatever the age of your child and whatever the reason your child is stealing, you as the parent must act with wisdom to respond to this issue. If you just respond according to your natural inclination, you will almost certainly do the wrong thing and your response might even exacerbate the problem and be destructive for your child.

Five Reasons Why a Child Steals

We are now going to discuss the five most common reasons children steal and how you should respond.

1- Your Child Lacks Self-Control

This is primarily a problem for younger children as we have stated previously. An elementary school child knows that stealing is wrong, but sometimes he sees something that he wants, sees the opportunity to get it without being caught, and can’t control his impulse to take it. He knows that stealing is wrong, but he can’t help himself.

The most important way to handle a child who steals for this reason is to give him an honest way to get what he wants. To do this you figure out what types of things are tempting him and then use them as rewards for good behavior. However, make it easy for your child to get these things. If your standards are too tough for him, he will feel unable to meet your expectations and he’ll think that stealing is the only option.

In addition, you must try to limit temptation. If your child likes to steal money or candy, then don’t leave these things lying around in plain view.

2- Your Child’s Basic Needs are not Being Met

Your child is completely dependent on you. If a child feels that his parents are not giving him those things that he needs, he will eventually try to get these things on his own. The easiest way for a child to get something is to steal it.

If this is your child’s situation it is not a criticism of you, nor does it mean you area bad parent or are depriving your child. What a person feels he needs is mostly subjective. What happens frequently is that what a parent views as a luxury a child feels is a necessity. That means having an extra treat frequently or carrying a bit of pocket money, may be something that you feel is not something your child requires. However your child may feel a real lack without those things to the point where he is driven to fill that need.

3- Your Child Needs More Attention

This is probably the most common reason a child steals. He has an emotional void and he is tying to fill that void y taking things to make himself feel better. Your child may feel lonely and distant from you, or he may be having a lot of trouble in school or with friends. He steals to feel better.

Many children feel that they do not get the love that they need. This is not because their parents don’t love them or give them love. It is just that the love being given comes in a way that the child does not perceive it as love.

When a child does not feel he is getting love, he may act out in a number of ways. He talks back, argues, disobeys, and can be disrespectful and abusive. Some children steal.

If this is the reason your child is stealing, then punishment is very counterproductive. The solution is to show your child love in a way that he perceives it as love. This will improve your child’s behavior in every way, including getting him to stop stealing.

4- Your Child Needs More Control

Children have very little control over their lives. Some children have a great deal of trouble handling this sense of helplessness. This type of child might steal to gain a sense of power and control or just to rebel.

Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder tend to have a big problem with authority and control issues. The best way to handle this type of child is to get help from someone who knows how to handle these types of children. Normal parenting techniques do not work well with these children so you need an expert in ODD child behavior or ODD teen behavior.

5- Peer Pressure

This is more of a problem with older children, where friendships play a greater role in their lives. If your child has fallen into a group where stealing is one of their pastimes, then there are some very specific things you must do. For more information, see the article, What to Do When Your Teen Chooses Bad Friends.

In the next two articles in this series we will discuss in more detail ideas how to handle your child if he is stealing.

If stealing is a problem for your child or teen you can learn specific step-by-step ways to handle this behavior.

If you child is 2-11 go to:

Child Behavior Program



If your child is 12 or older go to

Teen Program

Please leave a comment below:

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So this is what happened last night…

If you did not call in to the teleseminar on

How to Save Money on Your Child’s College Education
last night, then you do not know why I am writing to you.

However, if you were on the call or tried to get on the call you know exactly why I am writing to you.

A few minutes after the call began, I lost my internet connection. Since the service that I use requires that I be logged in to manage the dashboard, when I got shut down, the call got shut down.

It took about 40 minutes to get the connection back and by then it was too late.

When I got the call log information and I saw how many people went to the call and found nothing…
I feel really bad about wasting everyone’s time.

The normal thing to do would be to apologize and reschedule the call. However, one of the things I was going to announced on the call last night is something that is extremely time sensitive.

I worked this out for you after Wednesday’s call, so if you were on that call you do not know about this yet

And if I wait until next week to reschedule the opportunity will have passed.

Here is the Deal:

First of all, to make up for what happened, I am going to give you the recording of the call from last night.

You can listen to it at your leisure any time you want.

This is What is Time Sensitive:

I worked out a deal for you where you can get a free consultation on what you can do financially to prepare for your child’s college education.

That means you can speak with Ron Caruther’s counselors and they will go over your situation. They will give you some strategies that you can use right away plus they will give you an idea of how much you can expect to save each year.

This consultation is easily worth $100 and it should save you well over $1000/year.

It’s like getting $4000 in your pocket and it’s free.



