I've read the comments about doping your kids from ghosty and I wondered how others feel about the practice of diagnosing and treating a variety of "psychiatric" disorders in children.

When I lived in the US, ADHD was the big thing; here, in the UK, it's autism. I don't know if they treat autism with any specific drugs, but I do know that ADHD was well-medicated. Sometimes, I wonder if these kids are just at one extreme of normal and we, as a society, love to compartmentalise people into disorders.

(08-18-2009 10:31 AM)Digressor Wrote:  I've read the comments about doping your kids from ghosty and I wondered how others feel about the practice of diagnosing and treating a variety of "psychiatric" disorders in children.

When I lived in the US, ADHD was the big thing; here, in the UK, it's autism. I don't know if they treat autism with any specific drugs, but I do know that ADHD was well-medicated. Sometimes, I wonder if these kids are just at one extreme of normal and we, as a society, love to compartmentalise people into disorders.

Hi Dig...in the late 60s, anti-psychiatrist Thomas Szasz stepped out to the fringes of his professional field and warned that psychiatry and medicine intended to neurologize all human problems, labelling them as disorders and syndromes and then finding solutions through pharmacuetical drugging.

At that time, Szasz was called a spinner of a conspiracy theory but here we are in 2009 and living the nightmare he portrayed in the books he authored.

I believe it was last year he turned 85 or 86 and he was given a full apology by many reputable medical people who now understand what he was trying to inform about. Even at his present age, he is still active in anti-psychiatry and still writing books...he has a site on the internet you can read up on his work.

ADHD is rampant worldwide, is one of the fabricated disorders Szasz was warning about. Here in Canada, babes to teens are tremendously medicated and this is pushed by the School System and family doctors. About all one can do is educate parents which I do to help in this situation....

Regards Mikal