Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man. - Luke 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man. - Luke 21:36
Authors note: This is the first draft; please forgive the typos. The bold emphasis is mine.
Children are largest population of involuntary mental patients. According to Lidia Wasowicz, a Senior Science Writer for United Press International:
The National Center for Health Statistics reports some 3 million tykes and teens under 18 were taking three or more prescription drugs during the study month in 2002. (Wasowicz, 2007)
Just by making children into psychiatric patients, therapists can cause irreparable harm. Children are often devastated when they believe they are a misfit in their peer group.
ADHD is not a chemical imbalance
Brain scans do not diagnose ADHD
Lack of sleep may cause hyperactive children
Living in a black neighborhood puts children at risk
The foster care system places children at risk
The public school classroom itself causes ADHD
Improper parental discipline causes ADHD
Do not let your child be diagnosed ADHD
Avoid Creative Corrections if you are serious about curing ADHD
Seek a qualified expert for help
Is ADHD really a mental disorder?
Do you still believe your child has ADHD? First Look at physical causes
Discipleship; do we train-up children or do we correct them?
John Holt, the late school critic, described passive-aggressive strategies employed by prisoners in concentration camps and slaves on plantations, as well as some children in classrooms. Holt pointed out that subjects may attempt to appease their rulers while still satisfying some part of their own desire for dignity "by putting on a mask, by acting much more stupid and incompetent than they really are, by denying their rulers the full use of their intelligence and ability, by declaring their minds and spirits free of their enslaved bodies." (Levine, 2008)
The core clinical symptoms are problems in attentional behavior, impulsivity and motor activity. (Cantwell, 1988) These are big words just to say your six year old is acting like a six year old. However, we did not always think this way. In the 1940s we looked at children differently, for instance, in the teacher's edition of Happy Days with Our Friends (from the Dick and Jane series) we find:
“But though it is true that there is no typical child, there are certain characteristics which do seem to be predominant in the six-year-old group and which do give us an indication of what we can expect from many of these youngsters.”
So while there was no typical child, what were the predominant characteristics that they expected from youngsters in the 1940s?
“Activity is an outstanding trait of the six-year-olds, Children at this age rush about in their play, jump up from the table at mealtimes, wriggle in their seats at school, gesture freely as they talk. Their whole bodies seem to be involved in everything they do. When they read, their lips move, their feet shuffle, and they twist their fingers in their hair. When they write, they may screw up their faces, bite their lips, and pull themselves back and forth in their chairs. They may try hard to sit still, but they are not able to do so long because it is difficult for them to control their motions voluntarily. It is clearly unwise to put a strain on these youngsters by expecting them to sit still for more than a short period of time. Restlessness at home and at school is often a sign that not enough opportunity for activity is being provided.” (Elizabeth Montgomery, W. W. Bauer, M.D., and William S. Gray)
Today, our public schools medicate millions of children because they wriggling in their seats, shuffling their feet and pulling themselves back and forth in their chairs while futilely trying to sit still.
“Even in their thinking, six-year-olds seem to carry over this pattern of activity. They learn much better through being active than through sitting and listening. …” (Ibid)
From the late forties to the late seventies there was a shift. Up until 1980, the doctor may have implied that your child had brain damage if he had a short attention span. According Dennis P. Cantwell, MD in the Journal of Chemical Dependency Treatment:
“Various terms have been used to describe this syndrome in the past. The term "Attention Deficit Disorder" was used for the first time officially in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III) in 1980 … Earlier terms tended to be terms that emphasized possible etiologic [science of causes] factors rather than a behavioral picture. The "brain damage behavior syndrome" was an early term used to describe this condition. The implication was that brain damage of one type or another was the etiologic [causing] factor that led to this particular cluster of symptoms of attentional, impulsivity, and motor abnormalities.
As Cantwell will point out they called it “brain damage behavior syndrome” without any physical evidence of brain damage.
