http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20141219/NEWS/141219059/1117/parents-of-son-who-died-of-drug-overdose-speak-out&template=fairfaxTimes

Duh

It's an epidemic now.

Sad
Experimental drug use is one thing, but hardcore use often has underlying psychological factors.

She said Kevin suffered from ADHD, OCD anxiety and depression, and the combination of those issues and self-medication of them with drugs proved to be too much for him to handle.

This is all you need to know about the drug problems of today's youth. How is it that kids grew up normally for centuries without all these prescribed meds?

Rest in Pieces Wrote:
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> She said Kevin suffered from ADHD, OCD anxiety
> and depression, and the combination of those
> issues and self-medication of them with drugs
> proved to be too much for him to handle.
>
> This is all you need to know about the drug
> problems of today's youth. How is it that kids
> grew up normally for centuries without all these
> prescribed meds?


Oh, stop it...kids have grown up exactly the way they have now for centuries...some are messed up, some are well adjusted.

Some become superstars, some don't.

Not everyone will be rich, or "succesful" or well adjusted. If they were, nobody would be rich, or successful...

I love these "when I was young, we were healthier, worked harder, etc"...I've been hearing that since the 60's.

I wonder how life expectancy has increased by nearly 20 years since the 60's...must be all that unhealthy living and weird drugs that we're being pumped full of.

Lots of kids grew up abnormal for centuries. Normal is often a perception. When i was a kid, my family would point out other families as examples. They had no clue on what those people were really like. Kids often need someone knowledgeable to talk to that they trust. Many kids won't trust whoever their parents take them to. Many shrinks label a problem before really knowing what's going on. Parents take a kid somewhere to get fixed, when often, its the parents that broke the kid in the first place. My kids have grown, and appear fine. I've always been honest with them about everything. Mistakes I've made and all. Sometimes being honest with them means taking a hard look at yourself and your own failures, which isn't easy at all. Many can't do that

oh jeeeez Wrote:
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>
>
> Oh, stop it...kids have grown up exactly the way
> they have now for centuries...some are messed up,
> some are well adjusted.
>
>

I think the point was too many kids today are prescribed mood altering medications to lobotomize them and that way mommy and daddy don't have to deal with raising them. Just put them on Prozac and head for the country club.

NOVA burnout Wrote:
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> oh jeeeez Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> >
> > Oh, stop it...kids have grown up exactly the
> way
> > they have now for centuries...some are messed
> up,
> > some are well adjusted.
> >
> >
>
> I think the point was too many kids today are
> prescribed mood altering medications to lobotomize
> them and that way mommy and daddy don't have to
> deal with raising them. Just put them on Prozac
> and head for the country club.

Exactly!
Thats part of what I meant when I said their parents broke them

NOVA burnout Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh jeeeez Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> >
> > Oh, stop it...kids have grown up exactly the
> way
> > they have now for centuries...some are messed
> up,
> > some are well adjusted.
> >
> >
>
> I think the point was too many kids today are
> prescribed mood altering medications to lobotomize
> them and that way mommy and daddy don't have to
> deal with raising them. Just put them on Prozac
> and head for the country club.

To quote:

"How is it that kids
grew up normally for centuries without all these
prescribed meds?"

Kids are the same now as they have always been. I would bet there were MANY more "potheads" in high schools in the 70's than there are now...before that, there were hippies, bad kids, James Dean types...etc, etc...there are different pressures today, as there have ALWAYS been...time, technology, etc change. People don't...


As for an idea that parents today "don't have to deal with raising" kids today...that was indeed the mantra back in the 50's and 60's when I was growing up...and, there were a fair amount of military schools around (that aren't around today) catering to that notion, even back then...for a high school aged population that is probably 1/4 the size it is now.

Parents don't send their kids off to military schools these days like they did back in they day...in part, because there aren't that many around.

It's all due to social media.

Nobody ever posts anything bad on Social Media until it is too late.

Hard to keep up with the Jonnie's and Sarah's that are top off the class, top athletes, president of the class, belong to the County Club, has a new Mercedes and is going to Harvard.

Some have to be last in the class, not make any sports teams, hang at the YMCA, take the bus and go to NOVA but this is by no means a reason to do drugs and OD.

Parents have always been the same too. Some loving, some hateful, others aloof. I wonder if some of the great explorers of the old west, the ones that felt that they needed more space, did their own version of escaping. They were able to handle the tough life because of a psycho growing up. Many leaving home as early teens, Able to handle the tough life because that's all they knew, couldn't stand being around others long. They had no ties, always wandering.
Its a guess, but a plausible one.

Well said...people don't "change" that quickly...their ability to handle stresses, deal with things, overcome, excel, fail, etc., aren't that different from 20...30...40...100 years ago.

That goes for parents as well as children.

Everytime I start to think things are crazy now, I remember my youth in the 60's and 70's...

Talk about crazy...there were good parents, f'ed up parents, the drinking age was 18 for much of the time, which meant most high school seniors could legally buy beer...there was Vietnam, the DRAFT, teenage angst, car crashes that led to deaths, loud music at parties, sometimes parents were there, hair was long...pot, loud music...loud ass and fast cars, race issues, fights at school, in crowd and out crowd, teachers pets, jocks, etc

There were kids who were "squared away" and "did well", there were kids that had a tough time...some parents were "cool" and their kids turned out "OK", sometimes these "cool" parents had major f-ups as kids...

To think that people have changed THAT much in 30-40 years, if people could change that quickly, in about 10 or 20 years we're going to be growing prehensile tails and a 3rd eye.

People don't change that quickly...kids and parents aren't that different now than they were 30-50 years ago...they just aren't.

