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Kyle’s Story Featured on Anderson Cooper & Used by the DEA is Now Trapped on a Cocktail of Psychiatric Drugs

Written by Able Child on . Posted in Violence.

Robin Smith’s son, Kyle, was featured on the September of 2013 Anderson Cooper show to illustrate the dangers associated with synthetic marijuana and other street drugs. Robin also met with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and shared Kyle’s story to educate the agency on the crisis facing teenagers today.

The Anderson Cooper report, along with Kyle’s story, helped the DEA enter into a dialogue with the Chinese importers to address the deadly synthetic drugs flooding the US market. Robin’s efforts in sharing Kyle’s experience, clearly had a very powerful impact.

In the aftermath, Robin sought the best mental health care for Kyle for his recovery from the severe adverse reaction experienced from using the synthetic drug. So where is Kyle now and how is he doing? Robin asked AbleChild if she could share Kyle’s “treatment” regiment, which includes multiple psychiatric drugs.

“My name is Robin and I am a Maryland resident. This story is about my nineteen year old son Kyle.

In April 2010 Kyle became sick after ingesting the designer street drug “synthetic marijuana”. He immediately started with psychosis and paranoia. We took him to the local emergency room, where we learned from him what he had done. He was moved to a psychiatric hospital the next day and was started on five different psychiatric medications.

Boy, how I wish I knew then what I know now. I am certain I would not be here telling you of our horrific nightmare. His journey since then has been one that I would not wish on another soul. I watched as the “psychiatric world” turned my once handsome athletic son into one of the sickest persons I have ever known.

This is what has happened to him since…………… To date: He has been hospitalized THIRTY SIX (36) times, with very long stays in inpatient hospitals and Residential Treatment Facilities. Many doctors telling us that he was one of the sickest patients on their unit. He has undergone TWENTY EIGHT (28) ELECTRICAL SHOCK THERAPY PROCEDURES, all because of his body being in delirium from all the heavy dosages of antipsychotic medications. He has tried TEN (10) times in trying to commit suicide, two being almost fatal. He has been on THIRTY PLUS (30) heavy psychotic medications, to many to list.

He has had every psychiatric diagnosis available from Bipolar to schizophrenia. I believe he does not have any of them. He has been looked at, probed, tested, been four point restrained on numerous hospital stays to his bed because of the delirium and their (doctor’s fear) of him hurting himself, banged his head for a solid week on a hospital concrete wall which resulted in frontal lobe damage, was assaulted by other patients and has been asked a thousand questions by at least FORTY psychiatrists. He lost all of his High School years. I didn’t get to see my son graduate or have his senior picture taken.

But the saddest part of this story is watching my once vibrant child turn into a sad, non-functioning person. Our dreams for his future are dulled by the constant reminder of what the psych world has done to him and what he has lost. I live in fear every day that I will get that call that he has finally succeeded in taking his life.

I continue to persevere in advocating for Kyle and my hopes are that I can find the help needed in getting him better and back to living his life. That is my only wish. I welcome any help, questions or words of encouragement. Thank you!”

Connecticut Fails to Meet Deadline on Sandy Hook Mental Health Gun Bill

Written by Sheila Matthews on . Posted in Lawmaking, Sandy Hook.

The problem with instituting sweeping, costly and invasive mental health legislation is that there always are unintended consequences. The State of Connecticut, when passing Public Act 13-3, apparently didn’t consider that there are two sides to every story. And when it comes to “mental health” there most definitely is another side beyond the mental health we-need-early -intervention-to-help-those-suffering mantra.

A case in point is the recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, which found that more than 10,000 toddlers between the ages of 2-3 are being medicated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD.   Worse still, these data are limited and the experts believe the problem is actually much worse on a national level.

But to fully grasp the insanity of drugging 2-3 year olds with highly addictive mind-altering drugs, let’s consider a few important pieces of information about this age group. First, the average weight for male toddlers at three years is 29.5 pounds and females is 28.4 and, by this age, only 80 percent of the child’s brain has fully developed.

Developmentally 2-3 year olds are learning to arrange things in groups, putting things in size order, remembering what they did yesterday, recognizing themselves in the mirror and learning to say please and thank you. Yes, great strides, but still the brain is not fully developed.

Now let’s consider the ADHD diagnosis. This alleged mental disorder is all about behavior.  Regardless of what the American Psychiatric Association, APA, believes, the National Institutes of Mental Health, NIMH, makes it clear on its website that “scientists don’t know what causes ADHD.” There is no test known to man that can detect ADHD as a biological/genetic abnormality.

Because the  APA has no proof of any abnormality that is the alleged ADHD, they have compiled a list of “abnormal” behaviors that apparently make up the diagnosis, including “is often easily distracted,” “is often forgetful in daily activities,” “often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly,” etc.  After considering the list of 18 criteria that make up the alleged mental disorder, ADHD, one has to wonder what child doesn’t repeatedly do most, if not all, of these behaviors.

Nevertheless, now, let’s consider the ADHD “treatment” most commonly used – Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine). Methylphenidate is a schedule II drug and, as such, is considered by the federal government to be one of the most addictive. It also is considered by the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA,  “to produce discriminative stimulus effects similar to cocaine, which substitute for each other and for cocaine in a number of paradigms, and chronic high-dose administration of either drug in animals produces psychomotor stimulant toxicity including weight loss, stereotypic movements and death, and in clinical studies, they produce behavioral, psychological, subjective and reinforcing effects similar to cocaine.”

The DEA sums up Methylphenidate and Amphetamine use this way: “this data means that neither animals nor humans can tell the difference between cocaine, amphetamine or methylphenidate when they are administered the same way at comparable doses. In short, they produce effects that are nearly identical.”

In a nutshell, 2-3 year old toddlers are being labeled with an alleged mental illness that is not based in science or medicine and then “treated” with extremely addictive, mind-altering drugs before their brains are even fully formed.

Did legislators really consider the implications of Public Act 13-3, which pushes for early identification and screening for mental illness in the state’s children? Was even one expert allowed to testify before any committee, making lawmakers aware of the above facts?  No.

More importantly, according to Public Act 13-3, a Task Force was established to consider all of the mental health provisions and report back to the Legislature and the Governor.  Not surprising, this report, which was due no later than February 1st of this year, still has not been completed.

These Task Force recommendations may provide some guidance on just how intrusive the mental health provisions are. For example, at what age will Connecticut’s legislators decide early intervention and screening is inappropriate and harmful? Public Act 13-3 allows for “Mental Health First Aid Training” as part of in-service training for educators.  If a child is labeled with a mental illness through this early intervention and mental health screening, what rights are afforded to parents who refuse to accept this “help?”

Does this mental health intervention end at the school-age level or will the State continue to legislate mental health screening to include toddlers and preschoolers?    Given that nearly 8 million American children between the ages of 6-17 currently are taking at least one mind-altering, psychiatric drug, it is clear what mental health’s “treatment” consists of.  Yes, there are consequences for ill-advised and uninformed legislation.