This consultation requires no commitment on your part and they understand this. It is purely to give you a clear idea of your options. 



Their office opens at 10 am PST so here is what you need to do now: 



First you’ll need to call Maria: 



The number is:

(760) 239-6619

Be sure you only speak with Maria and tell her you are with DR. Kane’s group


She will answer any questions you have and schedule your one-on-one free consultation.

This is a really good deal, because :

• it costs you nothing
• it can save you so much.

Warmly,

Anthony Kane, MD

P S Make sure you call first thing, because they set aside only a certain number of spots for this free consultation and Ron didn’t tell me how many.

It could be open to 5 families, it could be for 15, I don’t know.

So what I would suggest you do is this:

1- call and schedule your free consultation
2- after you schedule your time, listen to the call at your leisure
3- if after you listen to the call you like what you hear, then you already have your slot.

If you don’t think this will help you, just call and cancel.

This will give you the best chance at taking advantage of everything I have set up for you

Now here is where to get the recording of last nights:

teleconference call

To listen to the call, click on the link.
To download the call just click on the link with your Right Mouse Button.

So at 1 pm EST or 10 am PST call:

(760) 239-6619

Speak only with Maria and be sure to tell her you are in Dr Kane’s group

Please post your comments and impressions below.

“Everyone from Barack Obama to Bill Gates keeps pushing a college 
education as the way to secure one’s economic future.”

But is this idea true or false?

Well, the answer is that it depends.

It is true that statistically on the average college graduates earns more than high school graduates. However, your child is not a statistic. So what is true for most other students may be entirely irrelevant to your child’s situation.

Recently, Yahoo.com featured an article about Kelli Space. Kelli is 23 years old and graduated from Northeastern University in 2009 with a BA in sociology. She also graduated with $200,000 of student loan debt.

Given that the average starting salary for someone who holds a BA in Sociology is about $35,000/year, if she applies $10,000 of her annual salary just to pay her loan, Kelli will spend almost 40 years working full time just to pay off the principal and accrued interest on her college loan.

That means that for most of Kelli’s life she will be carrying around this debt with her. She will bring it with her to her marriage. It will be with her when she gives birth to her children. And when her children grow up and they go off to college, Kelli will still be paying off her student loans.

Of course, all this is assuming her lenders would let her pay only $10,000 a year. What is actually happening that Kelli is expected to pay $1600/month or $19200/year. That means after Kelli pays her loan debt she will have $15,800/year left over to do things like buy food and pay income tax.

How did this happen? How did Kelli get herself into such a financial mess?

The truth is that it is not really Kelli’s fault. True, she is the one who ultimately made the choices that got her to where she is today and she is the one who is going to suffer for those choices. But how old was she when she started on this path? Seventeen? Maybe eighteen?

Kelli’s story is really unfortunate. She entered college full of optimism thinking that this was going to open the future for her. But at seventeen she lacked the experience and foresight to think about the debt she was accruing and what that would mean to her future.

So where were the adults that were supposed to be watching out for her? Well, like most of us, Kelli’s parents believe what Barack Obama and Bill Gates believe. They thought education is the key to success and they wanted their daughter to have the best education possible.

What about Kelli’s school advisers and guidance counselors? Shouldn’t they have had the experience to steer Kelli on the correct path? It seems that looking out for Kelli’s financial future was outside their realm of expertise. It’s not in their job description.

But do you know what is really tragic about Kelli’s story? Two things:

1-Her situation is not unique. In fact, it is quite common. Children are graduating college every year with a debt burden that is going to hamper their lives for decades.

2- What happened to Kelli was entirely preventable.

Had Kelli received the proper advice from someone who really understood the system and all the options available, she would have been instructed on what steps to take to avoid the obvious financial disaster of her current plan.

Kelli had a whole host of options and opportunities that would have protected her without requiring her to pick a cheaper school or a higher paying career. But unfortunately, the adults in her life were not aware of these options. Her parents didn’t know about them. Her teachers had not heard of them. And her guidance counselors were completely unaware of them.

So now Kelli and many college graduates just like her will spend most of their adult lives burdened by the price of a degree that was supposed to give them financial security. Or else they will be forced to default on their loans and ruin their credit for the next decade.

And again, all of this was preventable. That’s what is so sad.

You definitely don’t want this to happen to your child.

If you have a child in high school that you plan to send to college, then I am going to give you the opportunity to protect your child.

Recently, we held a free teleseminar for our community where the nation’s leading college planner. Ron Caruthers, revealed numerous strategies to save money on your child’s college education. The interview lasted 86 minutes.

Ron has agreed to let me broadcast this teleseminar again.

The repeat of the teleseminar will be held two times this week.

