Cruising With Ritalin, Speeding with Speilburg

Nobody’s Opinion; It seems Tom Cruise and Steven Speilburg are in the news again. Tom, if you remember, was on all the talk shows last year talking about two drugs: Ritalin and anti-depressants. It was Tom discussing Ritalin that Mr. Speilburg was angry about. It seems he knew some kids who did well on it. Tom was against it, he even spoke to Congress.

Actually, anyone that knows human nature feels that the “spat” is probably deeper than this thing about differences of opinion about drugs. After all, the divorce from Nicole Kidman was obviously painful. And if you go by her United Nations work, then Nicole would probably be the one who the Speilburgs agree with on a political level.

Speilburg’s “War of the Worlds” was not the blockbuster that Steven, I’m sure, thought it would be. Not many people went to see his last movie, "Munich" either. This has got to be upsetting to Steven, who for so long was so far above his peers in Hollywood that it was thought there would never be anyone to top him.

But they did, and they have. All the Harry Potter movies were great. Steven said he was offered to do them, but felt that it was pretty much beneath him, he would have been bored.

Thank goodness he refused.

Also, with the trilogy of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” it was proven that the world was not only catching up with Mr. Speilburg, but passing him by.

Speilburg has made more successful movies than flops. And his flops were due to the changes in the country, politics, and economics. He made a BIG mistake by hanging around Bill Clinton too much. The politics started getting into his films.

His biggest flop was his own fault. Putting his best friend, Robin Williams as an overgrown Peter Pan, probably ruined a great many little minds forever to the beloved classic. I would have never thought that Speilburg would even dare to ruin such a classic.

But, he did.

Robin Williams, an admitted cocaine addict who has been in and out of de-tox, was his best friend.

Anyone who has known someone who was a coke head knows that very, very few ever get off it. Go ahead, ask any doctor. And Robin has always looked as if he was hooked up to an electrical grid about the size of Manhatten.

Which brings me to Ritalin. Ritalin is an upper, a form of speed. And Tom Cruise doesn’t like the fact that the schools are drugging our kids with Ritalin... and he is right.

I speak from experience. I was once put on Ritalin, when it first came out. My doctor decided that I had “a bad habit of thinking too much” and he said it would slow me down.

I was in my early twenties. The drug was the newest thing. Not much was known about it. I really think my doctor thought he would help my obvious energy, and my tendency to drive myself crazy with too many thoughts, to settle down. He read all the AMA propaganda.

I really never understood how a form of speed could slow you down. My doctor said it would speed up you mind so much, you would slow down. It was not addicting he said.

Right.

I was on the drug for five years, then I got pregnant. I asked my gynecologist if I should get off the drug. His answer was, “No studies have been done on the effects of Ritalin, so it’s up to you.”

My son was born two months premature due to a condition that I had called placenta previa.

Was this caused by Ritalin? No one would tell me.

But, I did see what the drug did to my son. Of course he was in an incubator on a respirator, struggling for each breath.

Then one day I saw him shaking--- his little arms, his legs. I couldn’t even hold him.

“Oh my God, What’s wrong?” I asked the neonatal doctor

“We’re not sure, but we think he is withdrawing from Ritalin.”

I went cold turkey the next day. To think that I caused that terrible pain to my son, without even knowing it, bothers me to this day.

Trust me. Ritalin is a powerful drug. And it does damage to children. Our school system has been giving a green light by the big guys to give it to the kids, to keep them quiet, and controlled.

Steven Speilburg married Kate Capshaw in 1991. She actually graduated from the same (horrible) high school as I did. She became a teacher after college. I’m sure she was “indoctrinated” at the teacher’s school of “Kids should be seen and controlled, and the newest, progressive way is with Ritalin.”

Tom Cruise, no matter what you think of his personal belief in Scientology is right on this. Our schools have no right whatsoever to pressure parents to put their children on Ritalin. If someone suggest this to you…find another doctor, another drug if you must, but don’t do it. Just tell them “no.”

Ritalin will be looked upon much someday much like we look on how they use to put leeches to suck blood out of patients to cure diseases. It should be outlawed. They won't believe that kids were actaully given this addiction.

Will Tom Cruise ever be in a Steven Speilburg film again? Will they make up? Will Steven Speilburg go back to making those fun movies he used to make? Will Tom Cruise run for office?
Will Ritalin be around ten years from now?

This nobody does not know—but for once, one of our movie stars is making sense, and that doesn’t happen too often.

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Nobody’s Perfect; Even though I made that mistake unknowingly so long ago because I loved and trusted my doctor--- my son is now a fine young man of twenty-five and is a personal trainer. Now, everyone in my family just has to put up with my “thinking too much.” It’s learning how to not “talk too much” which I have trouble with. I’m working on it.

Nobody’s Knows; I wonder how many people who now have meth habits, were put on Ritalin when they were children?

Nobody’s Cares; The sixties bought a whole generation with a liberal attitude to drugs. They now seem to have grown up to find it “ok” to drug their own kids. How else can we explain why all these parents and teachers think that it’s okay to drug an active kid who is just being normal?