Petition for: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to hold followup ADHD Consensus Conference in 2013

Posted by Maria Mangicaro

Psychologist Dr. Michael Gilbert has started a petition at www.change.org

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): Hold ADHD Consensus Conference in 2013: A follow-up to 1998 Conference.

Click here to sign the petition.

Created By Michael Gilbert PsyD Syracuse, NY

Why This Is Important

It is essential that ADHD is revisited by an objective panel with an honest review of the SCIENCE and not clouded by FIANCIAL, POLITICAL, OR SPECIAL INTERESTS  in order to examine the following:

1. do we have scientific evidence to support the validity of disorder

2. what is the long-term efficacy and satety of medications

3. what alternative factors (e.g., trauma, toxins, ineffective parenting/educational approaches, temperament) contribute to the development of ADHD behaviors

4. what non-medication approaches are available that safe and effective for improving social-emotional/behavioral wellness, including ADHD behavior (inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivitiy).

5. should ADHD remain under OHI of IDEA in educational system or is there a better way to meet children’s educational needs.

Youtube Credits:  Uploaded by   rickygarciargr on Mar 25, 2006

Filed under: 'ADHD', 'ADHD', IACAF, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): Hold ADHD Consensus Conference in 2013: A follow-up to 1998 Conference., petition

Relentless and Tragic Marketing: Psychiatric Drugs from Before the Cradle to the Grave

by John Breeding, PhD and Amy Philo

Working with others, we strive to alleviate distress and to support and enhance the personal growth, transformation, individuation, self-determination, and clear and expanded awareness of individuals. Necessity dictates that we also spend a lot of time challenging aspects of the mental health profession that do the opposite—creating more distress, suppressing growth and transformation, violating self-determination, and dulling and blinding awareness. We call it psychiatric oppression, the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of those judged as “mentally ill.” This essay focuses especially on the ever expanding encroachment of psychiatric oppression to more and more of the population, and to individuals who are less and less in need of actual help. This encroachment takes the form of mass marketing for psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry. One key aspect of oppression theory is the claim to virtue. For psychiatric oppression that claim is the notion that mentally ill people need their treatment; its growing extension is the concept of prevention, that potentially mentally ill people need treatment as well!

The Regressive Progression: Treatment to Prevention

“An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.” Like all great aphorisms, this one, often associated with Ben Franklin, holds wisdom and is partly true, based on assumption. In this case, one must assume the role of victim of unnecessary malady that necessitates a cure…and that there is a felt connection or empathic relatedness to the one who suffers malady. Where these assumptions are not met, the aphorism is false. To wit, for the giant corporation of Halliburton and its government and military operations group, or for the mercenary army of Blackwater, going to war is worth a great deal more than diplomacy.

Filed under: "prevention", 'ADHD', adverse drug reactions, Amy Philo, anitdepressants and pregnancy, antidepressant side effects, antidepressants, antidepressants during pregnancy, antidepressants during pregnancy studies, antipsychotics, baby, Baby Matthew, big brother, big pharma, bigpharmavictim, Birth Defects, birth defects caused by antidepressant, child endangerment, choking, Christian Delahunty, Christiane Schultz, Collusion, congenital heart defects, Congress, Coon Rapids, courts, dead babies, drugging children, Drugging Vets, ECT, Effexor, Effexor in pregnancy, Elderly, electroshock, eugenics, FDA, FDA Warnings, forced 'treatment', Freedom Commission on Mental Health, heart defects, Indiana, Isaac Philo, Melanie Stokes, Mercy Hospital, mothers act, paxil birth defects, Paxil in pregnancy, pharmacology, Postpartum Support International, PPD, Pregnancy, psychiatric hospital, schizophrenia, screening, SSRI, suicide, Supreme Court, The Future of The United States, toxicity deaths, Zoloft, 'ADHD', ADD, Amy Philo, Breastfeeding, drugging children, drugging elders, Drugging Vets, John Breeding, meds, prevention, Psychiatric Drugs from before the cradle to the grave, psychiatric oppression, racist violence initiative, Relentless and Tragic Marketing

Weird Science!?: Investigating Attention Deficit Disorder

This is the first in a series of articles to be republished on The Bitter Pill by Ashleigh Stewart, a scholar investigating the drugging of children and natural alternatives. This initial series is based on research conducted for her dissertation. You will be hearing much more from Ashleigh. Her bio and a link to her website are coming soon.

