DMX as treatment for ADHD

[altair1972m]

I have Bad ADHD and Bi-Polar and had unnacceptable side effects from Strattera, Paxil, Trileptal, Lamictal, Abilify, Lexapro, and Focalin.  I have a low tolerance for drugs, but seem to be able to quit cold turkey with no issues from addicted drugs.  Past suicidal ideation is an issue.

Everytime I take dextramathoraphine for a cough, I seem to be a little happier, can focus on work better, and don't spill my guts to all my co-workers.  my primary said he did not like the studies he knew on DMX as an ADHD treatement.  Does anyone have any information that might indicate a safe dose and success at treating ADHD or bi-polar?  Are there long term effects of DMX used in low doses (as opposed to the doses used to get high)?

[specialmom]

I really do with that during your years of seeking treatment for mental illness that you speak of that they had been able to help you.  I will say that it gives you a unique perspective that I try to decipher in your writing.  

And if your son truly has sensory integration disorder, I hope you have educated yourself in ways to help him beyond telling  him he has watered down genes.  

[thebabyalex]

I was originally diagnosed with ADHD when in grade school, when the moniker was that of MBD. Years later, the diagnosis was altered to that of Bi-polar, which is what the VA shrink determined, after about the first ten minutes conversation. The point is is that the VA is but emblematic of the push for biopsychiatry in treating mental distress, over that of traditional "talk" therapies. The issues going on right now, with regards to PTSD in our returning soldiers and airmen, is another case in point.
My insight is both anecdotal, and the result of a considerable amount of self-reflective study and examination of the nature and history of psychiatry, up to present. The truth is not always easy to swallow, and it is never easy to attain, especially when one discusses such a subject fraught with so many moral and social ramifications as that of psychiatric medicine. The mission of psychiatry is clear, but not widely appreciated by a captivated public and media.

[specialmom]

The traditional "talk" therapy that you mention works best when combined with medication and vice versa.  That is typically the standard of care for those in the mental health profession.

It does not sound as though you've had an easy life.  Those that have suffered become the harshest critics.  I had a different response all typed out and erased it because I will keep in mind where you are coming from which I think is a place of pain.  

I visit the add/adhd forum because of its connection to sensory integration disorder.  I have a personal interest in this due to my son and found that some young children can benefit from some of the strategies that we've used with success with our own child.  I try to share that as add/adhd are very similar.  

I wish you luck on your journey and hope you wish me luck on mine.  

[thebabyalex]

Are you a doctor? I take it you are drawing from a different source of literature on this discussion of "medicating". There has been an ongoing debate over the merits of medicating, and with more drugs than ever before for all manner of putative disorder, the polemics over drugging or no is well pronounced. I do not agree with the "drugging" crowd nor do I necessarily agree wholesale with the position of people like Breggin or Whitaker, both of whom advocate for the "proper" place of psychopharmaceuticals, and who both adhere to myth of mental illness. It might seem an academically moot point to ask but do the drugs merely mask or dull affect, or, does the respective agent treat that which has no physical basis? I have read Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an epidemic", and nowhere, do I gather that Mr. Whitaker, and his like ilk, are anywhere near questioning the very basis of medicalizing problems in living and social conflict. In short, the prevalent opinion, as reflected in the mainstream literature, is of a consensus that "somehow" the brain of, say, a depressed person, must be biologically abnormal, and the "selective" use of drug treatment will "restore" the imbalance. Such speculative pharmaceutical R&D has promoted such a biomythology, certainly in respect to the misapprehension surrounding depression and other affective disorders. Any challenge, it seems, of the biomythology of mental illness, has come and gone. And those who have taken up the critic's standard are just parroting what the mainstay of biopyschiatry has communicated for public and media consumption. This is no less than a propagandistic tour de force; where every one, at one time or other, "suffers" some form of mental illness. Very little is ever mentioned of the moral and social, unless, of course, such critique concerns itself with how much drugging is necessary.

[thebabyalex]

"It does not sound as though you've had an easy life.  Those that have suffered become the harshest critics.  I had a different response all typed out and erased it because I will keep in mind where you are coming from which I think is a place of pain."

And what have you labeled me as? Please, spare me the disingenuous feelings and your clinical assessment.

[specialmom]

At some point one has to realize when they are dealing with an injured party and I'm at that point.  Disingenuous or not, good luck.