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...