WEIRD SCIENCE!?:

Investigating Attention Deficit Disorder

By ASHLEIGH STEWART

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.” (Kahlil Gibran, 1923)

As scientific as the name may sound ‘Attention Deficit Disorder’ and ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ (AD/HD) are alleged and somewhat mysterious ‘diseases’ of which, despite numerous studies dedicated to investigating their cause, no convincing evidence of any brain malfunction or other biological or genetic abnormality has been discovered.

Despite the fact that the source of this ‘so-called’ disease is still vague, the symptoms that define AD/HD are prevalent and prominent, so much so that approximately 6 million children in America alone have been diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder and prescribed with psycho-stimulant drugs, such as ‘Methylphenidate’, otherwise known by it’s brand name ‘Ritalin’, as the primary method of treatment.

My question is what is AD/HD? Why are so many children being diagnosed with it these days, and what could be the real cause of it? Also, how much do we really know about the effects of stimulant drugs on our children? How will taking these drugs affect children’s lives physiologically, psychologically, emotionally and socially as they grow up? Also, what are the implications in terms of the future of the human race and our world if we keep drugging millions of our children with dangerous and highly addictive drugs?

Never in the history of our planet have so many children been put on psycho-stimulant drugs to alter their behaviour, emotions and sense of perception, to treat a disease that remains to be proven to exist.

As a mum of two children under the age of three, a student of Yoga and Metaphysical Science I feel it is my duty to investigate this alleged disease and examine what lies at the source of society’s ‘Attention Deficit Disorder’ and why so many children are being drugged. As a result, it has become my goal to help children reconnect with their true inner essence, to simply be who they were born to be before their human rights, freedom and innocence was stolen away and replaced with a diagnosis that labels them as being damaged and disordered, just because they do not act in ways certain adult ‘authoritarians’ believe to be appropriate.

It is my belief that in the very moment we label children as being disordered we influence they way they will see themselves, and define their future in less than positive ways as a result. Also, the moment we choose to drug our children is the moment we rob them of their essence, steal their spirit and dis-empower ourselves as parents by giving the responsibility of our children’s well-being over to the medications we give them.

Just why are so many parents willing to succumb to this type of drug-influenced upbringing for their children? I am certain that this was not part of their dream of parenthood while planning to have children!

Does this happen because children these days are misunderstood? Is it because they are evolving and no longer fit into the convenience of the ‘one size fits all’ society that we have become, a society which, on the other hand claims to celebrate diversity, liberty and freedom of expression?

Drugging our children is apparently a more convenient method of handling the challenges that come hand in hand with raising children, while we as adults struggle through the daily grind, and the task of managing the hustle and bustle of life in this fast-pace and competitive world. This whole situation is nothing short of tragic in my eyes, and if we do not begin to address the issue of mass drugging of children now, I fear we are paving a dark and gloomy path into tomorrow’s world.

We do have a choice however; we can keep allowing these things to happen to our children, or we can take responsibility for their well being by taking action and educating ourselves about the reality of the AD/HD diagnosis and the stimulant drugs that are used to treat it. It is crucial that we stop labelling and drugging children now!

**Photo By Tara Meeks Copyright Tara Meeks Photography, All Rights Reserved.

Filed under: 'ADHD', child endangerment, drugging children, pharmacology, Rebecca Riley, 'ADHD', Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Children, Ritalin, symptoms, The ADHD Fraud

A Government in Charge of Your “Mental Health” is not a Democracy

A Government in Charge of Your “Mental Health” is not a Democracy.

By Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD
Neurologist
Author: THE ADHD FRAUD
http://www.Trafford.com
1/21/09

Eleven-year-old Kara Neumann could no longer walk or speak, but her parents, Leilani and Dale Neumann of Wausau, Wisconsin believed God alone could cure her. She died of diabetic keto-acidosis—entirely preventable. This is “medical negligence.” Approximately 300 children have died in the US in the past 25 years where conventional medical care was denied in favor faith healing.

All states allow Child Protective Services (CPS) to remove children where physical abuse is likely, or where essential medical care is withheld.

However, today, in the US, the most common reason by far for CPS-judicial intervention is to enforce acceptance of school-mandated psychiatric diagnosis and drugging as if such were actual diseases. The #1 source of reports of “medical negligence” are the nation’s schools. They are also the main source of “mental health” diagnosing and of the psychiatric drugging that invariably follows.

They diagnose blatantly or suggest that “chemical imbalances” are present and that the family should consult a physician–one who will affirm their diagnosis and prescription.

