A Generation Under Restraint
Growing public scrutiny over people being drugged for normal behavior, in addition to increasing international warnings on the deadly side effects of psychiatric drugs, has forced one of the leading architects of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry’s billing bible, to admit that there is no science to psychiatric diagnoses.
Columbia University psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, who oversaw two out of five revisions of the DSM and defined more than a hundred mental disorders, stated in a new BBC2 documentary: “What happened is that we made estimates of the prevalence of mental disorders totally descriptively, without considering that many of these conditions might be normal reactions which are not really disorders. That’s the problem, because we were not looking at the context in which those conditions developed.”
Psychiatric labels, such as “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” and “Oppositional Defiant Disorder,” have resulted in millions needlessly subjected to dangerous and life-threatening psychiatric drugs. Thirty-three years after Spitzer began working as Chairman of the DSM Taskforce, now backed into a corner by public skepticism of the legitimacy of psychiatric disorders and dozens of international warnings on the dangers of drugs used to treat them, he finally concedes that something may be awry with the diagnostic system he helped to invent. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog, charges that the psychiatrists behind the DSM have misled the public and placed many at risk by convincing them that they are “mentally ill” and in need of harmful psychiatric treatment such as drugs, involuntary commitment, electroshock and restraint.
There is no scientific evidence that any of the millions of people labeled with “mental disorders” have any physical abnormality that justifies the diagnosis, and because of this, psychiatrists cannot agree on who is sick and who is well. Yet, despite this inept psychiatric diagnostic system, worldwide sales of psychotropic drugs prescribed to treat “mental disorders,” including stimulants, antipsychotics and antidepressants, now exceed $80 billion annually.
~ Citizens Commission on Human Rights, 2007
www.CCHR.org
One need venture no further than the last few volumes of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to realize the uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The last two to three decades have seen this condition labeled minimal brain damage, minimal brain dysfunction, behavior and learning disorder, hyperkinetic-impulsive disorder, hyperkinetic syndrome, developmental hyperactivity, and finally attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. What is apparent is that ADHD is a collection of symptoms or criteria. The decision to label a child with the diagnosis of ADHD is fraught with the potential for error.
~ Donald J. Brown, ND, author, Herbal Prescriptions for Better Health:
Your Everyday Guide to Prevention, Treatment, and Care
First, I must explain that I am a neurologist, not a psychiatrist. It is essential that the reader know this, because neurologists, not psychiatrists, are medically and legally responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of actual abnormalities / diseases of the brain. Psychiatrists, on the other hand are responsible only for the emotional and behavioral problems of physically / medically normal children / persons. Actual abnormalities / diseases are ruled out by non-psychiatric physicians before they refer them to psychiatrists or to other “mental health” practitioners.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, I witnessed the exploding ADHD epidemic. Just as it was my duty to my every patient to diagnose actual disease when it was present, it was equally my duty to make clear to them that they had no disease, when that was the case — when no abnormality could be found. That was the case with every child and adult referred with a diagnosis of ADHD. Moreover, it was my duty to know the scientific literature concerning every real, neurological disease, and every purported neurological disease as well. Neither could I find validation of ADHD in the medical / scientific literature.
Finally, I am a neurologist who has discovered and reported real neurological and genetic diseases. By contrast, in 40 years of pseudo-scientific research, “biological psychiatry” has yet to validate a single psychiatric condition / diagnosis as an abnormality / disease, or as anything “neurological,” “biological,” “chemically-imbalanced” or “genetic.” Out of deference to the almighty, psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel, other neurologists and neurological associations neglect to speak of these false representations of emotional and behavioral patterns as “brain diseases” due to “chemical imbalances of the brain.”
The fundamental issue before us, and before all countries of the developed world, is whether or not ADHD is a bona fide, diagnosable disease or not. If not, if the children are normal, as I know them to be, they are not medical patients and no medical treatment is necessary, or justified. Rather, their unmet needs lie, as in generations-past, with their parents, teachers, and with their communities. In my generation, fortunately, psychiatry and psychology had not yet invaded the schools, and literacy, achievement, and graduation rates were infinitely higher than they are today.
All who are “diagnosed” and “treated” — 6 million previously normal schoolchildren, in the US — are being harmed. Surely this is serious enough to launch a criminal investigation.
