"You are depressed because you have a chemical imbalance"
"You are shy because you have a chemical imbalance"
"You are anxious because you have a chemical imbalance"
""You have ADHD because we said so"
Back in the day, when SSRi's such as Prozac and Seroxat came to market, the drug companies reeled in the consumers by telling them they had something wrong with them, a chemical imbalance was deemed to be the cause of their feeling anxious, shy or depressed. "Seroxat", we were told, "corrects that chemical imbalance."
Amazing how they actually got away with such false and misleading statements.
These days it would appear that no explanation is needed. Psychiatrists and drug companies no longer use the chemical imbalance fact...because it never was fact. If they do tout the chemical imbalance theory at you then I recommend you watch the short video at the end of this post for a suitable response to them]
Today sees drug companies advertising by proxy. Key opinion leaders, better known as leading psychiatrists in the world of pediatrics, do the pushing for them. They promote illnesses such as ADHD then announce that there is a cure...in the shape of a pill. Because there are no advertising guidelines for a psychiatrist's opinions they can say pretty much what they want to without backing up their claims with any scientific data.
Apparently it's heredity that is one of the causes of ADHD. That's right folks, if you were a little boisterous in childhood then chances are that your offspring will be born mentally ill.
Now, I wasn't the model pupil in my schooldays, quite the opposite in fact. I kind of questioned what was being taught, it was confusing to be told in history lessons that we derived from apes yet an hour or so later, in Religious Education , I was told that we were created in the image of God. "So God looks like an ape, right?", I'd ask. This was usually greeted with the cane or a detention or in some cases I was told to seek confession for my sins. The sin of an inquisitive mind - where's that in the Bible?
There were lessons where I would get bored so I'd craft paper aeroplanes or flick paper pellets with an elastic band. Then there were the times of puberty when all I could think of was mattress dancing with any of the girls whose eyes I happened to meet. This, in turn, would have me day dreaming out of the window and thinking of The Bionic Woman [Lindsey Wagner] or tennis ace [Chrissie Evert]
Nowadays such behaviour would be deemed as something only a mental child would do and I'd probably be carted off to the headmaster [straightjacket affixed] and be sent home on the proviso that I met with my GP to discuss my 'abnormalities'.
Puberty huh, such an imbalance on the brain.
Today, it seems, kids can have a mental disorder before they attend their senior schools, in fact before they attend their primary schools...which leads me nicely to a recent article published in today's Telegraph.
The headline reads "Give Ritalin to four-year-olds with ADHD, say experts." The article, by Stephen Adams, reports on how the American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP] claim, "Treating children at a young age is important, because when we can identify them earlier and provide appropriate treatment, we can increase their chances of succeeding in school."
He [Dr Mark Worlaich, professor of paediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine] and colleagues, writes Adams, advised that a doctor "should initiate an evaluation for ADHD for any child four through 18 years of ago who presents with academic or behavioural problems and symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity".
Ah, I see. So, four year-olds who are not interested in learning the alphabet or reading along to Thomas the Tank Engine stories are actually mentally ill?
WAY TO GO Mr Pediatric man!
You know, it would be great if you could give 4 year-olds a leg up to childhood rather than drug them and turn them into a dribbling mess. Interestingly, the AAP came under fire, albeit moderately, from Dr John Houston, a consultant paediatrician based at Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban, who said, "In the UK we are more reluctant to medicate our kids, and I think that's a very good thing."
Reading between the lines it would be nice to think that Dr Houston was telling the AAP to head on back to America with their delusions. Sadly, it's the opposite as more and more UK doctor's have bought into the idea that normal behaviour [daydreaming, tiredness, being boisterous] is now treatable with mind altering drugs.
I can't wait for their day of Judgement.
This post is dedicated to Chrissie Evert and Lindsey Wagner, whom collectively made my childhood and teen years so much more pleasurable than any doctor today thinks they can.
Fid
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