We're over medicating our kids. Between 1991 and 1999, Ritalin sales in the United States increased 500 percent.

I've seen a few kids on Rit...it seems to work wonders...mauch fewer weird outbreaks, school work and behavior improves drastically, etc.

I probably would have been an ADHD kid...tough time in school as a kid, seemed to grow out of it later, went to a good school(s), have had good jobs, etc...however, I think I would have had a much better foundation if I was able to focus, even through medical means, when I was a kid.

As for "over medication", need more data.

Increase in sales, even a million percent, does not necessarily equal over medication.

Factors to consider include increase in population during same time, when did the medicine first come on the market, increases in diagnoses, etc.

For example, there might have been a similar "spike" in penicillin use when it first came out, or its properties became understood.

Over medication? I think not.

Maybe we are starting to overuse adolescent phrases like "LOL WUT" too much.

Heroin is a gateway drug -

Epidemic is an overstatement. Perhaps widespread; from too many video games, social media and lack of personal interaction?

"ADHD is an essentially contemporary disease."

http://provostblog.gmu.edu/archives/1531

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“We don’t have any rude, unpleasant people here. We’re different!”

He was 21, not a kid.

His responsibility. Like Trayvon, he's dead.

30 is the new 18. Most of my friends are in their mid 20's and we all live at home with our parents.

As usual, no one on this site can read. He was SELF MEDICATING. The parents, if anything, did not address the problem. ADHD is not caused by self parenting, it is a neurological issue, and if not addressed it has been shown over and over that these kids will self medicate to feel better. Kicking him out of the house clearly did nohing, he should have been in therapy, working with a adolescent behavior specialist, etc.
I am NOT blaming the parents, but poor reading comprhension is no way to live.

So many young people dying from heroin overdoses at an alarming rate. He WAS an athlete.. the drug use in High School changed him, the same way it changes alot of high schoolers. Perhaps if Fairfax County Schools did as much to help students with addiction problems as they do with other "Special Needs" students, more young people could get the help that they need to understand how to overcome this illness. My thoughts and prayers for the Brigg's family and to all those families dealing with children that have addition problems.

ChantillyMom Wrote:
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> So many young people dying from heroin overdoses
> at an alarming rate. He WAS an athlete.. the drug
> use in High School changed him, the same way it
> changes alot of high schoolers. Perhaps if
> Fairfax County Schools did as much to help
> students with addiction problems as they do with
> other "Special Needs" students, more young people
> could get the help that they need to understand
> how to overcome this illness. My thoughts and
> prayers for the Brigg's family and to all those
> families dealing with children that have addition
> problems.


Your solution is more government programs through the school system?

No sympathy from me. 21 year junkie OD. I guess mom and dad still want to go to Italy still, start a donation.

Never Run Out of Ammo

Guns Don't Kill People. People Kill People

Them or You

The two most important days in your life are the day your were born and and the day you find out why

Your sympathy probably ain't worth much, and I doubt they were looking for it anyway.

"Them or you". LOL.

What is this? The frickin wild west?

ChantillyMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So many young people dying from heroin overdoses
> at an alarming rate. He WAS an athlete.. the drug
> use in High School changed him, the same way it
> changes alot of high schoolers. Perhaps if
> Fairfax County Schools did as much to help
> students with addiction problems as they do with
> other "Special Needs" students, more young people
> could get the help that they need to understand
> how to overcome this illness. My thoughts and
> prayers for the Brigg's family and to all those
> families dealing with children that have addition
> problems.


Typical lib bitch. Unwilling to take responsibility for your own kid and blaming others for your failure as a parent.
Kids need love and understanding, something foreign to a lib.

Really sad. My wife and I were just talking about giving our kids iPhones (ages 13 & 12) and I said no. The dad in the story cited here mentions iPhones opening up the world (not in a good way) to your kid and I agree. I want my kids looking up into the sky and singing to themselves while walking home for as many years as possible before being transfixed by the blue light of the iPhone 24/7.

I want them to have to go through us to get info on the world at least some of the time. Also we will tell them the truth about drugs. Alcohol, tobacco, perscription drugs and heroine are all deadly poisons. All dangerously addictive. Pot is a little safer than coffee but still not great to walk around in a fog from doobie. I just pray they get the message about the addictive substances...

ChantillyMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So many young people dying from heroin overdoses
> at an alarming rate. He WAS an athlete.. the drug
> use in High School changed him, the same way it
> changes alot of high schoolers. Perhaps if
> Fairfax County Schools did as much to help
> students with addiction problems as they do with
> other "Special Needs" students, more young people
> could get the help that they need to understand
> how to overcome this illness. My thoughts and
> prayers for the Brigg's family and to all those
> families dealing with children that have addition
> problems.


Hey Mom, drug use is a disease according to the experts. If your child has cancer,etc, its not the schools job to give them help. Its you the parent If you really knew what is going on in high schools in Fairfax County, you would know so of the biggest druggies are the athletes. At my kids school, it was a toss up who had the biggest distribution of dope, the wrestlers, the swimmers or the basketball players. If you were privy to inside information on these families, most are living in denial about what their kids are doing. Until they are shocked when cops throw a search warrant on them and pull all kinds of crap from their kids bedroom. This is old news but adults are so busy living their lives, they leave their kids to their own interests. Be involved and ask questions,... until they are 18 their privacy does not exist under your roof.If your kid is working in the restaurant business, they are already at risk, that business is a major pipeline for that stuff in this area. How many of these parents educated themselves about heroin use before it struck home?, Im guessing none despite the police having seminars for parents on current trends.

Nice to see that judgment and hatefulness are alive a well here on FFU.

Happy Holidays to all!