A young father-of-divorce, a podiatrist, was meeting his son’s psychiatrist for the first time. He asked the psychiatrist why his son was on Ritalin. The psychiatrist responded, “that’s because he has a ‘chemical imbalance of the brain.’” To that, the father responded: “Please show me the laboratory results.” The psychiatrist, immediately uncomfortable, managed: “Those charts are filed away… I can’t get to them just now.” But the father persisted in his demands to see confirmatory laboratory tests. To this, the psychiatrist became increasingly flustered, finally “losing it,” banishing father and son from his office — permanently. Exposing the fraud was that simple.
~ Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD,
excerpts from a presentation to the Parliamentary Assembly,
Council of Europe, November 23, 2001
http://www.adhdfraud.org
ADHD has never been proven to be a neuro-developmental disease by any of the currently acceptable scientific standards. There is a lack of empirical evidence (meaning it cannot be repeated, tested, measured, or verified) that ADHD is a disease by definition. Therefore, to make such a claim is fraudulent.
Since there is no medical test of scientific validity with which to diagnose ADHD, it is a diagnosis made solely by a third-party’s observation of maladaptive behaviors and is entirely subjective. On the other hand, nutritional deficiency testing, testing for heavy metal toxicity, food allergy tests, and other infectious disease tests can be scientifically and medically verified. There are a number of top-notch, FDA approved labs across the country currently performing tests of this nature. The problem presented here for Big Pharma is that these tests suggest there are therapies which can eliminate ADHD symptoms without drugs.
When will parents finally comprehend that our children are considered a human commodity by the pharmaceutical industry? Or, when will they understand the financial significance of the fact that the child psychiatric market is potentially the most lucrative expansion market that the industry has today, bar none? Or when will Americans realize that this is an industry where human death and suffering is relegated to statistics and bar charts depicted in patient years, not body counts?
~ Gwen Olsen, author, “Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher”
(ADHD) is a common group of symptoms that mean a child is having problems learning, socializing, and focusing. Parents and teachers complain of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and less emphasis has been placed on what it must feel like to have the symptoms – to not be able to control one’s self, play with other children, and please caring adults. Let’s call ADHD and its set of symptoms an unsolved problem. This problem is really about the quality and richness of life in a growing child; how can the quality of life of children with this problem be improved? A very simple answer, though it may not prove to be the only answer, has been found. Research has recently found that some ingredients in common foods, when ingested, inhibit children to flourish and grow to the full extent of their capabilities. It is daunting to find how easy it is to buy and consume products that are unsafe, but there is healthy nutrition available, and because these ingredients have not been banned, it is the consumer’s responsibility, our responsibility, to ensure the safety of our families. So one proven answer to the problems ADHD presents is to eliminate artificial preservatives and colors from children’s diets.
An extremely bright, unnatural color is a good indication of food coloring like in Lifesavers and Jelly Beans. Most candies, though they may boast to be low calorie and/or fat free, probably include artificial colors; the consumer must check the label. Organic alternatives without artificial ingredients have emerged such as organic lollipops from Yummy Earth and several other types of candies at College Farm Organic and Newman’s Own Organics.
Sodium Benzoate is most often found in soft drinks but can also be found in many other foods for preservation like condiments and pickles. Sodium benzoate is also used as an anti-icing fluid in automobiles and has previously been found to become carcinogenic when mixed with the additive Vitamin C and has changed the DNA of mitochondrial yeast cells in the laboratory. Sodas were not explicitly used in the new research, but there are many reasons not to drink soda, one being that it “dissolves away your skeletal system.” Previous studies found a strong link between children’s consumption of soft drinks and “behavioral difficulties, hyperactivity, mental distress and overall mental health problems.”
If it is hard to believe additives in food could have caused present symptoms, it is now undeniable that additives can spontaneously create problems or exacerbate existing ones. Higher incidences of behavior problems and neurological disorders have also been associated with vaccinations.
If you notice behavior problems emerging in your child, there are safe treatments for him/her without using medications. Proven help in addition to eliminating artificial ingredients in diet include supplementing with zinc and omega-3’s. Parents also have options in behavioral therapy.
~ Stephanie Whited, independent researcher
Drugs are bad. Drugs destroy people’s lives. Didn’t you know that marijuana turns regular everyday people into zombie pot smokers? That’s why we have a war on drugs in America: to protect our children from potheads.
Drugs are bad. Especially marijuana. I learned this the other day when I visited an elementary school as a guest speaker. The schoolchildren were well trained in describing the dangers of drugs. On command, they would spout out any number of statements describing them.
But then a funny thing happened. I started asking how many of them were on drugs. You know, drugs their doctor prescribed. Drugs that alter brain chemistry to keep them docile, or free of pain, or to dilate their lungs so they could breathe easier.
