ADHD – Psychiatric Drugs Bring ‘Brave New World’

Sepp Hasslberger (a man for all seasons)

Sepp’s interests are in all things that affect the human condition worldwide.
These interests include the Economy, the Environment, Epidemics, Human Potential, Legislation, Pharma, Science, Society, the Media, technology and war crimes.

Excerpted Whole From Article in Health Supreme, November 23, 2007; View November 25, 2007
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/11/23/adhd_psychiatric_drugs_bring_brave_new_world.htm

“Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism… A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.” – Aldous Huxley – (1894-1963) Forword to ‘Brave New World’, 1932
Brave New World - Image from HuxleyNet.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is said to be a developmental disorder. All but unknown as little as two decades ago, word has it that now about 5 % of children suffer from it. Whatever the cause, the rise of ADHD has been explosive, and it seems that schools, rather than doctors, may be a driving force behind the diagnosis.

Officially, there is no cure for ADHD, yet children, once diagnosed, are prescribed all manner of psychotropic drugs – Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, Strattera, Methylphenidate – to quiet them down and ‘make them pay attention’. We are down on illegal drug use, even to the point of putting people in prison for smoking a joint. Yet here we are pushing mind altering drugs on millions of children. The side effects of the drugs prescribed – amphetamine and methylphenidate and even antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal, Zoloft and Zyprexa – are horrendous. Violence and suicide are often associated with their use.

Let’s take a look at the diagnosis itself. We’re talking about children who, in school, don’t give close attention to details and make mistakes in their schoolwork. They don’t listen well, don’t follow instructions, are unwilling and are easily distracted or “forgetful”. They are unable to sit still, are fidgety, “can’t play quietly” and worst of all, they talk a lot. Disruptively blurting out answers before the teacher even finishes asking the question, they tend to interrupt others. In other words, those kids are a nuisance to teachers. Does that, by the way, bring back any memories of your own time in school?

Rather than being a sign of illness however, this kind of behavior tells us something about the dismal state of today’s educational system! We are indoctrinating children with useless knowledge, trying to make good robots out of them. Since we still believe having a job should be the only way for people to make a living, we extend education to keep kids out of the job market for as long as possible. The brighter ones rebel at that. They are telling us: “let me go out and learn something”. They are bored by what schools have to offer. They want to learn and do something useful, have adventure and feel they are part of society.

Most kids know computers better than their teachers. No wonder they are impatient. Home schooling may be an alternative for some, but not all countries allow it. What we do need, it seems, is a re-tooling of the educational system to support critical thinking, creativity, as well as the capacity to evaluate data and make decisions. There is nothing like learning something you want to learn. Active learning seems to fit the bill.

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TMAP and TeenScreen

A program in US schools called TeenScreen, billed as a suicide prevention tool and mental health screening program, seeks to find those kids that don’t fit the brave scheme. According to TeenScreenTruth, the test has an 84 to 94 % likelyhood of falsely labeling any kid taking it as either suicidal or mentally ill.

Once labeled, the most likely thing is a drug regime, and apparently only the latest, most expensive and at the same time most damaging drugs are good enough. A pharmaceutical company initiated program called TMAP has established a reference list of the drugs to be used. The Texas Medication Algorithm Program, pioneered in Texas and later extended to other states in the US, tells school psychiatrists and psychologists what drugs are to be used.

Many parents say no, but a great many accept the teacher-initiated diagnosis and agree to medicate their kids. Thus the brightest, most rebellious children are sacrificed on the altar of pharmacology in ritual appeasement of the gods of a brave new world.

See also:

ADHD drugs could stunt growth DRUGS used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have no long term effectiveness and could stunt your child’s growth.

Stop drugging our children The workings of the human mind are still almost as much of a mystery to psychiatrists as they are to the general public, so it is hardly surprising that the treatment of psychological problems is often controversial. But handing out drugs like Smarties to thousands of children with behavioural difficulties is reckless beyond words. An estimated 8,000 young people are being given anti-psychotics, according to a BBC Panorama report, even though they are linked to numerous side-effects. Although sometimes used for conditions such as schizophrenia, many are prescribed simply because a child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – even though there is debate over whether this exists or is simply a fancy way to describe bad behaviour.

Vital Information About Ritalin, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and the Politics Behind the ADHD/Ritalin Movement Our society has institutionalized drug abuse among our children. Worse yet, we abuse our children with drugs rather than making the effort to find better ways to meet their needs. In the long run, we are giving our children a very bad lesson–that drugs are the answer to emotional problems. We are encouraging a generation of youngsters to grow up relying on psychiatric drugs rather than on themselves and other human resources.

High on life: the biggest health care fraud in history? Had I been born a decade or so later, I doubt I’d be writing this today. Rather than spending almost 20 years inventing new ways to terrorise a succession of teachers, lecturers and employers – fuelling other forms of creativity, including writing, in the process – I’d have been given a massive dose of Ritalin and left in a corner to rot.

Mental Screening Dragnet Targets “every fifth-grader and ninth grader” TeenScreen’s developer, Dr. David Shaffer, chairman child psychiatry, Columbia University, tested his screening questionnaire on 1,729 New York City high school students. Of these, 475 students tested “positive” – as being suicidal. When the students were retested, the predictive accuracy of TeenScreen was only 16%.

Houston TX – Drug Makers Accused Of Misleading Health Department
The Texas whistleblower lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson promises to topple the house of cards upon which the public mental health system rests. The suit by Allen Jones, formerly assistant Inspector General in Pennsylvania, and the Texas Attorney General charges Johnson & Johnson with concocting TMAP (Texas Medication Algorithm Project) a marketing scheme to increase sales of its antipsychotic drug, Risperdal.

The suit will unravel the fraudulent TMAP prescribing guidelines that were promulgated by a consensus panel of psychiatrists from the University of Texas, and promoted with the help of public officials–all of who were paid by J & J (and other Big Pharma companies). TMAP is a prescription drug scheme ensuring that the most expensive psychotropic drugs would be used, the exorbitant cost paid for by taxpayers.

The information herein shall not be considered an endorsement of anyone discontinuing psychiatric drugs. If you are stopping taking medication it is advisable to reduce the dose gradually WITH EXTREME CAUTION, as it is difficult to predict who will have problems withdrawing. It is worth getting as much information and support as you can, and involving your doctor wherever possible. You will find withdrawal information HERE: http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Making+sense/Making+sense+of+coming+off+psychiatric+drugs.htm

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WITHDRAWAL:: Get Peter Lehmann’s book, Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers. This valuable resource comes in US, UK, and German editions.

I, Kathleen Maire Hill, present this information in my capacity as a natural person, exercising my natural rights and freedoms. This information represents my private thoughts and beliefs and has been compiled and expressed for peer-to-peer educational experiences only.

· “Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.” Bodie Thoene

· “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.” – Gandhi

· “(Freedom) is the will to be responsible to ourselves.” Friedrich Nietzsche

· “Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” Jean-Paul Sartre

· “Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.” Marilyn Ferguson

· “Alone with one’s conscience there are no alibis!” Tristano Ajmone

· “Ethical. existence [is] the highest manifestation of spirituality.” Albert Schweitzer

A Model Consent Form for Psychiatric Drug Treatment
by David Cohen, Ph.D., and David Jacobs, Ph.D.
http://laingsociety.org/colloquia/polofdiagnosis/modelconsent.htm

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