“While it is true that children with definite brain damage have high rates of psychiatric disorder compared to children in the general population, … Moreover, no particular behavioral picture, including the ADDH syndrome, can be used by itself to indicate that brain damage is indeed present.
“As these facts became known with more systematic research, terms were softened. Brain damage behavior syndrome became ‘minimal brain damage,’ which implied that brain damage must be the etiology [cause] of the disorder, but since it could not be found by standard means, the brain damage must be minimal. This term was later succeeded by minimal brain dysfunction (an even softer term). Here the implication was that there may not be actual central nervous system structural damage, but there was some type of dysfunction or dysfunctions of the central nervous system which were minimal. Obviously, this is a rather grab bag term. Central nervous system function is not a unitary phenomenon, and we have no way of quantifying ‘brain dysfunction’ so that putting a term such as ‘minimal’ in front of a term like ‘brain dysfunction’ really tells us nothing about the disorder.” (Cantwell, 1988)
In simple words, if your child could not sit still and pay attention before 1980 he was probably brain damaged. Since 1980, the experts still did not really know anything substantial about ADHD so they backed off a little, calling it “minimal brain damage”. Since then the direction has been to toward a chemical imbalance. The one thing the psychiatric community all seem to agree on is that the child needs medication.
Continuing a few chapters later in the Journal of Chemical Dependency Treatment:
“The earliest etiologic views [or earliest causes they thought] of this disorder were that it was a type of brain damage or brain dysfunction (as noted above). It is clear now that only a minority of ADD children have hard signs of brain damage. The minimal brain dysfunction grab bag has given way to more detailed expositions such as involvement of central monoamines by the study of metabolites and studies of central nervous system arousal with neurophysiological studies.
All those big words aside, the doctor diagnoses your child with ADHD if he believes the child too active and has a hard time paying attention and in school. This is how doctors diagnose ADHD, in other words they do not use a brain scan or blood test or that mythological test looking for a chemical imbalance. If your doctor said your child had a chemical imbalance, ask to see the lab test. If the doctor shows you a brain scan, ask him for a double blind study that shows brain scans to be effective in diagnosing ADHD.
According to Fred Baughman, a retired child neurologist, and March of Dimes/National Foundation scholar, who testified in March 2006 at the US Food and Drug Administration:
“Nowhere in the brains or bodies of children said to have ADHD or any other psychiatric diagnosis has a disorder/disease been confirmed.” (Baughman, 2006)
In Driven to Distraction, the authors Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey write:
"Attentional deficit disorder lives in the biology of the brain and the central nervous system. … The exact mechanism underlying ADD remains unknown.” (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994)
Some psychiatrists would like us to think that chemical imbalances cause ADHD, like this quote from Dr. Edward Hallowell.
[C. Kornetsky] in 1970 proposed the Catecholamine Hypothesis of Hyperactivity. Catecholamines are a class of compounds that includes the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. Since the stimulants affect the norepinephrine and dopamine neurotransmitter systems by increasing the amount of these neurotransmitters, Kornetsky concluded that ADD possibly was caused by an underproduction or underutilization of these neurotransmitters. Although this hypothesis is still tenable, biochemical studies and clinical tests of neurotransmitter metabolites in urine over the past two decades have not been able to document the specific role of the catecholamines in ADD. (Hallowell & Ratey, 1994)
When an intellect starts talking like this, one wonders if he understands what he is saying. Perhaps, he does not want you to understand what he is really saying. What did he say is the cause of ADHD was? He continues by saying that it is a chemical imbalance, though we cannot measure chemical imbalances.
So can we say that ADD is a chemical imbalance? Like most questions in psychiatry, the answer is yes and then again no. No, we have not found a good way to measure the specific imbalances in the neurotransmitter systems that may be responsible for the ADD. (ibid)
He goes on to say he believes in the chemical imbalance theory anyway. If someone you know was told they have ADHD and that it is a chemical imbalance, ask how they measured this imbalance.