It turned out that 60% of these schoolchildren were either on drugs at that very moment, or had been on such drugs within the last twelve months. Two-thirds of the teachers were on drugs, too. And it’s not at all a stretch to believe that 40% or more of all parents are on drugs. Mind-altering drugs like antidepressants, no less.
Fact is, we are a nation of drug addicts. We drug ourselves, our elderly and our children on a daily basis. We do it with prescription medications, over-the-counter pills, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine… and we say it’s all fine because those drugs are legal.
But wait a minute, you say. Those legal drugs are different from marijuana. They’re FDA-approved drugs, prescribed by a doctor. They have a medical purpose.
Oh really? Ritalin has a medical purpose? What medical symptoms does Ritalin treat, then? What measurable physiological state is addressed with Ritalin? There are none, of course. Ritalin is an authority drug. It keeps children in line. It makes teachers feel less stress and parents feel less guilt. Ritalin is a mind-altering narcotic, and yet millions of children are on it today. Its purpose is not to help children, but to make life more convenient for those who manage children.
People argue that legal drugs are safe. They’re FDA-approved! And yet they fail to recognize that prescription drugs kill more Americans each year than all the crack, meth, and heroin deaths combined.
Here’s the raw, blunt truth about the war on drugs. Drugs are declared legal or illegal based primarily on who benefits from their manufacture, distribution and sale.
Where is this War on Drugs when it comes to Grandma in the nursing home, who died of a stroke caused by Cox-2 inhibitor drugs? Where is the War on Drugs when little Johnny schoolboy picks up a rifle and blows away his classmates because he’s on antidepressants and can’t tell the difference between real life and a first-person-shooter video game? Where is the War on Drugs when 16,500 people each year die, shitting digested blood until they pass out and die because that daily dose of aspirin tore a gaping hole in their stomach?
~ Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
http://www.newstarget.com
Ritalin is an amphetamine. In street lingo, it’s called “speed.” Selling speed to children is a felony, but feeding speed to children with a prescription is called “treatment.” The practice of dosing children with powerful, mind-altering drugs is, in fact, a form of chemical abuse, yet it is tolerated today because it is framed in the language of medicine. Parents and teachers all too easily agree to the mass drugging of schoolchildren because it makes symptoms of ADHD seemingly go away. This drugging practice is, ultimately, pursued for the convenience of the children’s caretakers and the profits of powerful drug companies, not out of any real concern for the health of the children.
Nutritional research has shown that the symptoms of ADHD can be completely reversed in 80 percent of children in just two weeks by eliminating processed foods and chemical food additives from their diets. The so-called “disease” of ADHD is really just an expression of behavior caused by extreme dietary imbalances. The entire theory of ADHD can also be completely shot down by simply handing an ADHD child an X-Box or Wii gaming system, after which the child will sit down and engage in extremely focused, attentive and mentally demanding gaming activities for as long as six hours without a single break, and without distraction. If there really were such a disease as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, such behavior would not be possible.
The truth is that ADHD kids aren’t diseased at all: Most schools are simply boring beyond belief, and children don’t learn well by being forced to sit still at their desks and listen to teachers ramble their way through meaningless memorization exercises dubbed “history” or “science” or whatever the topic may be. Children learn by doing things, and all that extra hyperactive energy has a useful function if it’s channeled into experiential learning exercises.
~ Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
http://www.newstarget.com
Unfortunately, our schools today often try to make each child fit into the same mold. That your child is “a round and not a square peg” so to speak does not necessarily make them a bad child. Nonetheless, the teachers will often try to intimidate both the child and you and eventually convince the child that they are bad or inadequate. Unfortunately, the child will often then live up to that expectation. To be honest, when I was a child back in grade school, I found much of what was being taught to be boring and irrelevant. Spacing out and fidgeting was a very reasonable response. You’ll often find that when your child does not respond to your or the teacher’s instructions, it is because they’re doing something that is more interesting to them. Although this may be distracting to the adult, it is often a reasonable action on the child’s part. Even though your child’s teacher may read you the riot act, do not reinforce the misconception that the child is given that they are bad. In fact, it is often a good idea for you to run interference between the child and the teacher and to recognize with the child that perhaps what they are being taught is boring. Instead of teaching the child of that they are bad, take the approach of teaching them to adapt to a system that doesn’t always make sense. To be honest, you may find that you often do the same at your job. In fact this is the basis for the Dilbert comic strip. By giving the child understanding and letting them know that they are indeed good children who simply learn differently and that they are not “defective,” you’ll be better able to strike a compromise that may prevent some of the more disruptive behavior. When it feels appropriate, I encourage you to become the child’s advocate — even if this is done secretly between you and your child. This is appropriate as many of the hyperactive children and adults that I know are actually wonderful and more creative than their peers. They simply need to be taught differently and respected for who they are.
~ Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, author, “From Fatigued to Fantastic!”
The entire nervous system of our next generation is being held in check during this time. They have been trained, cajoled, threatened, blind-sided, and even legally drugged to keep them from intimidating their parents too much during these final stages of Planetary Transformation.
That condition called ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) – a major bummer for some Star Children at this time – is simply an early manifestation of what is to come, born out of season. The “symptoms” of ADHD kids are merely corresponding themselves to the energies of their parents, their immediate social environment, or their primary caretakers. They are mirror reflections of the shadow side (repressed inner issues) of those who have to deal with them, or of society as a whole.
Star Children are very empathic. When something bubbles and festers on the inner planes of consciousness, something adults refuse to look at, these kids have the ability to take on those issues, so that which was hidden can be brought to light. To focus only upon the youngster is to miss the bigger picture.
A society which contains children that act on everything that comes into their minds is an establishment that is “failing to act” on key issues that scream within their own minds. THAT, in fact, is the real attention deficit. To merely medicate the child nullifies an important lesson. It buys time for the establishment, but are we using that time to our best advantage?
~ Daniel Jacob
Excerpted from “The Star Children CD”
http://www.reconnections.net
The fact that Children of the New Earth carry magic is irrefutable. Soon their wisdom and power will overcome even the most iron resolve against letting them in. And if so, what would that mean? It could bring a tide of healing the likes of which the world has never known. Not only a new-found freedom and authority for children, but a genuine miracle of learning and healing for the older generations as well. Up to now, massive numbers of parents and caretakers have been leading an equally massive number of children either into repression or abuse trauma. Adults mean well, but the negative statistics are really racking up here. If we fail these kids, it’s because we over-value our own wisdom and undervalue theirs. Indeed, some children will welcome intervention and protection by adults. So be it. That, too, is a valid choice to be made. Every flower has its time to bloom, and no legislature or city counsel can accurately predict when that will be.
~ Daniel Jacob
http://www.reconnections.net
According to the Autism Society of America, Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, with the current rate at one for every 150 births. Autism, no matter what the cause, is steadily increasing. However, in our current school systems, little is being done to help this growing group. As a high school teacher, I have seen these students pushed aside. They are placed in classes specifically for students with Special Needs, yet these classes rarely challenge our children. Due to the nature of these classes, students of a very diverse range of abilities are grouped together. And unlike students with other developmental disabilities, Autistic students often show remarkably high intelligence, yet their intelligence tends to manifest in nontraditional ways.
In my experience with Autistic students, I have seen one student recall a story I told him months before with perfect clarity. I have seen others pick up on complex processes seemingly without effort. However, I have seen most of my Autistic students fail classes and become greatly discouraged. I have even heard them self-proclaim that they are “just stupid.” I am ashamed that we, as teachers, have failed so many young, intelligent kids by our inability to help them see their potential in academics.
Unfortunately, it is rare that teachers glimpse the intelligence of their Autistic students. However, I do not believe that this is necessarily the fault of the individual teachers. I believe that when we allow the students to teach us, we will be able to see the world through their eyes. Only then, when we allow them to heal our way of thinking, can we all grow in mind and in spirit.
Miriam Huizenga
http://sites.google.com/site/achangefortheworld/Home
As many as one million children in the U.S. may have been misdiagnosed as having an attention deficit disorder because of their age when they started kindergarten, a new study finds.
The youngest children in class were more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, than the oldest children, researchers report in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Health Economics. “We believe that younger children may be mistakenly diagnosed as having ADHD, when in fact they are simply less mature,” Melinda Morrill, a professor of economics at North Carolina State University and a co-author of the paper, said in a release.
In the study, researchers looked at almost 12,000 children to check for differences in ADHD diagnosis and medication rates between the youngest and oldest children in a grade.
Children born just after the kindergarten cutoff date, typically Sept. 1 in the U.S., were 25 per cent less likely to be diagnosed as having ADHD than children born just before the cutoff. For example, students who were born on Dec. 1 in Michigan and were the youngest in their class had much higher rates of ADHD than those born Dec. 2 and enrolled a year later as the oldest in their class, the researchers found.
