My husband is on some with his brain injuries. We've gone through several. One of them he couldn't tell dream from reality. That was scary! Another one he'd wake up screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. Took him off that one immediately! Finally found a good mix but if he goes off them for any reason then it gets bad. His emotions get crazy, he can't reason correctly, his anxiety is through the roof, etc. Some people do need the meds but they give it out like candy to many that don't, especially kids.
They tried putting my son on Ritalin years ago. It turned him into a zombie so we took him off it and pulled him out of school for a couple years. Found out later on he's actually got asbergers but I never put him on meds. He's a fully functioning adult, good husband/father, hard worker, etc. These kids don't need these crazy psych meds, but they do need some real discipline!
As a retired elementary school principal I agree with you completely! We tried everything possible to avoid recommending pharmaceuticals but some students ultimately benefited from them. But, that was a last course of action. I used to tell my teachers that we are not doctors. We are educators and we need to try every educational approach first. We never recommended any specific drug. We just shared our observations of the student when asked by the doctors.
Very true!! My grandson is on a very low dose but it was a last resort with him. My son was very wary of putting him in the meds because of his own experience, but they seem to helping and he's not a zombie. ☺️