Now a quote (in plain English) form The Media and the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression, by Jonathan Leo & Jeffrey R. Lacasse. They say: Recommend download
“In spite of the enormous amount of money and time that has been spent in the quest to confirm the chemical imbalance theory, direct proof has never materialized.”
Leo and Lacasse searched weekly on the internet for “chemical imbalances”. They looked up the references, or asked the authors for citations. At the end of their yearlong study, they state:
“There is not a single peer-reviewed article that can accurately be cited to directly support claims of serotonin deficiency [chemical imbalance] in any mental disorder.”
If this is so, why does chemical imbalance seem to be an established fact? Does this mantra help to sell the chemical cure? As Americans want their cure in the shape of a pill, believing in chemical imbalances helps parents to accept their child’s behavior, without taking responsibility.
A Consensus Conference Panel for The National Institutes of Health concluded:
“We do not have a valid test for ADHD... there are no data to indicate that ADHD is a brain malfunction. (Baughman, 2006)
After 30 years and new imaging studies published at a rate of more than 500 per year; with another image researcher announcing another finding every week, relating to depression, anxiety or ADHD it is time to look at the results. While brain scans are a useful to for finding medical problems like brain tumors, they do not find behavioral problems.
PROMISING, NOT YET PRACTICAL Researchers have scanned the brains of patients with illnesses including depression, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder, hoping to find patterns. But so far, scanning has not yielded reliable ways to diagnose or treat disorders. …
What looks like a "hot spot" of activity change in one person's brain may be a normal change in someone else's.
The differences observed are not in and of themselves outside the range of variation seen in the normal population," said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia University Medical Center and director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. (Carey B. , 2005)
While some doctors may claim that brain scans help them diagnose ADHD, the truth is that the three main reasons they are used is:
First, to eliminate medical conditions that may be causing the symptoms.
Second, brain scans at costs of more than one thousand dollars each are big money.
Third, charlatans use the images to convince the naive that their mental illness has a biological basis and will respond to medication or other therapies. "They increase compliance with treatment and decrease the shame and guilt" associated with the disorders. (Carey B., 2005) In 2004 there were over twenty-nine million prescriptions written in the United States for Ritalin and similar drugs to treat attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, twenty-three million of them for children. (Lehrman, 2005)
There are many things to look at if you wish to improve your child’s behavior, increase his learning abilities and attention span. First, let us look at some problems in the child’s environment.
If you believe your child is hyperactive (or always tired), his diet should be looked at. If a murderer can use a Twinkie defense provided to him by his psychiatrist, they must know the importance of a good diet. Diet should be one of the first things the medical community should suggest, not just for ADHD, but also for all behavioral disorders.
For instance, if you Google: Celiac disease and ADHD you will find that many parents talked of behavioral symptoms disappearing from their children when they removed gluten from the child’s diet. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley and other grains, it is an ingredient in many processed foods. Since my wife is a Celiac, her symptom is heart arrhythmia, you can contact us for more information.
One American, in a letter to the editor, describes the problem of our diet when he said:
“Not only is Big Pharma at it here, but so is that industry of corn syrup, sugar and white flour/processed foods, and the government does nothing about it. I was in the grocery store behind a couple with a hyperactive three year old, their groceries consisted of 8-10 bottles of name brand soda and sugary cereals of which they paid for with FOOD STAMPS.[i]
Another news story dated September 17, 2007 on NPR
Your kids could become hyper because of the coloring in their food. That's the results of a new study suggesting that reducing food additives could decrease hyperactive behavior in children. Dr. Sydney Spiesel speaks with Madeleine Brand about the study's findings. (Spiesel, 2007)
Why spend money on new studies, when we do not apply what we have learned from the old ones. Researchers have implicated sugar, dyes and food additives in hyperactive behavior for over twenty years.
“Environmental influences such as lead at a subclinical level and various aspects of the diet (sugar, dyes, and food additives) have been implicated by some clinicians and researchers.” (Cantwell, 1988)
Other child experts report the same thing. The question for school administrators is; do we serve raspberries or Ritalin?