“A child’s birth date relative to the eligibility cutoff also strongly influences teachers’ assessments of whether the child exhibits ADHD symptoms but is only weakly associated with similarly measured parental assessments, suggesting that many diagnoses may be driven by teachers’ perceptions of poor behavior among the youngest children in a classroom,” the study’s authors wrote.
“These perceptions have long-lasting consequences: the youngest children in fifth and eighth grades are nearly twice as likely as their older classmates to regularly use stimulants prescribed to treat ADHD.”
Even though the students were just a day apart in age, they seemed to be assessed differently, said study author Todd Elder, a professor of economics at Michigan State University in East Lansing. If a child is behaving poorly, is inattentive or can’t sit still, it may be because he’s five and the classmates are six, Elder said.
There is no blood test for ADHD, and experts disagree on its prevalence, Elder said, noting teachers’ opinions are often important in deciding to send a child for a mental health exam.
The study used data from two national health surveys and a national private health insurance claims database to examine rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment. A second study by researchers at North Carolina State University, Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota came to the same conclusion and appears in the same issue of the journal.
CBC News
August 17, 2010
http://www.cbc.ca/health
Noting the fact that vaccines include a host of undisputed toxins, such as thimerosal, aluminum phosphate, and formaldehyde, Alan Phillps reminds us that many of the ill effects caused by vaccines existed at nowhere near today’s levels 30 years ago. He cites autism, ADD, hyperactivity, dyslexia, and a host of allergies as examples. In his book What Every Parent Should Know About Childhood Immunization, Jamie Murphy seconds the views of Phillips, and pulls even fewer punches.
“What sane person would consider using a hazardous waste, carcinogenic in rats, used in the manufacture of inks, dyes, explosives, wrinkle-proof fabrics, home insulation, and as a major constituent of embalming fluid, and inject it into the delicate body of an infant? What could formaldehyde, aluminum, phenol, mercury, or any number of other deadly chemical substances used in vaccines possibly have to do with preventing disease in children? The fact that they are needed at all in the vaccine formula argues that the product is toxic, unstable and unreliable with or without their presence.”
from Flu Vaccines: Are They Safe And Effective?
by Richard J. Gale and Gary Null, PhD
full article here
During the past 5 years, Dr. David Geier and his son Mark Geier at the Institute of Chronic Illnesses in Silver Springs, Maryland, have been conducting the most thorough epidemiological and toxicological studies on the possible relationship between thimerosal or ethylmercury used in vaccines and the high incidence of neurological impairment in vaccinated children. The Geiers were the first in the U.S. to conduct and publish such epidemiological studies to map the trends [of] vaccinations with and without thimerosal and the rates of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). [...] Not only do their studies focus on the effects of thimerosal during the vaccination regimen of children but also mercury’s neurological effects during the neonatal period of an infant’s development. While the vast majority of attention to thimerosal is placed on its use as a preservative in vaccines, the compound is also used in other products such as nasal sprays, eye solutions, and other injectable biological products, including Rho(D)-immune globulin which is given to pregnant Rh negative women.
Beginning in 2003, the Geiers noted that the rapid increase in autism in the U.S., from 1 in approximately 2,500 in the mid-1980s to 1 in approximately 300 children in the mid-1990s (as of 2007, the ratio is now estimated at 1 in approximately 150), could correspond to the rise in the number of childhood vaccinations before the age of 2 years. The researchers stated that “the evidence presented here shows that the occurrence of neurodevelopmental disorders following thimersosal-containing childhood vaccines does not appear to be coincidental.” A subsequent study published the same year compared adverse neurodevelopment reports with the diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine — those containing thimerosal and those that were thimerosal-free. Their research was based on the review of tens of millions of vaccines administered in the U.S.
In 2004, they performed a similar study but looked at the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and ASD trends. Their results corroborated their earlier DTaP investigation that “there is biological plausibility and epidemiological evidence showing a direct relationship between increasing doses of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neuro-developmental disorders.” More startling for the Geiers was an additional potential relationship between the MMR vaccine itself and ASD. This convinced them in their study’s conclusions that “thimersosal be removed from all vaccines and additional research be undertaken to improve the MMR vaccine with an improved safety profile.”
In 2006, the Geiers performed the first major epidemiological study, an “ecological study” to assess the trends in certain reported neurological disorders — autism, mental retardation and speech disorders — in the Vaccine Event Reporting System (VAERS) between the years 1991 and 2004. This was a follow-up of several earlier epidemiological studies. The latter years of this timeline correspond to when thimerosal was removed from vaccines. It found “significant reductions in the proportion of NDs reported to VAERS as thimerosal was begun to be removed from childhood vaccines in the U.S. from mid-1999 onwards.”
