Adam’s Dilantin

As far as I can remember, my brother Adam had always been hyper. Many times I recall my parents shouting, “Adam, sit down!” “Adam, be quiet!” or “Adam, pay attention!”

After a while it drove my folk’s nuts and they sought medical help at the recommendation of the Del Norte County Unified School District. Adam was perhaps seven or eight years old when he was prescribed a drug called Dilantin.

Initially, it turned Adam into a dull and lethargic boy. Later, as frustration built-in him over his condition, he grew angry and aggressive.

I had only known him up to that time as kind and gentle and it was hard for me to watch him change.

One day as we were standing in the kitchen where his meds were kept, he offered me his daily dose. Adam really wanted me to experience what he was going through.

Reluctantly I accepted, finding the two triangular-shaped pills tasted minty and not unpleasant at all. Less than half an hour later I had forgotten about the taste as the medication took effect of my mind and body.

Plainly put, the shit slowed my heart rate down the point I felt light-headed and dizzy. Meanwhile my mind was racing and I was unable to keep a hold of one thought or another.

The color of the sky, the grass, my skin all took on brighter than normal hues. Birds singing, cars zipping by on the highway and people talking all became an insult to my ears as they were so distorted.

Later, after the effects wore off, I told Mom and Dad about what Adam and I had done. I also tried to explain what I had gone through, but in the end all I got was a butt-whipping.

To this day, I don’t know if Adam disliked what the pills did to him, or if he came to enjoy his medicated world. What I do know is that my experience led me to fight to keep my son, Kyle from being medicated when the Washoe County School District recommended he’d be a god candidate for such a program.