Oliver North Says Ritalin Is Part Of The Gun Violence Problem

He has a point.

Something like 25% or more of kids are now on ADHD medication. It's absurd

He’s not wrong.

If you’ve been around any high school kids lately they live through their phones. The communicate with people rarely through conversation. The kids who are outside of the groups literally feel alone. The put headphones on and live in their own little space. They think no one cares, and they’ve barely had legit human conversation since they were given a phone which was probably around 5th grade.

Over medication is certainly part of it. Instead of dealing with the function of negative behaviors, we try to knock it out with pills. Instead of raising children and doing the hard work of parenting, people turn to pharmaceuticals.
Also, we shouldnt be giving that stuff to children whose brains are still developing. Last, social media and the 24 hour news cycle plays a part in this as well.

Anyone who says things haven’t changed and that there are problems is an idiot. Medication is certainly an issue that needs to be looked at as part of that. We now know that anti-depressants have markedly different side effects on teenage brains as opposed to adults. No one, to my knowledge, has taken a hard look at ADHD meds in this application. I would also like to see a retrospective study on teenage mass shooters and medical history.

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I think you cannot overestimate how movies and video games have subjected kids to gruesome, unmitigated violence. They teach kids that it's cool to blow dozens of people/creatures away at a time in a most gory way.

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Nonsense

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Anyone who says things haven’t changed and that there are problems is an idiot. Medication is certainly an issue that needs to be looked at as part of that. We now know that anti-depressants have markedly different side effects on teenage brains as opposed to adults. No one, to my knowledge, has taken a hard look at ADHD meds in this application. I would also like to see a retrospective study on teenage mass shooters and medical history.

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We also have to make sure there's no selection bias. Those shooters might have been medicated because they were crazy to begin with.

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So increased media coverage? I don't ever really remember hearing about them before Columbine.

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Definitely a part but too complex an issue, imo, to be able to pin point any single factor.

The randomness is what I can't understand. So callous, especially given the effort put in with planning. A sane person who gets pissed off would calm down and catch their shite before carrying it out, it seems.

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We had just as many guns around growing up and didn't go shoot up schools.

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I don't know about Ritalin, I don't think that is even really used anymore, but I would think that when kids have certain problems.. Possibly ADD/ADHD for example, sometimes they are prescribed one drug, then if it doesn't work for them they are prescribed something else and going from one drug to the other. There is no telling what that does to the brain..

When it comes to depression, I know there are certain types of meds that when you start taking them, you can't just up and stop them.. That can mess with people's heads.. And not to mention, if they are taken off of something then immediately prescribed something else.. I am sure it impacts everyone different..