Sue Slaon, in the United Kingdom, says, "We don't sell candy and snacks anymore. Our teachers noticed that snacks, which were high in artificial flavoring and additives, were affecting the students' mood. After any break teachers had to spend a lot of energy in getting the children settled. Now, since we decided not to sell sweets and fizzy drinks in our tuck (snack) shop — since five years — they notice that it's much easier to keep the children concentrated. Teachers say it's less noisy, there's less aggression and learning performances appear to have gone up. In the shop it's much more quiet now. (Slaon, 2005)
Another educator noticed the same thing.
“In the Central Alternative High School [in Wisconsin]. The kids now behave. The hallways aren't frantic. Even the teachers are happy. The school used to be out of control. But in 1997 they removed the vending machines. Fast foods were replaced with fresh foods and a balanced diet. According to a newsletter called Pure Facts, ‘Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.’
“Principal Coenen sums it up: ‘I can't buy the argument that it's too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost will reduce another. I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the litter. I don't have the need for high security.’ ” (Coenen, 2005)
What a strange idea, eating healthy food puts us in a better mood and helps our concentration.
Ritalin, a stimulant, is the main medication used to treat the hyperactive symptoms of ADHD in children.
Could some children be hyperactive because they are sleepy? Could their excessive activity be an unconscious way of trying to stay alert? This is the conclusion of Dr. Giora Pillar of the Technion Faculty of Medicine; he explains that this is why stimulants, which induce alertness, are effective for treating children with ADHD.
Pillar and his researchers found that children diagnosed with ADHD had significantly higher levels of sleepiness during the day than those in the control group. The study found that half of the children with ADHD had some type of sleep-disordered breathing, such as sleep apnea vs. 22% of the control group. He also said that treating these sleep disorders often leads to substantial improvements in behavior and cognitive achievements, and a significant reduction in irritability, bad moods, anger and fear. (Pillar, 2005)
If your children are hyperactive and have trouble paying attention, enforce good sleeping habits and remove caffeine from their diet. (Should you do this anyway?) If you suspect your child has a sleeping disorder like sleep apnea, a trip to a medical doctor may be in order.
University of Alberta sociologist Dr. Lisa Strohschein, in a study appearing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that children with divorced parents are nearly twice as likely to be prescribed Ritalin compared to children whose parents remain together. (CTV.ca News Staff, 2008)
It is interesting that this article said that children were “twice as likely to be prescribed Ritalin”, not “twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD”. There are many reasons for this, one is, parents who are divorcing are not being good parents. If they lack the skill to be a good spouse they may for the same reason lack the skill or desire to be a good parent.
According to ACCURACY in MEDIA:
“There is a disproportionate concentration of psychotropic drug use among African-American males, with a New York study reporting that African-American boys are 11 times more likely to be placed on mind-altering drugs.” (Stotts, 2007)
We have two choices here. The first, African-American boys have 11 times more mental disorders than other racial groups in New York. The second possibility is that the psychiatric community is totally incapable of policing itself. Psychiatrists have found an easy mark in the black community making big dollars at the children’s expense.
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. - Luke 17:2
When you become a foster parent, you submit to strict state guidelines on raising children. Unfortunately, these guidelines do not work. Then instead of taking responsibility and looking at parents who have raised healthy children, the state blames the foster child and medicates him. Nearly two thirds of the foster children in some states are medicated. Again according to ACCURACY in MEDIA:
Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn found that 60% of Texas foster-care participants were receiving antipsychotic drugs. (ibid)
AND
According to the ICSPP, nearly 2/3 of Massachusetts foster children and 55% of Florida foster children take psychiatric drugs beginning as early as 3 years old. (ibid)
This is not just a different opinion on raising children; these drugs are dangerous. As parents and as a country we will reap what we sow.
It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Luke 17:1b-2
A specialist in education Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld has shown the main cause of ADHD. He explains the problem very clearly.
