>On 5/21/06, Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at dodo.com.au> wrote:
>>Psychiatric drugs will effect the lobotomy as surely, without need
>>for any incision. It is unwise to ever allow a psychiatrist anywhere
>>near your children.
>
>this is an exaggeration. Most, if not all, meds leave the system after
>a few days or weeks if you stop taking them. And some meds actually
>help. I'm not denying that they are over-prescribed in many cases, but
>some of them help.
Here's another view. Though the animal rights advocates would be aghast at the "get a pet instead" line. ;-)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
Parents must shoulder blame for the dosed-up generation
Miranda Devine Syydney Morning Herald June 11, 2006
THE MYSTERY of why doctors are increasingly prescribing psychiatric drugs for children was illuminated a little by three emails I received last week - from a Sydney psychiatrist, a teacher and a psychologist.
Psychiatrist Dr Tanveer Ahmed wrote in response to my column in The Sydney Morning Herald, which questioned the 15,000 prescriptions of antidepressants such as Prozac for children under 10, with subsequent alarming side effects, as reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
"A key point . . . is how much parents often want these drugs, particularly with ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]," he wrote.
"The insecurity of psychiatry as a profession is also related - giving a drug gives them ownership of a problem that is more wide ranging."
Ahmed said most referrals for psychiatric drugs, such as Ritalin for ADHD, come from teachers "no longer able to cope with unruly children".
"This is understandable. Teachers have so much on their plates that they cannot focus all their energies on one child," he wrote.
"The doctor, when discussing the problem child with desperate, pleading parents, would like to prescribe better resources in schools to deal with children struggling with learning disabilities, more money to help families on the verge of separation, greater help for victims of child abuse, and better support for those suffering from drug and alcohol addiction.
"Unfortunately, a doctor cannot prescribe such a remedy. But he can prescribe a drug. And children who use this particular drug often show considerable improvement.
"The parents are, of course, much happier and the child often engages better with school and family. The side effects are not usually marked."
Then there was the primary school teacher who wrote candidly about the intolerable burden falling on her profession due to the failure of parents to properly mould and discipline their children. "I find I have become a de facto parent, where more than 50 per cent of my class time workload is behaviour management and counselling. This is attributable to a number of factors, including double-income parents, the influence of other socialisation agents and sheer lack of control and guidance from parents," she wrote.
"In my role of de facto parent, I am also a 'single parent' in the context of the school: my students are my problem."
Enlisting support from principals and executives is frowned upon.
"The consequence is that behaviour management is not a shared enterprise throughout the school, like parenting is when there's a mum and a dad. If I need some outside help - which is often, as a number of my kids are medicated and still difficult - then it's regarded as my failure and that I'm 'surrendering the control of the problem'."
And there was the former psychologist who gave up his job at a publicly funded clinic and left his profession after "a sharp dressing-down from my supervisor when I dared to [point out the truth to] a couple (young, overweight, thongs, strong odour of nicotine) complaining that the small boy they had brought to my office was 'hyperactive' and they couldn't cope any more".
"I gently pointed out that the anklebiter in question, who was then running around my office stripping things off shelves he could reach, was exhibiting a fairly normal level of activity, but that the activities were a little inappropriate and I was concerned that neither [parent] had thought to tell the child to behave himself," he wrote.
"I tried to explain the concept of 'hypoactivity' to them, emphasising that if dad got off the couch and ran around with the young fella both their lives would improve and, further, that they needed to teach their child appropriate ways to behave in different circumstances.
"Needless to say, they left in a huff and made a complaint which led to my being informed that I wasn't to be rude to 'clients' and to take their problems seriously.
"My defence, that I was treating their 'problem' seriously, and giving them the only useful way to deal with it, was treated as further evidence that I had 'elitist' attitudes and was not going to make it as a counsellor."
These true tales from warriors at the front line of modern child raising make you despair for future generations.
A fertility decline is surely preferable to a legion of unwanted "nuisance" children drugged into compliance. Get a pet instead.