This was so shocking that when I first read it, I had to do some additional research to ensure it wasn't a joke or a spoof story. And after doing some pretty good looking around, it seems to be real.
According to Sky News, the the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in Britain are recommending children under 5 not be prescribed Ritalin.
While that was indeed surprising, given that the medical community has for some 15 years or so prescribed Ritalin like a candy store owner prescribing M&Ms, here's what really hit me like a brick in the face:
Instead, parents should be taught psychological techniques for changing the behaviour of unruly youngsters diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The programmes show parents how to create a structured home environment, encourage attentiveness and concentration, and better manage misbehaviour.
I was literally and truly stunned that after all the drug-peddling and psychobabble from the medical community in recent decades, they would acknowledge parenting and the home environment as a factor in children's misbehavior.
Imagine that: a structured home environment might produce a better-behaved child.
Imagine that: requiring a child to pay attention to the task at hand might produce a better-behaved child.
Imagine that: "managing misbehavior" might actually produce a better-behaved child.
And all this time we've been taught that we could either drug or self-esteem the child into an angel.
Perhaps the decades of utter failure from these asinine techniques is teaching the professionals...what everyday parents have known for thousands of years.
Will wonders never cease?
1 comments:
ADHD, ADD and all of the spin-off diagnoses are mostly a fraud. In the vast majority of children I've seen with such problems there are family dynamics that account for the poor behavior. It is almost always the case that the children who can't sit still and behave through classes, through a meal or through a trip to the mall are capable of sitting for hours and playing video games. These children need discipline, structure, and rules and limits in their lives. They do not need or deserve to be drugged into submission.
Many physicians and psychologists have questioned and criticized the practice of medicating children in order to control behavior. Dr. Peter Breggin has lead this anti-drug movement and his website has a wealth of information for doctors, parents and anyone interested in this phenomenon of drugging children.
ADHD is mostly an American problem. The NIH reported that approximately 90% of stimulants used for treatment of ADHD are used in the US. It is also a boy problem. Approximately 80% of children being treated are boys. Up to 70% of drugs ordered to treat these conditions are diverted for illicit use.
Children drugged for behavioral modification are much more likely to use and become addicted to prescription meds such as Vicodin and OxyContin.
The sentiment of physicians and parents is changing toward non-medical interventions, but we are up against a powerful, wealthy and determined industry composed of physicians, parents, teachers, psychologists and pharmaceutical companies. There is much at stake. The monetary costs of ADHD treatment is difficult to come by because so many co-variables often apply. But a figure around six to seven thousand dollars per year per child doesn't miss by too much and is probably a conservative estimate. With up to ten percent of children diagnosed with ADHD and related disorders sometime in their childhood it can readily be seen that the financial repercussions are tremendous and those benefiting from diagnosis and its treatment of ADHD will not go away quietly. It is up to concerned parents, doctors and teachers to start standing up for these kids who are being severely abused; sometimes by well-meaning adults, but sometimes not-so-well-meaning.
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