One of the Geiers’ more recent studies, sponsored by the Office for Human Research Protections, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, screened a group of autistic children with only known exposure to mercury via vaccine thimerosal. Eight of the nine patients screened — each of whom was developing normally prior to the manifestation of encephalopathic traits — were exposed to significantly higher mercury levels from Thimerosal-containing biologic/vaccine preparations during their fetal/infant developmental periods, and subsequently, between 12 and 24 months of age. The following adverse effects were common to each of the children under investigation:
• had regressive ASDs;
• had elevated levels of androgens;
• excreted significant amounts of mercury post chelation
challenge;
• had biochemical evidence of decreased function in their
glutathione pathways;
• had no known significant mercury exposure except from
Thimerosal-containing vaccines / Rho(D)-immune globulin
preparations;
• had alternate causes for their regressive ASDs ruled out.
Their conclusions are that thimerosal intoxication should be considered as a component in the diagnosis of some regressive ASDs.
Many pregnant women are administered an injection of Rho(D)-immuno globulins, better known as TCRs, containing thimerosal. Drs. David and Mark Geier conducted a race-matched controlled study of Rh negative women who received TCRs, the toxicity levels and effects of mercury on neonatal development, and the rate of autism in children. The results showed that autistic children were significantly more likely to have Rh-negative mothers than those in the control group, and that each ASD child’s mother was determined to have been administered a TCR with thimerosal during her pregnancy. The implications of the study seem to indicate that unborn children exposed to mercury by their mothers having received drugs and/or vaccines containing thimerosal might contribute to later neurological impairment.
from Flu Vaccines: Are They Safe And Effective?
by Richard J. Gale and Gary Null, PhD
full article here
Although there are several medical approaches to the treatment of patients with ADHD (i.e., behavioral modification, alternative therapies, etc.), methylphenidate (Ritalin) is the medication that is almost universally prescribed for children with ADHD, while selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is gaining widespread popularity. Ritalin is a central nervous system stimulant that affects the core behavioral features of ADHD; namely, age-inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. It has effects similar to both amphetamines and cocaine.
Ritalin is a schedule II controlled substance, and both its production and distribution are tightly controlled. Concerns about possible over-diagnosis and over-treatment of children with ADHD have been prominent in media reports, as have various competing claims about the safety and efficacy of the various treatments.
A study by Zito et al published in the Journal of the American [Medical] Association indicated that psychotropic medication increased dramatically between 1991-1995, with a great number of the medications being “off-label.” “Off-label” is a term used to describe a medical doctor’s drug prescription for a condition wherein the drug is not specifically approved for it. Children are most likely to be treated with “off label” medication. Ironically, the warning label on Ritalin states, “Ritalin should not be used in children under six years, since safety and efficacy in this age group have not been established.” Last year, doctors estimated that 70 percent to 80 percent of drugs used on children had not been tested in children.
In 1999, 9.9 million U.S. prescriptions were written for Ritalin. Non-medical illicit use resulted in 1,478 hospital emergencies during the year. White and Yadao investigated the frequency, risk, symptoms and outcome in the use of Ritalin reported to a regional poison control center. Of 289 patients, methylphenidate exposure was associated with symptom development in 31% of the cases, particularly in the 6-11 year old age group. Common symptoms reported were tachycardia, agitation, lethargy or a combination thereof…
In a very recent publication, Rappley et al identified patterns of diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in 223 very young children enrolled in the Michigan Medicaid program. What they found was alarming to say the least. In children 3 years or younger with diagnosed ADHD, psychotropic medication use was markedly variable based on little or no clinical guidelines. Twenty-two different psychotropic medications were used. In addition, these children had comorbidities (i.e., other health conditions and injuries) and based on the study authors’ comments, “attest to these children’s vulnerability.”
A meta-analysis by Schachter et al examined the efficacy and safety of short acting methylphenidate in children and adolescents with ADHD. Of the 62 randomized trials examined, the following interpretations were made. One, there was substantial publication bias such that the studies demonstrating no effect of methylphenidate or when it fared less well than placebo, “may not have been published.” Second, adverse events to the medication were underreported. Third, the effects of methylphenidate beyond 4 weeks was found questionable, particularly with the lack of long term studies. As the study authors noted, “Collectively, these observations reflect a less-than-ideal state of affairs given the long history of extensive, and ever increasing, use of methylphenidate for ADD, particularly in North America for groups that now include preschoolers and adults.”
excerpt from Medical and Alternative Approaches to ADHD
by Joel Alcantara, DC
…[M]ost teachers and educators are doing the best job they can, given the resources they have available and the directives they have been given. Many teachers went into their jobs with a passion to make a difference and to really help children to be all that they can be. Unfortunately, the system doesn’t necessarily allow this process to be effective. Many parents and teachers are becoming increasingly disillusioned and frustrated with a system that they believe is failing their children. They are concerned about the environment that they are exposing their children to… Many kids start off at school or child-care feeling okay and having a reasonably healthy self-esteem, but before long they learn that they need to protect themselves from others’ hurtful comments and blaming behaviours. All too often kids end up following the old saying: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! They end up playing the same game as the others in order to survive in the jungle of the school and playground…
So many of our children are sensitive and feel insecure inside! Well why wouldn’t they in a world that values external things like looking good, using materialistic possessions and whether you are able to afford brand name clothes as a gauge for self-worth? It’s all about external appearances and looking good on the surface! But what about underneath? We, as a human race, have disconnected from our sensitive, creative, emotional, passionate and joyful nature, our natural state of being. It’s not “cool” to be friendly and loving in the schoolyard. It’s more “cool” to be cool and aloof. It’s more “cool” to put others down to remain popular and accepted.
How much time and energy is spent on helping kids to value themselves and to focus on their own individual gifts and talents without encouraging them to compete with others?… With the pressure of fast food, designer labels, depressing music, violent computer games to name a few factors that we are feeding our kids, is it any wonder that they are exhibiting anti-social behaviours. What influence do you have on your own children anymore? Do you feel it all being taken away from you by advertising and computer games and fast food restaurants? Are you allowing it? But what are the alternatives? Can we make a stand together to change the experiences that our children face at school or child-care? Who are we relying on to make the changes? Are we allowing the politicians or TV presenters too much influence? Do we need to take more responsibility ourselves?
excerpts from Is the System Failing our Kids?
by Carol Wood
http://www.rainbowplanetconnection.com
Education in the New Age should be based on each human being’s individuality. Since each one of us has our own individual learning style, we cannot all be treated equally. Rather, the new education should be based on the new theories such as Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences,” which acknowledges the innate talents of human beings, as well as the theory of “Brain Based Learning,” in which Neuroscience is applied to Education to help us understand how the brain works and learns, a field in which Eric Jensen is one of the forerunners. Since these two scientifically proven theories are very pragmatic in their focus it should be possible for teachers all over the world to understand and apply them very quickly…
This new system should be directed to the holistic being, formed of mind, body and spirit, and it should take into account the psychic capabilities possessed by many of today’s children… As today’s children are much more spiritual and psychic than before, a holistic approach should include such disciplines as yoga and meditation, and more emphasis should be given to art in all its expressions, particularly the painting of mandalas, and music, because these are the natural means of communication of many of today’s kids. I also believe we should [use] techniques such as brain gym to keep the brain active, and martial arts, as the kinaesthetic element, should be incorporated.
Homeschooling will, I believe, become far more prevalent than it already is, as more and more parents discover that the current traditional education system is not suitable for their children. In this regard, many parents that have decided to practice homeschooling believe that KUMON, the Japanese method of teaching math and language, is a very good option to learn these two subjects.
I see contact with nature as another critically important aspect in the development and education of the new kids. Children have the capability and the need to connect with the elementals of nature and it is necessary to give them as much opportunity to do so in order for the learning process to be more efficient and complete…
The first educational methods that could be said to be compatible with the new children are the Waldorf and Montessori methods, which have been around for so long that they are now considered to be pretty well established… The Waldorf method places great emphasis on the individual talents of each child, and is based upon an absolute respect for each child’s real needs at each stage of his or her development, allowing them to live their childhood fully without the pressures of a future career, or a society that demands more and earlier “academization” and “adultification” of childhood.
Within this model of education and care of the early childhood it is necessary to break up with current concepts, such as, for example, computers for children, early schooling, the use of television and videos, even at home, etc. The reason for this is because the method considers that all of those things distract the child from his main task which is the development of his body, of his senses, of his mind and his creativity… With a clear humanistic orientation, these schools view education as a means to achieve individual freedom, incorporating in the curriculum artistic expressions as a means of learning. Singing, music or painting not only have their special classes but are also used in the subjects of mathematics, language or social sciences in order to incorporate specific knowledge. In addition, children participate in classes and workshops on different skills such as carpentry, cooking, weaving and gardening, among others.