“Believe it or not, there was no such thing as ADD or ADHD when I was going to school back in the 1930s and '40s. In fact, you couldn't possibly have Attention Deficit Disorder in the kind of classrooms I was in. First of all, all of the desks and seats were bolted to the floor. You couldn't move them. Also, the walls were generally bare. Maybe a picture of George Washington, or a map. Otherwise there was nothing on the walls to distract anyone. The room was as clean and orderly as a pin.
“The room was also silent. You were not permitted to talk to your fellow classmates during class. The teacher was the focus of attention. She sat at her desk in front of the class and exercised a benign, no-nonsense discipline on all of us. She taught us all the same thing, from the blackboard or a textbook, and she used rational methods of teaching, methods that had been proven over the centuries to produce academic results. …
“Thus, there was no ADD. Any impulsive behavior would have landed you in the principal's office. But now, let's fast forward to 1999 and enter a typical first-grade classroom in today's public school. The kids are no longer seated in rows in desks bolted to the floor. They are now seated around tables, interacting with each other, pestering each other, chatting, interrupting. Each child is doing something different. One may be writing, another reading, another drawing. One child may be under a table reading a book; another may be sprawled on the floor drawing a large picture. Several children may be working on a project.
“The walls are now covered with every conceivable kind of distraction: dinosaurs, Mickey Mouse, bulletin boards, pictures of animals, travel posters, you name it. Then there are fish tanks, gerbils, and rabbits to grab one's attention. Mobiles hang from the ceiling, swaying in the breeze. Anything and everything that could possibly distract a child is there.
“The teacher, of course, is no longer the focus of attention. She is now a facilitator who wanders around the room, helping one child here, chatting with another there. She is also using the most irrational teaching methods ever devised by so-called educators: whole language, invented spelling, the new new math, plus sensitivity training, values clarification, transcendental meditation, cooperative learning, death ed., sex ed., suicide ed. She's very much interested in your feelings, your sexuality, your family, your thoughts about death, suicide, abortion, feminism, homophobia, the environment, global warming, and world citizenship. She is also practicing psychiatry without a license.
“Is it any wonder that so many children suffer the equivalent of a cognitive breakdown in American schools? The entire school configuration is designed to cause distraction, inattention, frustration, impulsiveness, hatred, anger, and violence. And the only way that many children can be forced to endure that atmosphere is by drugging them. ” Blumenfeld)
It is no wonder that a survey in Japan reported in the 2006 that 61% of their teacher’s sick leave was for mental illness, the main illness being depression. (Kyodo News, 2007)
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Matthew 11:25
One thing Dr. Blumenfeld did not mention here was the money. Many if not all public schools earn big dollars in federal assistance for each child they place in special education. We will find out on the Judgment Day how many public school guardians misdiagnosed their children because they themselves suffered from the disease of greed.
Dis-ci-pline
(dis'ә plin', -plәn) n. [see DISCIPLE]
A branch of knowledge or learning
a) training that develops self-control, character, or orderliness and efficiency
b) strict control to enforce obedience
3. the result of such training or control; specif.,
a) self-control or orderly conduct
b) acceptance of or submission to authority and control
4. a system of rules, as for a church or monastic order
5. treatment that corrects or punishes
Finally, one of the one of the major causes of ADHD are parents failing to discipline their children, or failing to discipline them properly. Discipline is both training and correction.
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him quickly. Proverbs 13:24
AND
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Proverbs 22:15
AND
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Proverbs 23:13-14
AND
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Proverbs 29:15
While the Bible admonishes us spank our children, most experts do not. To sum up the worlds opinion, Lee Ann Slaton, leader of parenting classes at Parent’s Place.
"It teaches a child, if you're bigger you can hit. Violence begets violence.. and they're not learning." (CBS Broadcasting Inc, 2007)
Mz. Slaton may be passionate in her believes, nevertheless she is ignorant or dishonest. As you study this topic, you will see outright dishonesty in many of these studies. One of the countless examples off the internet is PsychCentral’s page on negative consequences of spanking.
