W5 ran this story…
“Marty McKay, a psychologist who has treated and assessed children for over 30 years, believes that "Ninety per cent of children diagnosed as ADHD are misdiagnosed and drugged for no appropriate reason." She points the finger of misdiagnosis at the school system and the psychiatric industry.”
I think the finger of blame needs to extend a little further. I think that parents need to be touched with responsibility here as well. Now I am not so naïve as to think that the issues of hyperactivity and behaviour problems are easily solved. However… I do believe that our culture generally produces detached parents. I mean parents who are not really interacting with their kids meaningfully and thoughtfully. Our culture values self actualization which endorses the focus being on me, my career, my relationships, my world. Add to that a cultural milieu that sees adults generally busier than they have ever been – jobs, clubs, recreation, gym, etc. And kids that are busier than ever before as well – extra curricular stuff like crazy. Is it any wonder that a parent can be convinced by medical professionals and educators to medicate their children? I mean if the problem will go away why not, right? The other thing is the history of this…
The rate of diagnosis for ADHD rose 500% btwn 1990-1997. When I went to school, in the 80’s, this stuff really did not exist. So what has changed? I think there are only two possibilities. 1. something horrible has recently affected the food supply so as to affect children and teenager and not adults. 2. something horrible has gripped our culture to convince us to lose the desire to raise the next generation well.
8 comments:
check this out. I heard this guy on a podcast and he seems to have some good points. http://www.adhdfraud.com/
thanks jc
I think that the drug industry is suspect in so many areas not just in prescribing psycho-active drugs. I also have this keen aversion to 'conspiracy theorizing'. While I believe the drug companies are complicit along with medical professionals and educators, I think it is way too easy to throw the blame onto naturally profit hungry corporations instead of owning the culpability of our own negligence as individual parents.
It is exasperating to see how these companies seem to compromise the public trust through their actions...
A lot of what Marty says here makes sense to me. 90% sounds about right. No "appropriate" reason?? Try working in a school today and have your hands tied . . . can't hold parents accountable, discipline kids?! yeah, right! I don't like the drugs but I can tell you that they do what they are supposed to do and I don't much like the alternative in our day and age. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in favour of drugging our kids for "no appropriate reason" but I'd like some of the so-called experts to walk a mile in my shoes before they spout off. I pray for the day when accountability returns. Until then, my jar of Tylenol is always close by.
well ster I hope you didn't think that I was one of those dudes spouting off...
I do think that often educators do have thier hands tied precisely becuase of negligent parents who expect the education system to parent their children without giving them the 'tools' to do it (and when it is not thier job in the first place)
I thought about you and teach and bonnie and others who have all recounted stories of children are beyond control. I guess when I watched the W5 piece it felt to me like it was too convenient to blame drug companies, doctors and educators instead of pointing the finger where it belongs on ourselves. I hope that came across in my post...
I am no expert either but I did grow up with a sibling who was diagnosed with some of these 'disorders.' I just don't know if I can get on board with drugging kids. I know it might work to sort of settle them down in class but its kind of strange to try and tranqualize kids so they do not act up. I don't know if our expectations of keeping them quiet during school are too high or if its a lack of discipline. According to the podcast I heard on the 'Infidel Guy' the adhd fraud guy claimed that there is no evidence to classify these disorders as mental illnesses. In other words they cannot show any brain abnormalities. Seems to me to beg the question on how then do they know what kind of chemicals to give these kids to swallow? At least for me it would take a lot more investigation before I would feel comfortable giving these pills to my kid.
so jc you seem to be one of the increasingly smaller group of parents who would want to be involved in your kids life. would you also advocate giving educators more disciplinary tools to help keep children well behaved?
I am not sure about more discipline in the schools... I do not know enough about the current state of discipline in schools to have an informed position. I think it is certainly possible that more discipline would help to teach some kids some more self control. Maybe we need to look at the way kids are taught in schools and if our expectations of having them sit in the same seat for too long should be changed. I don't really know. You'd be better off asking a teacher. I just don't think medicating our kids so they can be quiet in school is a great solution.
I'll loan out my shoes to anyone who wants them for a mile or so. Then we can talk together. By the way, Dale you don't purport to be an expert so I don't consider your "rants" (positive emphasis) to be "spouting off" (negative emphasis).
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