Finally, the Waldorf method seeks to carry out a deep study of human nature and of the development of human consciousness through each stage of growth. This method is based on daily investigation and in the understanding of the child’s evolution: of the physical development, of its psychic abilities and of its individuality.
excerpts from Education In The New Age
by Margaret Seleme de Guevara,
President, The Indigo Foundation of Bolivia
I had the privilege of attending a special workshop with Joseph Chilton Pearce, the premier authority on children’s brain development and what it takes to raise a healthy child, just days after he turned 80 on January 12, 2006. Although frail of body, the man is as vital and snappy as ever with an encyclopedic memory recall. Although the topic was neurocardiology (the new science of the heart), he covered a broad range of subjects.
Here are some tidbits from my notes:
~ Read Darwin’s Lost Theory of Love by David Loye. We know about Darwin’s work on the origin of species but who has heard of his book The Descent of Man? Toward the end of his life, Darwin became convinced that his theories on the origin of species did not explain humankind. This last book of his sets the record straight – he believed that love and altruism, and those traits alone, explained the origin and evolution of the human being.
~ Science now tells us that DNA produces a light wave, which is sensitive to environmental signals. Hypercommunication occurs between DNA strands via this light – they talk to each other. A single DNA strand, by the way, if unwound, is six feet long. The strongest force that can affect DNA is emotion.
~ The brain develops in stages. Each stage is dependent on those which precede it in order to ensure a mature brain. Takes about 25 years to achieve this, not 21 as previously thought…
~ Besides the womb and the first year of life, the most important years for brain growth and development are between the ages of six and seven (from 500 to 600% greater neural mass in brain, oversaturates so concrete operational thinking/reason can begin); and between eleven and twelve (mind emerges from the brain that gives rise to it – neural cells pruned so specialization in formal logic can take place, beginnings of abstract thought).
In my research of the new kids, I found that the number one trait that sets them apart from previous generations is their ability to abstract, almost from the time they become verbal. Many of today’s pre-schoolers possess the ability to plan their class curriculums and direct their teachers in how those curriculums should be taught. What I have been finding is that four-year-olds display the brain development not only of a twelve-year-old, but in many cases of a youngster of fifteen. Although they are not emotionally ready to negotiate the demands of an older child, they often possess the basic knowledge of one.
~ According to Pearce, scientists are now finding that our new children, by the time they reach the teen years (some even earlier) – 50% of them have lost the ability to abstract! And the culprit is – virtual realities!
~ Because of sensory overload with virtual realities, all too many children can no longer handle peaceful or natural environments. The average five-year-old today has watched 6,000 hours of television. Virtual realities of any type – cell phones, gameboys, video games, television – directly interfere with the normal stages of brain development. Kids grow up smart and know a lot, but that incredible ability they once had to abstract, to think outside the box, to indulge in creative, intuitive leaps of imagination and promise, are either gone or nearly so. Kids must get physically involved in life, think their way through complex puzzles and challenges, have periods of doing “nothing” but staring into space or watching clouds drift by or daydreaming. In other words, they must – they absolutely MUST – have recess, playtimes, chores, and multiple projects to challenge their mind. If an electronic gadget substitutes for this activity, kids become as if intelligent “idiots.” You can “catch up,” make up for lost time, heal the brain in a myriad of ways, and you begin by… limiting the use of electronic gadgets!
What Joseph Chilton Pearce alerted us to has been confirmed by yet another source. In an article from the United Kingdom (refer to “Failing to Teach Them How to Handle Real Life“), there appears the following quote:
“Far from getting cleverer, our 11-year-olds are, in fact, less ‘intelligent’ than their counterparts of 30 years ago. Or so say a team who are among Britain’s most respected education researchers. After studying 25,000 children across both state and private schools, Philip Adey, a professor of education at King’s College London, confidently declares: ‘The intelligence of 11-year-olds has fallen by three years’ worth in the past two decades.’”
I warned about this in my book Beyond the Indigo Children, in the chapter on new ways to educate. The new children are spatial learners. School curriculums are set up for verbal learners. Between excessive exposure at too young of ages to virtual realities, and school curriculums that utterly bore them, our new kids are either opting out of career paths, or cutting classes, or somehow removing themselves from the culture at large. Volunteerism, projects development, and entrepreneurship can bring them back in.
P. M. H. Atwater
http://www.cinemind.com