Wednesday at 3 PM EST
Thursday at 9 PM EST

The teleseminar is 86 minutes and I will be on the line afterward to answer any questions you might have.

Therefore, if you are interested in learning how you can save thousands of dollars on your child’s education, please sign up below and I will send you the information to get on the call.

Enter your name and email address below:

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I am going to share with you the number one secret that, on the average, will save you 31% on your child’s education.

• You do not need to quality
• You do not need to apply to anything
• Your income is irrelevant
• Your amount of personal assets is irrelevant

You do not need to qualify because anyone who knows this secret qualifies.

You do not need to apply for anything, because no entity is going to be giving you this money. There are no forms to fill out. This is not a grant that you are going to receive. It is not a financial aid package. The government is not involved.

Your income is irrelevant because the way you qualify is to know this secret and to apply it to your particular situation.

Your personal assets are not a factor, because you and your child are the ones who decide whether or not you get this money.

And it doesn’t matter where you send your child to school. The school is irrelevant because it’s not the school that’s giving you money.

Saving this money is completely ethical. You are not taking away from anyone else.

More than that, this 31% is money that you should not spend. In fact, it is bad for you to spend this money.

However, if you are like the average family, you will spend this money, if you don’t take precautions now to prevent it. And to prevent it you need to know only one fact about college education today.

And here it is…

The average college program in the United States and Canada today takes four years to complete. That means that unless your child is exceptional and finishes school early, you are in for four years of tuition payments, right?

Wrong. It should be correct, but it is not.

The average college student takes 5.8 years to finish his or her 4-year program. It is not because college has gotten harder or students are unable to do the work.

The reason why most freshmen entering an undergraduate program this autumn can expect to be there for the next five to six years is because most students do not know why they are going to college.

They all know that they are going to school to get an education, but most students haven’t thought past that. They have no plan of what they want to learn, why they want to learn it, and how this education is going to forward their future plans.

They have no future plans.

As a result most students float around campus for a year or two trying to decide what they want to do with their lives. Then they wake up some time during their junior year and realize that they have done almost nothing to move closer to graduating with some major.

As a result they have to begin working on actually earning their degree, and this takes an extra 1.8 years on the average. For you that means you will be spending and extra 31% on your child’s college tuition. Since tuition is between $20-$55,000 a year that means an extra $36-$99,000 of expense, just because your child entered college without a plan.

That is the problem.

The solution is fairly easy. Sometime early in your child’s high school career, your child needs to start focusing on what he wants to do with his life. Your job is to make sure he starts thinking about it.

That doesn’t mean you decide for your child or even that you offer your opinion. Your child’s future is purely his choice. Your job is be a sounding board so your child has somewhere to bounce his ideas. But you must get him thinking.

The goal is that your child should have some type of plan or at least some direction before he even applies to colleges. This plan is not binding and your child has the right to change his mind.

However, if you can ensure that your child enters school with some idea of why he is going there and what he hopes to achieve, then his chances of finishing a four year program in four years instead of 5.8 years like the average college student are greatly increased.

And that means you will be spending 31% less than other parents in your position.

There are other benefits of your child know why he is going to college. He will probably be more motivated to work harder in school and get better grades if he has a reason to do so.

If he is going to school to get training for a future career, he might leave the school prepared for that career. He might have done summer internships and made connections, so that when he graduates, he leaves school with a job waiting for him.

That means he won’t be like 85% of college graduates who leave school, move back home with their parents, and then start to think about what they want to do with their lives.

Just having your child think about why he is going to college and what he wants to achieve by doing so will save you a ton of money, and greatly enhance your child’s performance in college and his prospects upon graduation from college.

Here is Another Secret:

Before three weeks ago I did not know any of this.

I learned this from Ron Caruthers, the nation’s leading expert on college planning. Ron is a member of the Complete Connection Parenting Community and a three weeks ago he agreed to discuss with us the process of getting funding for college.

We held a free teleseminar for our community where Ron revealed numerous strategies to save money on your child’s college education. The interview lasted 86 minutes.

What you have just read, I learned from Ron in 3 ½ of those 86 minutes. There was a lot more.

Unfortunately, because of a combination of technical problems and bad timing, many parents who registered to attend the teleseminar were locked out.

Ron has agreed to let me broadcast this teleseminar again.

The repeat of the teleseminar will be held twice next week. Once at 3 PM EST and once at 9 PM EST. The teleseminar is 86 minutes and I will be on the line afterward to answer any questions you might have.

We haven’t picked a day yet, but it will be either on Tuesday or Wednesday. If you want to hear this free teleseminar and you have a preference on the day or time, please

Therefore, if you are interested in learning how you can save thousands of dollars on your child’s education, please sign up below to get on the private notification list.

Enter your name and email address below: