Channing Tatum Vows He Won’t Drug Daughter Everly

Channing Tatum is a new father to daughter Everly Tatum, but he already has a pretty strong stance on what he won’t do while parenting daughter with wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum.

Opening up about his impending fatherhood with Vanity Fair, Channing Tatum spoke about the dangers of medicating children who have learning disabilities. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise how strongly he feels about his issue, given his involvement in Steven Soderbergh’s film Side Effects, it’s a little more personal for Tatum.

Tatum opened up about struggling with a learning disability when he was younger. The actor went on to explain he would never put his daughter through the regimen his parents put him on in order to be mainstreamed in the education system.

Tatum elaborated on the controversial matter, and explained his own personal dealings:

“That whole ‘I don’t want you to make the same mistakes’ mentality. My dad didn’t have much money growing up; he didn’t have much of an education. He forced that on me, and I didn’t want it.”

For years the FDA has come under fire for medications that are used to help a person cope, but lead to even more depression, and in some cases suicide. Tatum takes that issue up to task as he explained his own experience on medication:

“I understand why kids kill themselves. I absolutely do. You feel terrible. You feel soul-less. I’d never do it to my child.”

Tatum continued but made sure to see the other side of the coin: “I truly believe some people need medication. I did not. I did better at school when I was on it, but it made me a zombie. You become obsessive.”

Tatum went on to compare drugs such as Dexedrine and Adderall to “coke” or “crystal meth”: “The more you do, the less it works. For a time, it would work well. Then it worked less and my pain was more. I would go through wild bouts of depression, horrible comedowns.”

Adderall is used to treat narcolepsy, and learning disabilities like attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. While some studies have shown that Adderall aids in focus, the side effects are plenty.

Where do you fall on the spectrum? Do you think children should be medicated for their learning disabilities? Do you think we over-medicate our children? Sound off here.