Daphne Who Lived in the Teapot

When I was little I used to have an imaginary friend, in fact I had loads of imaginary friends, but one of my friends I will never forget - Daphne, who lived in the teapot. I would talk to Daphne for hours at a time, and she would listen to me for just that same amount. Every day was a new and exciting day with Daphne.

I am the youngest of four children. I have two older brothers (10 years and 8 years older) and an older sister (18 months older than I). My brothers were my heroes and today they still are - my brothers and my sister are all very clever and I benefited so much from growing up with them. We played outside constantly in summer and even in the winter, rode bicycles and went to the beach with my father all the time. Our parents encouraged us to read books and we're all book worms by nature now, choosing to while away the hours engrossed in a book.

I feel for my mother who must have had her hands full with four boisterous children to raise, and boisterous we were! We ran, we played hide and seek, we swam, we rode bikes and skateboards, and there was always a whole menagerie of pets in our household. I remember a childhood spent with my batteries on full power the whole time - never stopping, constantly active!

So it was with great alarm and also with great sadness that I watched a documentary recently about children and medication and how more and more children are being diagnosed with ADHD and treated with medication to prevent this.

What has happened to children's childhoods? Have we become such a society that we would rather see our children medicated to near comatose than watch them growing up as children, doing what they are supposed to do (running, playing, expressing their imaginations, sometimes in the silliest of ways)? As far as I am concerned children should be encouraged to run around, to expend energy, to play and not stop. As far as I am also concerned children learn so much more in this manner than by being drugged and made to sit still in a classroom all day. Teachers are quick to diagnose a child who is boisterous as being hyperactive and quick to recommend that such children be placed on medication to help them cope, but I often wonder if this medication is to help the children cope or to help the teacher cope! Not one of the "hyperactive" children in my Grade 1 class took medication and I have to admit that we all turned out just fine in our adulthood, with the majority of us enjoying successful careers without any adverse side-effects to our "hyperactive" playground antics!

I have a teenage son and many of my friends also have children in their early teens or late teens now. My son was diagnosed as "ADHD" when he was younger and a psychiatrist recommended that I start him on a course of Ritalin. I refused and said that I would take my chances with letting him be a "normal" little boy (although normal these days is to take a handful of pills at the age of 5 it seems, before you walk out to catch the school bus in the morning). Today, without any medication, he is going to Grade 12 and, while he might not have the best grades overall, he is an average student, and by no means bottom of the class. He is not "hyperactive" in any manner, and we have a healthy lifestyle with lots of exercise and socialising, eat well and enjoy ourselves.

I am glad I made the decision that I did. Being inclined to decline medication due to ethical reasons, in that pharmaceutical companies are still probably the largest advocates of animal experimentation, it was not a difficult decision for me to make either.

I often wonder what would have happened if my mother had chosen to "medicate" us, if I would have had the pleasure of ever meeting Daphne who lived in the teapot, or if I would have spent my life relying on other people's imaginations for my entertainment. Thankfully she never did and I am the proud owner of my very own imagination, and a beautiful 17 year old son who is the same, and whose wit, charm and humour is, I am proud to say, my finest achievement.

I hope that parents will think twice when they hear the word "hyperactive", I hope they will think twice when they hear the word "medication" and I hope that they will instead choose to hold out for as long as possible to truly see who their children become as they grow. I hope that parents will think twice about adding to the wealth of pharmaceutical companies, and doctors, who make them feel as they as parents will not cope if their child is not on some form of medication. After watching the expose on "medicated children" I hope that every parent will give their child the opportunity to find their own Daphne who lives in the teapot, before perhaps erasing that opportunity forever.