A new study claims that ADHD drugs are making our kids crazy

September 14, 2024 by Andrea Widburg

Whenever law enforcement releases information about the drugs in a school shooter’s system, and the media actually report that information, we learn that these children (usually boys) are on a cocktail of psychotropic drugs. A new study indicates that we can now add Adderall and other “treatments” for ADHD to the list of drugs fed into young people that make them go crazy. The problem isn’t guns. We have a prescription drug problem in our schools, one that’s required because our public schools are pointless and boring places for students, especially boys. (And don’t even get me started on the gender madness.)

The Daily Mail reports on the study, which comes out of the reputable Mass General Brigham hospital:

People who take Adderall may be at a much greater risk of having a mental breakdown, a study suggests.

Those with a prescription for the ADHD drug or other stimulantswere over 60 percent more likely to suffer psychosis or mania than people not using the meds.

Stronger doses raised the risk further - people who took the max dose recommended by the FDA were at a fivefold higher likelihood.

The research looked at two groups of people who had a history of depression, anxiety or other mental health issues that put them at risk of psychosis.

Study author Lauren Moran, a researcher at Mass General Brigham, said: ‘Our results show that it is clear that dose is a factor in psychosis risk and should be a chief consideration when prescribing stimulants.’

This is not an inconsequential problem. According to the same article, which relies on data from Symphony Health, since 2009, the number of Adderall prescriptions (both name brand and generic) in America has more than doubled from 15.5 million to 41 million annually. That is a staggering number of prescriptions, most of which are stuffed into school children. According to the Mass General Brigham study, one out of eight Americans are taking these prescriptions, allegedly to treat ADHD.

I’m quite certain that ADHD diagnoses are a way to hide the fact that America’s schools are truly horrible places, and that’s true not just for the “bad,” “broken” schools but for all schools, even the nice, shiny ones with pretty buildings and smiling teachers. My experience with my kids’ nice, shiny public schools was that most of the teachers (not all, but most) were nincompoops who were exactly like the teachers in the classic Simpsons episode that saw Lisa steal the teachers’ editions of textbooks:

(Of course, I exclude from this list of moronic teachers those conservatives—plus a handful of liberals, not leftists—who teach, not to indoctrinate students, but because they have a true passion for educating young minds in the best classical tradition.)

Even in my day, public school was dull (and I went through San Francisco public schools when they were introducing all the stupid modern ideas such as “new math”). However, the schools then had one very strong advantage that they lack today: They did not hate boys. Recess was a place where boys could be truly rough and tumble, while the curriculum inside the classroom recognized boys’ need for lessons about heroes and action.

Nowadays, lawsuits mean recesses are staid and boringly conflict-free, even though boys need to learn conflict, sometimes through the rough justice of the playground. Meanwhile, classroom content is all about feelings. This is true no matter the subject. It’s all feelings. I wasn’t thrilled about reading Call of the Wild when I was in 7th grade, but I can assure you that I tolerated it better than a boy would have if forced to read Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.

When you make content dull and then deny boys a physical outlet, they are restless and unhappy. And rather than address the problems in the schools that create this restlessness, the schools tell credulous parents to pump their boys full of drugs to sedate them (paradoxically, Adderall is a sedative in children and a stimulant in adults). [UPDATE: John Dale Dunn, M.D., has advised me that this class of drugs is a stimulant for all but that it makes people hyper-focused, a benefit for restless boys in school.] Alternatively, parents are told to give their children psychotropic drugs for depression that could be handled with fewer institutional insults about toxic masculinity, less computer time, and more physical activity.

We are killing our boys psychologically, and then we’re surprised when they come back and, in their drug-induced rage, start killing us physically.