7 YEAR-OLD PUT ON RITALIN. SIDE EFFECTS FOLLOWED. DOCTORS ADDED MORE DRUGS. 23 YEARS LATER, SHE’S STILL TRYING TO GET OFF THEM.
At 7 years old, Danielle Gansky was a happy, creative child who sometimes struggled to focus in school.
Her mother says she was given an ultimatum by her school: “If you want her to stay in the school, you need to medicate her.”
She was put on Ritalin.
Her mother says Danielle became “zombified,” moody and agitated. Instead of questioning whether the drug could be causing the changes, doctors prescribed Prozac. Over the years, more psychiatric medications followed.
“Every time there was a side effect, they tried to treat it with another medication.”
Then Danielle tried to get off them.
Her mother says doctors tapered her too quickly, triggering severe withdrawal. She describes watching her daughter shaking on the floor, crying and in pain while doctors insisted it was an underlying psychiatric condition and wanted to prescribe more medication.
Today, Danielle is 30 and still slowly tapering off her final psychiatric drug. Her mother says she continues to experience akathisia, shaking, neurological symptoms and periods when she cannot get out of bed.
She was 7 when the prescribing started.
She is 30 and still dealing with the consequences.
How many children are being prescribed another drug to treat what is actually a side effect of the first?