My son was diagnosed

My name is Luisa Arostegui. I'm a mother of five kids: Gustavo 21, Luisa 19, Daniel 14, Jose 13, and Victor 8.  I had my own personal experience with labeling and drugging children when my son Jose, a foster child, became part of our family at 14 months old.  My son was diagnosed “mentally retarded” and I was told that he was never going to be able to walk, and would suffer from seizures throughout life.  The entire adoption process took more than 18 months and I had to follow what his social worker told me to do because he was not yet adopted. One day I received a call that Jose was going to go to a special school and that I would have to take him to a neurologist. I did some research on the school that I was told he would attend and that school was for mentally retarded kids.  I enrolled him in a preschool program. We went to the neurologist before he was 2 years old and I left the doctor's office with a prescription for Ritalin 20 milligrams in the morning and 10 milligrams in the afternoon.  I immediately tried that “medicine” because I was uneasy giving it to him.  On the dose of Ritalin that was prescribed to him, I felt like my heart was going jump out of my chest, which made me call the doctor.  He told me what I was feeling was normal and not to worry. I was still very worried, so I never gave my son the full dose.  After a couple of years, my son started kindergarten at a public school.  Within one month the teacher asked me if Jose was taking “medication” for his ADHD, (the diagnosis had been put in his school records).  I told her that yes he was on “medication”.  My son finished elementary school and went to middle school completely lost.  He barely knew how to read and was very frustrated.  He didn't want to go to school and cried every morning. My life was very tiring because I felt so much pressure to teach him what he didn't learn throughout his elementary years.

One day walking in a shopping center around my house (my son was in the 6^th grade at the time) I saw a school named H. E. L. P. (The Hollywood Education and Literacy Project).  I went inside and asked for information. When I told them my son’s history, the first thing they told me was that they didn’t accept kids on any drugs.   Taking my son out of public school and taking him off the drug were both hard decisions to make because I was told for so long that he would not be able to learn many things and that he needed to be on “medication”.  As worried as I was, I pulled my son out of school and got him off the drug. In the summer of 2004, I learned from my son’s doctor that my son had liver damage, which was caused by the long term use of Ritalin.  I have to continue to take my son to the doctor to have his liver continually monitored.

Today I can confidently say that I am so glad I made the choice that I did.  My son is drug-free and happy.  I feel that his new school is not only teaching him, but that it truly saved his life.  I have discovered that he is in no way mentally retarded.  He walks and runs perfectly, plays baseball like the average American kid, and has not had anymore seizures.  The fact is that he is doing so much better without taking any drug.

Luisa Arostegui, Vice President, State of Florida

'01

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