When I’m watching television, a commercial comes on. It states shocking statistics. My child’s risk of being in a fatal automobile accident is 1 in 23,000. My child’s risk of being diagnosed with autism is 1 in 166. The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry placed the figures around 1 in 2,200 in 1988. The U.S. Department of Education also reports a dramatic increase in the number of autism cases being reported. Certain states have reported shocking increases in autism, such as Illinois, which reported 5 cases in the 1992 – 1993 year, but 2,435 in 1999 – 2000, an unbelievable increase of 48,600 percent. California apparently experienced only 1,605 cases in 1992 – 1993, but experienced a whopping 8,376 cases in 1999 – 2000. Somehow, nobody seems to have an explanation as to the cause of this mysterious upswing in autism diagnoses over the two decades.
If I didn’t know what I know, I might think that there was a huge autism epidemic going on. Many people believe that the increase in reported cases of autism is due to greater autism awareness.
In his books, Late Talking Children and The Einstein Syndrome, Thomas Sowell reports many suspect autism diagnoses of gifted late talkers, most of them made by the public school system. Even though Sowell seems to understand the severity of the problem in today’s diagnostic climate, he still considers himself “conservative” and recommends “multiple, independent evaluations” in order to determine whether the child really has autism. He seems to think that the psychiatric evaluations outside the school system are not subject to the same fallacies as the ones in the school system. And he recommends them, regardless of the fact that his own research proves them to be inconclusive. Unfortunately, Sowell does not seem to understand what torture pointless repeated evaluations can be for the child, or the harm that they can do.
Ultimately, labels do not contribute to our understanding our children or their problems, and can do more harm than good. In his book, Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World, Jeffrey Freed, M.A.T. admits that the labels ADD and ADHD can be “misleading and shame-producing.” Yet he still professes a belief in ADD, claiming that there is a real ADD, and that he knows it when he sees it. He claims that this real ADD has a genetic component, and that it is “triggered” by environmental factors, even though no such genetic component has ever been found by doctors. According to the National Institutes of Health Consensus, there is absolutely no evidence that ADD or ADHD are caused by brain malfunction, and no valid, independent test exists to diagnose the disorder.
Freed describes a form of “pseudo-ADD” in which the child experiences hyperactivity and inattention due to other factors than genetics. He believes that this “genuine ADD” is rare, and that the disorder is being rampantly overdiagnosed in otherwise normal children. However his distinction between the “real” ADD and the “pseudo-ADD” appears to be solely based upon some ever-elusive genetic flaw which nobody can detect, and which therefore cannot possibly exist. Diagnosis under these conditions would of course be made at the whim of the doctor. The process is hopelessly subjective, and often is based on solely how difficult and rebellious the child is. Other children who have legitimate problems concentrating, but who aren’t a sore thumb in the classroom or at home, often go undiagnosed.
In The Myth of the ADD Child, Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. disavows the existence of ADD as a disparate medical condition. He refers to the fact that child can be distractible and hyperactive because he’s bored, anxious, depressed, allergic, because his temperament is conflict with his environment, because he’s been hyper-stimulated by the media, or for any number of other different reasons. He indicates the negative effect that the label ADD has on the way people view children. He states that it causes people to see the disorder and not the child. As a result the child is treated as if he were the disorder, and not the vibrant individual he really is.
In his chapter, ADD: Now You See It, Now You Don’t, Dr. Armstrong points out that these so-called attention-challenged children can exhibit normal attention, and even above average attention for long periods when placed in a different setting, or given a different activity. A physician friend of Dr. Armstrong’s had noticed that her child was capable of concentrating when doing activities that he liked. She pointed this out to others only to discover that suddenly, the definition of the disorder had been widened to include children who exhibit normal attention spans in certain circumstances. Suddenly thousands more children are being diagnosed.
Like the definition of autism, the definition of ADD is being slowly, gradually and purposefully widened in order to include more people. Strangely, many parents specifically demand a diagnosis of ADD from their doctors, and demand drugs to control the child’s behavior. This seems because they seek to benefit from the diagnosis. Some parents even receive Social Security funds for an ADD diagnosis. Many parents believe that getting their children diagnosed with ADD will help them compete in life and in school. I believe that the opposite is true. The mere diagnosis of ADD could establish a person as a social pariah. It can become a black mark which will become the basis for discrimination against the child, and which could lead to his having considerable difficulties during adulthood. Companies may feel that they have a legitimate excuse to reject job applicants, saying, “Well, you’ve got some good qualities, but somebody with ADD just doesn’t have what it takes to do this job.
Nobody cuts people slack because they have ADD. For example, if you’re late to work, you can’t get off the hook by saying, “I’m sorry, I’ve got ADD.” If your girlfriend is unhappy with the fact that you’re not getting anywhere in life, and is thinking of breaking up with you, telling her you have ADD will not make her feel sympathetic. People in general do not think more highly of a person with ADD than a person without ADD. On the contrary, a diagnosis of ADD is highly stigmatizing. In one particular study mentioned in Dr. Armstrong’s book, children were paired and given a project to work on together. Normal children in this study experienced disturbances in their interactions when told that their partners had “behavior problems,” even when the other child was actually completely normal.
Also Ritalin, the drug which has traditionally been used to “treat” ADD has been shown to have tragic side effects. There have been a number of deaths which have resulted directly from the long-term use of Ritalin. Ritalin, like other stimulant drugs, can cause small vessel damage to the heart when used for extended periods. This leads to enlargement of the heart and cardiac arrest. The normal tests performed to determine whether a prescription refill is called for don’t detect this type of subtle damage.
Since the total number of deaths related to Ritalin is small in relation to the total number of prescriptions written, many people play down their significance. However, what they fail to note is that since Ritalin use is totally unnecessary, the deaths are also totally unnecessary. In this country we have become callously inured to deaths caused by the things we use every day. We become accustomed to the fact that people die in traffic accidents, and accept that those deaths are justified by what we gain by having automobiles. We convince ourselves that we can prevent ourselves from being the next one to die. But the difference here is that automobiles have become absolutely essential; we can’t survive without them. There is no excuse for drugging a child for a perceived disease which probably doesn’t exist. If there is even one death, the use of the drug is not justified.
Just so you don’t totally disassociate yourself from the devastating effects of deaths caused by unnecessary psychiatric drugging, please meet some of the victims.
Matthew Smith: Matthew died on March 21, 2000, at the age of 14. His Ritalin use had been court-ordered at a dosage of 20 mg, three times a day. A doctor determined that Ritalin or methylphenidate was the direct cause of Matthew’s death.
Stephanie Hall: Stephanie died January 5, 1996 at the age of 11. The cause of death was ruled as cardiac arrhythmia. Stephanie’s Ritalin dosage had been increased just after Christmas the previous year.
Shaina Dunkle: Shaina died on February 26, 2001 at the age of 10. She had been prescribed Desipramine after a diagnosis of ADHD. Her death was a result of a grand mal seizure triggered by the drug. It turned out that Shaina had a history of kidney problems and urine retention, and that her body did not properly excrete the drug, causing it to build up in her system. Furthermore, the drug had not been approved for children under the age of 13 at the time that Shaina was using it. It also turned out that Desipramine had already been contraindicated for children with a history of kidney problems at the time Shaina began taking the drug. The family filed a lawsuit against the psychiatrist in 2002.
Interestingly, a very high number of the parents of these victims cease to believe in the existence of ADD and ADHD after their child dies from the “treatment.”
Even if the victim doesn’t die, there can be many subtle adverse effects which diminish the quality of life of the victim. Many parents report that Ritalin makes their children zombie-like. Drugs like Ritalin can have permanent negative effects upon the brain. Peter M. Breggin, M.D. reports that amphetamine and methamphetamine can cause irreversible damage to the brain in by causing brain cell death, neurotransmitter receptor loss and biochemical dysfunction. He reported that in clinical trials of psychostimulants, serious adverse drug reactions took place in eight percent of the cases. He also reported that they inhibited growth, causing rebound growth when stopped. He also stated that they could cause negative psychiatric symptoms, such as insomnia, depression, apathy, obsession, compulsion and even mania. He reported that the actual mechanism by which psychostimulants work is by reducing a person’s healthful and normal autonomous and spontaneous behavior, such as socialization. The laundry list of negative and adverse symptoms is far too long to list here. So it’s certainly far too long to justify ever giving this drug or anything like it to a growing child.
What this all points to is rampant over-diagnosis and misdiagnosis for a perceived material gain. This however is selfish and shortsighted. Parents don’t realize what they’re getting their children into when they aggressively seek a diagnosis, regardless of whether this is the correct diagnosis, or whether the diagnosis actually exists. However, the real point here is that this over-diagnosis and misdiagnosis is being caused by a warped perspective in our society. We have developed a damaged sense of what is really “normal.” We pathologize the slightest behavioral problem so that it becomes a disease which must be treated by a team of doctors and an arsenal of potentially harmful drugs. In days past, these kids would merely have been referred to as “a handful,” “a bundle of energy,” “a daydreamer,” or “an eccentric.” Today, we have lost our sense of human individuality. We can no longer permit our children to be who they are, but rather are moving toward a society which is totally homogenized and sterilized.
If this trend continues, the diagnoses of ADD and autism will be broadened so much, they will cease to have any meaning, and will be applied to literally thousands of perfectly healthy and normal children. These children will lose their right to be human, and will be attacked by teams of specialists trying to force them to adhere to their concept of normality. In this day and age when people like billionaire computer entrepreneur Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton are casually and unofficially diagnosed with autism and ADD respectively, anyone is fair game. I think we can see, if we look clearly, that these epithets are not real diagnostic terms when used in this manner, but rather put downs which are meant to take highly successful, intelligent, famous and wealthy people down a notch.
In summary, we are using these diagnoses for all the wrong reasons. Any epidemic that may appear as a result is a mirage, one that will deceive us into taking wrongful actions with negative and potentially deadly consequences.
Sources:
Uncredited, “Death from Ritalin the truth behind ADHD.” Ritalin Death. URL: (http://www.ritalindeath.com/)
Peter M. Breggin, M.D., “REPORT TO THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE NIH CONSENSUS CONFERENCE ON ADHD AND ITS TREATMENT.” Breggin.com. URL: (http://www.breggin.com/RitalinNIHSPEECH.html)
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., “The Myth of the ADD Child.”
Jeffrey Freed, M.A.T., and Laurie Parsons, “Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World.”
Thomas Sowell, “Late-Talking Children.”
Thomas Sowell, “The Einstein Syndrome.”
