A friend of mine loses a son to drugs. The legal kind.

[Philosoraptor]

A friend of mine with three teen aged sons has lost the eldest one to prescription drugs. I don't know all the details, the funeral was last week. He was only 18.

I remember her saying that she'd taken time off from her job to spend more time with her 3 teen boys, I raised three to adult hood myself, and I can relate.

But apparently it was a combination of commonly used psychotropic drugs prescribed for troubled kids, and there are so, so many.

My own sister had trouble with her two teen boys, and tried the ritalin route and other meds, which his teachers and counselors had suggested. He just got weirder, and she said she was going to discontinue the doping, but they warned her not to just let him go cold turkey, and prescribed other drugs to help him get off the first drugs.

Anyway, she stopped doping the boy, he still has troubles that most teen boys go through, rebelliousness, etc., but he's clean of all prescribed drugs. Mothers have enough worries about their kids getting involved in street drugs, they don't need the legal ones messing with them too.

I am not advocating anything here, if a kid needs doping, I suppose there are cases where it helps, but I've always felt we give in to this way too easily. As if a pill will calm a teen aged boy down and make him behave the way you want him too.

This tragedy happened about a week after Anna Nicole Smith's young son died in similar circumstances. I've known several young men who's parents were so afraid that their sons would become junkies that they sent them off to teen camps where they were immediately pumped full of all sorts of mysterious drugs.

One of the guys is now a changed man. He holds a job, has a family, but has been taking legal meds of all sorts for over 30 years now and is afraid to stop using them, although in my opinion he never needed them in the first place.

Anyway, maybe I should just keep my opinions to myself on this subject, I never went through a tragedy like this one. At one time it was suggested that my own son take these drugs because he was 'hyperactive', and I strongly insisted that they leave my son's brain alone and stop instantly prescribing pills. He never took any, and is now 22 and normal as hell.

A sad tale about my friend, I wish her and her family the best, I can't imagine what that pain must be like.

[ClintonTyree]

1. A mother and father........

should never outlive their children. They must be devastated. I can't imagine what I'd be like if anything were ever to happen to my daughter. I imagine I'd lose the will to go on......

This is so sad, and happening so frequently now it's alarming. Docs keep pushing pills into kids that don't really need them. But that's the way our society seems to want it. Take a pill for this.......make the pain go away. Take a pill for that.......instant gratification, no more worries.

I'm of the same opinion as you, PR. Drugs for kids ONLY as a last resort, after every other avenue has been exhausted and THEM only for as long as needed, not a lifetime.

I hope your friends can get their lives back together.

[hfojvt]

2. if you lost the will to go on

your doctor would prescribe Prozac. :hide:

"doctor please, some more of these
outside the door, she took four more
what a drag, it is, getting old ..."

[izzie]

3. I am glad they were not around when I was a acting up kid.

I never sat still, drove my mother nuts with questions, and guess what I had to learn. Sit on hands, go to your room and all those things. My father kept me busy building things. I spent hours and years building little boats for the ponds around our house. Plus we had to do out side works, like fix windows, mowing lawns. Hand mower by the way. Now that eats up some of the 'I can not sit still' believe me. Now I would have just had some pill I guess. I never gave them to my children but they sure do to their children. I do not say a thing any more as they just think I am to old to understand. My big thing on it is the kids are not learning how to get along in the world as they are out of it. It is like salting your food as you take high blood presser pills.