Dr. Stanley Goldstein - Author and Psychologist

Jean Piaget, the great developmental psychologist, once said that the most common question an
American asks after he described child psychological development is "How can we speed up the process?" To which he replied, "You can't."
What seems like a child's behavioral difficulty often derives from they inhabiting a different mental universe than their parents. Children possess many beliefs which, being incorrect, differ from that of their parents. Not realizing this, many parents criticize or punish their child for, simply, being human.
But being "difficult" does not mean being continually difficult since most children slowly learn the error of their ways. If not, their behavior reflects not normal developmental issues but unhappiness, the source of which need be investigated and possibly treated.

The title of a recent Wall Street Journal article tells it all ("Millions of Kids Are on ADHD Pills. For Many, It's the Start of a Drug Cascade"). "I was living in a body hijacked by the medication," a youth said, and they aren't alone. Many parents, when confronting their child's difficult behavior, consult their pediatrician or psychiatrist or neurologist whose advice is almost always a medication. And if one psychotropic doesn't work, the dosage will be increased or more drugs follow.
The most popular diagnosis for difficult children is ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) which is almost certainly the most absurd concept in mental health in the past two-hundred years when a British doctor termed it "mental restlessness." The precursor of ADHD in early nineteen-hundreds American was MBD (Minimal Brain Dysfunction), which a Harvard psychiatrist said only a doctor with a minimal brain dysfunction would use. The diagnostic symptoms of ADHD are identical with anxiety and depression which are present in virtually every medical and psychological disorder.
For many youth their first drug is the start. Concerta may be prescribed for inattention or Lorazepam for moodiness or Abilify for defiance. I've long wondered if the latter's name was chosen to identify it with "ability" for better marketing.
Incidentally, a past study found that virtually all of the youth involved in a school shooting were on a psychotropic drug.
Several factors led to this "poisoning of America" with economics leading the way. Drug companies earn huge sums from their medicines and most doctors have little knowledge of child psychological development and developmental psychopathology. One pediatrician, when told by a twelve-year-old boy that he was thinking of killing himself, said "You shouldn't talk like that. It upsets your mother."

Because ignorance abounds, the best way to remedy this situation is through education. Educating that such popular mental health concepts as "chemical imbalance" and ADHD are nonsense, and that a child is "difficult" when they're unhappy, tired, ill, or unable to do what is asked for a psychological reason that makes sense only to them. Children want to behave as their parent or teacher request, striving to behave in an adult fashion and grow up. Educating them on proper behavior is the best way to interact with "difficult" children though sometimes psychotherapy is needed. So, Secretary Kennedy... 

Having long been a compulsive worker, my periods of unemployment were a major stress, despite they being deliberate since I quit each job. As I've often remarked, I may not have been too smart in several of the jobs I took but knew exactly when to leave. Which is when your boss wants you to stay. Every manager has a life expectancy, changing in image from the organization's savior to, after needed, painful changes were made, its current problem. But to return to the topic of this essay.

Unemployment creates major stresses. Usually financial, unless the person (family) has good resources. Also the partial loss of identity since, in America, one's identity is often gained from their job. The commonest question upon meeting a stranger at a party is, "What do you do?" But there is an unconscious element too since a job provides sustenance which is similar to what a child requires as they slowly achieve the capacity for independent living. Thus unemployment unconsciously thrusts one back into that early perilous period of existence, and how it would be had one lacked parents for aid. To quote a well-functioning young adult with a six-figure job who had several everyday chores to attend, "I wish I still had parents to do them for me."

But your mind also contains the mechanism for coping with stress by using its natural obsessive-compulsive ego defense, an obsession being a recurring thought and a compulsion being a recurring act. In other words, by involving oneself in an activity, such as looking for a job, cleaning a room or whatever, anxiety naturally lessens though, of course, worry still persists. So, get busy!

A troubling article in today's The Wall Street Journal related criticism of psychotropic medications to ignorance ("What Influencers and Critics Aren't Telling You About Antidepressants"). Or, in other words, Doctor Knows Best. But do they? Psychotropic drug research is minimal to describe it most charitably, and ignorance of child psychological development and developmental psychopathology is widespread among doctors. These circumstances motivate such unsophisticated but financially lucrative notions as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) despite it having symptoms identical to the anxiety and depression which are present in virtually all medical and psychological disorders; and diagnosing youth with Bi-Polar Disorder though its diagnosis requires an adult mental structure which youth lack by definition.

These ideas follow such a historic "gold standard" belief as the efficacy of lobotomy which destroyed countless lives including that of Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy, who underwent a lobotomy at 23 which permanently incapacitated her, making her unable to speak intelligibly. This procedure was permitted by her father, Joseph P. Kennedy, to manage her behavioral issues. Electro-Convulsive Treatment, is still being used though being best described in the title of a book by Peter Breggin, M.D., who has been called The Conscience of Psychiatry, "Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex."

Motivating this unholy alliance between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry is money: the drug companies rake in billions and most psychiatrists have little training in psychotherapy with today's psychiatry residents receiving only ten-percent of the training in psychotherapy compared with seventy-years ago but compete with psychotherapists of other professions. This also explains the huge sums wasted by the government on genetic research though most mental health conditions have been long understood as reflecting traumatic early life experiences, the lack of a good enough (not perfect) parenting experience. I end with two quotes. In early twentieth-century America the diagnostic precursor of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was Minimal Brain Dysfunction, which a Harvard psychiatrist said was so dumb that only a doctor with minimal brain dysfunction would use it. When working in a long-term residential treatment setting for teenagers which emphasized psychotherapy and rarely used medication, the physician father of a patient described psychotropic drugs as "chemical lobotomies." Enough said.