Tag: Ablechild

Diane Nahabedian
dianenahabedian@yahoo.com
(617) 943-3732

Over 4.5 million children nationwide have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD according to a study says an article “Youngest in Class get ADHD Label” published this week in USA Today . Nearly 1 million children may have been misdiagnosed because they were the youngest in their class.

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of AbleChild in Connecticut says, “it is unjustifiable to misdiagnose a million children with ADHD. Psychiatry claims ADHD is a serious disease like cancer, and our schools have become a marketing distribution channel for this false data. The “experts” have compared ADHD to having diabetes and touts the cure as the need for powerful dangerous mind altering drugs. Imagine if a million children were diagnosed with cancer or diabetes and underwent needless treatments. Ablechild wants to know what compensation is planned for these children and their families? In addition, when is the psychiatric industry going to tell the truth about ADHD to parents, and the fact that the diagnosis is not based in any real science, and is not a disease like cancer or a condition like diabetes. It is subjective!”

Patricia Weathers, another co-founder of AbleChild, who has testified before a Congressional subcommittee regarding the use of drugs in the schools explains, “when parents are confronted by a teacher or school psychologist regarding issues like ADHD they often feel frightened and alone, and pressured to drug their children. Frequently, parents recognize their child’s challenging behavior as normal, and may not want to subject their child to the serious risks caused by psychotropic drugs.” Weathers herself was threatened with child protective services as a result of a charge of medical neglect waged at her by her son’s school when she took him off psychiatric drugs that caused him a wide array of side effects.

Matthews and Weathers continuously urge all parents to remember that they are their child’s best advocate, and know their own child best. “We urge all parents to gain an understanding of the real risks of psychological and behavioral testing, labeling and drugging,’ says Matthews.

Unfortunately, school officials place tremendous pressure on parents to not only allow the school to conduct psychological testing on their children but to drug them as well. Parents may not realize that these tests are being used many times as the sole basis for the diagnosis of behavioral issues.

AbleChild, a 501C3 established in the state of New York, works with a team of parents, educators, attorneys and non-pharmaceutical-associated psychologists and psychiatrists who all have experience with the risks of psychotropic drugs and non-drug alternatives. AbleChild is a clearinghouse for objective information regarding ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral issues. All services that they render are free to the public.

The parents who founded this extraordinary organization and all those who work with it have personally suffered battles with their schools to have their children tested and drugged.

“Again,” says Matthews, “drugging a child today may result in serious consequences for that child’s future health.” Weathers adds, “if any parent is confronted with the issue of ADD, ADHD, or other behavioral issues that affect their child, please call us. We will give information that can help each parent make an informed decision. We are not a medical group, but a group of concerned parents who want everyone to make healthy decisions for the children they love.”

Please visit AbleChild at www. ablechild.org and become a friend on our Facebook page, or call us at 203-594-1700.

By Gardiner Harris

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — A majority of the donations made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one of the nation’s most influential disease advocacy groups, have come from drug makers in recent years, according to Congressional investigators.

The alliance, known as NAMI, has long been criticized for coordinating some of its lobbying efforts with drug makers and for pushing legislation that also benefits industry.

LA Times Opinion Page

By Stuart A. Kirk, STUART A. KIRK is a professor of social welfare at UCLA. He is the coauthor of “The Selling of DSM” and “Making Us Crazy.” His most recent book is “Mental Disorders in the Social Environment”.

PSYCHIATRIC researchers recently estimated that half of the American population has had or will have a mental disorder at some time in their life. A generation ago, by contrast, only a small percentage of the American population was considered mentally ill. Are we all going mad?

By Richard DeGrandpre, Ph.D.

On May 18, 1999, the New York Times reported that “social phobia ranks today as the third most prevalent psychiatric disorder in the United States……….affecting an estimated 19 million Americans, according to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. Many are to bashful even to talk to therapists.” In the same week, the Boston Globe reported that “Epidemiological studies have found that acute social anxiety is the third most common psychiatric disorder in the United States………. affecting up to 13 percent of Americans. Jerilyn Ross, president of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America……she hopes a publicity blitz planned by………..SmithKline Beecham will raise awareness of social anxiety disorder and lead more people to seek help, which could include psychotherapy instead of drugs.” Why were the Boston Globe and the New York Times both writing about “social phobia disorder” in the same week, and why would a drug company spend its money to “raise awareness” of a mental-health disorder? The answer: the FDA had just approved a drug for the treatment of social phobia. As the Boston Globe put it, SmithKline Beecham makes the drug Paxil, which was “the first drug approved by the FDA specifically for treating social anxiety disorder.”

By Debbie Thurman, Christian Communication Network

MONROE, Va., July 18 /Christian Wire Service/– “Shut up and pass the Prozac.” That is the consensus of the media in the most volatile round of psycho trash talk in recent memory. Since Tom Cruise kicked it up a notch on the “Today” show with Matt Lauer, all manner of “experts” have weighed in on both sides of the debate.

One of the most articulate and credentialed critics of current psychiatric practices was notably absent, however. Dr. Peter Breggin of The International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, was essentially shut out of the debate by the media, at one point being forced to watch a 90-minute-long exchange between Jane Pauley and CNBC’s Donny Deutche, which he was invited to join by link-up, but to which he was never asked to contribute a comment.