On February 27th, 2007 at 4:16 am, jennifer
replied:
I am from china. I pay more attention to it, because I am a
very girl who have grown up in a family full of violence. My father
like drinking, he always beated me after he was drunken. Therefore,
you can imagine it, now there are some serious problems with me. Now
I am years old, but I have suicide two times. In addition, I have
strong intendacy to abuse myself to relieve tension, and I hate
myself so much.
However, I am studing psychology now, I hope it can help me. (Meek,
2007)
To use an example of child abuse, a father beating a child until it is physically injured, and then comparing that harm to parents using a rod of correction when training up children is plainly deceitful. A simple search of the internet will find many experts who cannot tell the difference between coming home angry-drunk and putting welts on a child, and a sober parent who in love corrects their children with a spanking.
Some child experts who do not believe in spanking suggest positive rewards. Positive rewards work fine in their place and as long as it is not in the form of a bribe. “Here I will give you a cookie if you will stop whining.” In such a case, you are really teaching your child extortion and blackmail. If when he is older, he asks, “what will you give me?” every time you desire something from him, remember that is what you taught him.
To be fair, not every single psychologist apposes corporal punishment. Occasionally a few brave men stand up against the crowd. Consider the following post from PsychCentral’s blog.
On February 27th, 2007 at 6:39 pm, SL-PH.D. replied:
The problem with a lot of the literature on spanking, and I have looked at most of it, is that it:
Assumes that all pain = EVIL This is a BIG presupposition!
All or most articles done in context of a parent experiencing a form of explosive anger.
All or most articles done in the context of parent either going “too far” or “too little” but ignoring fact that child was not “broken” in oppositional will challenging rules and parents.
Ignores all those parents that spank calmly, quickly, and consistently. Something most parents do not do and which the articles never report on.
Ignores that unless a child’s willful rebellion is not broken, any spanking does not work but causes damage in creating a) a permissive child and/or b) a “monster-brat. Which instruction, at early ages does nothing to correct.
Ignores those many parents that once they get a child to breaking point, stop, and then comfort child, affirming that child with love until child feels secure, protected, and loved. (ibid)
While many doctors give some wiggle room allowing some physical contact, a post like this from the psychiatric community is rare. After all, why correct a child when you can medicate him.
When some of the side effects of ADHD medications include;
For a complete list of side effects cross referenced to each medication download ADHD side effects in PDF format.
If the side effects for the meds that treat ADHD do not scare you, the connection between medications and school violence should. See the drug and school violence connection for a list of school shootings where the child was on doctor prescribed medication.
Compared to the side effects of medication, a child who needs a swat to sit still in his seat seems a non-problem. These swats should be applied by the parent at home not by a public educator.
Did your doctor mention any of the side effects mentioned above when he recommended you medicate your child? Instead of warning parents about the dangers of medicating their children, the psychiatric community sees another problem – spanking children.
“All parents have countless decisions to make about how to raise their children. One of the most important is how to discipline the child. Psychologists and physicians have been pleading with parents for decades to use non-physical forms of discipline, and avoid corporal punishment, because it can produce significant negative consequences for children. A recent story in the Chicago Tribune has a nice overview of some of the current research and opinion on the issue.
“What the research does show is that spanking is generally no more effective than nonphysical disciplinary techniques in instilling acceptable behavior, that its effects vary from culture to culture and that a greater frequency of spanking increases the risk of negative consequences.”
“In general, spanking can lead to emotional and behavioral problems, increased aggression, and use of violence to solve problems. Although many adults were spanked as children and do not view any negative consequences in their own lives attributed to spanking, it may be different for their children. Non-physical punishments take more work from parents but are also healthier options for the children. (ibid)
This quote is from a dishonest expert or an ignorant one as is
commonly the case. Without ever having met the person who wrote
that, I will bet five thousand dollars that my worst behaved child
is better behaved than his/her best and my most discontent child
will be happier and more content than his/her most well-adjusted
child. For the Christians out there who believe that gambling is a
sin, I do not gamble. 