Should the parent resist they get calls at home and at work from teacher-pushers enumerating their child’s unacceptable behaviors, threatening suspension. The coercion is systematic, from the Department of Education down. CHADD and NAMI are in-house aiding and abetting what has become the biggest drug-pushing enterprise in history calling all of their “diagnoses” “diseases.”

On March 19, 1999, Diane Booth faced panel of educators at Cherry Chase School, Sunnyvale, California and refused to put her 5 ½ year-old son Vincent, on Ritalin. On April 24, 1999, the school made a referral to Sunnyvale Police for “alleged suspected emotional abuse” and domestic violence.” On July 29, 1999, Vincent was removed from his home for refusing to medicate her child for ADHD—a disease never proved to exist. From that day to the present Vincent has been a source of income for the psycho-pharmaceutical-government cartel. He is now 15 and has not been out of a psychiatric hospital or seen his mother or any other relative since.

On March 21st, 2000, fourteen-year-old Matthew Smith was skateboarding with two cousins when he fell off the skateboard, collapsed and died. Medical examiner, Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic, said Matthew had died a heart attack caused by Ritalin which Matthew had started taking at seven after being diagnosed at school with ADHD. The small blood vessels of the heart had been scarred and grown thicker. The heart itself had become enlarged because it had to work harder to compensate for the impaired vessels. Never had Dr. Dragovic witnessed this set of conditions in anybody so young. Usually they are found in adults with a history of abusing stimulants, such as cocaine and amphetamines. Though Ritalin is usually presented as a mild stimulant, it is nearly identical to cocaine and is actually more potent at comparable dosages, something Matthew’s parents had no idea of eight years earlier, when Matthew’s school repeatedly insisted that he had ADHD and needed to be given Ritalin.

Divorced father, Brian Verbeek of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was court-ordered to say nothing critical of the psychiatric diagnoses or drugs given his 12-year-old son—those that had made him so fat he could no longer run. It was the letter of November 10, 2008, that Mr. Verbeek received from Health Canada, counterpart of our FDA, that incurred the wrath of the court. It read: “For mental/psychiatric disorders in general, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and ADHD, there are no confirmatory gross, microscopic or chemical abnormalities that have been validated for objective physical diagnosis. Rather, diagnoses of possible mental conditions are described strictly in terms of patterns of symptoms that tend to cluster together…”

State Senator Nancy Schaeffer tells of an emotional meeting with 38 families in her 50th Senatorial District of Georgia who had had their children taken from them by CPS, invoking psychiatric directives. Think of the millions of adults and children alike, in the US, psychiatrically labeled and drugged. Is this the pipeline? Is government the enemy?

The emotional life and development of all US citizens and their children is their responsibility, not government’s (unless their behavior is round to be lawful). Any government that holds otherwise is not a democracy.

Filed under: Uncategorized, 'ADHD', CPS, Fred Baughman, injustice

Fred Baughman Comments on ‘ADHD’ Drug Warning Letters from FDA

Fred Baughman, M.D., Neurologist, Child Neurologist
Author: The ADHD Fraud-How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” of Normal Children

http://www.Trafford.com
Comments on (439 words): FDA Warns Five Drugmakers Over ADHD Ads

Pharmalot, Ed Silverman
September 26th, 2008

Ed Silverman (Pharmalot, September 26th, 2008) writes. “…five warning letters were sent yesterday by the agency (FDA) to different drugmakers for incomplete, false or misleading promotional materials for ADHD meds.” “… the FDA says the drugmakers variously omitted material facts; minimized important risks; overstated efficacy or made unsubstantiated claims.” “Manufacturers will always try to go right to the limit in making their promotional claims to doctors, and doctors tend to follow their claims,” said Larry Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, California, who says the hyperactivity medications are overused though he prescribes them for some patients. “When claims are overstated, there is both over-prescribing and mis-prescribing and in the end children get hurt,” Diller said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News, September 26, 2008.”

The glaring omission here is that ADHD has never been proved to be a disease (throughout medicine, disease = physical abnormality-gross, microscopic, or chemical). Shown no proof of an abnormality, the Panel of the 1998 Consensus Conference on ADHD could only conclude ” …we do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction.” Carey reporting on “Is ADHD a Valid Disorder?” concluded: “What is…described as ADHD in the United States appears to be a set of normal behavioral variations…” Nor has ADHD or any other psychiatric diagnosis/ “disorder” been proved since to be a bona fide disease, having, as it must, a confirmatory physical abnormality. This being the case, all research and all treatment predicated upon the presumption that ADHD is an abnormality/disease is false. For this reason what we have today is not “mis-diagnosis” and “over-prescribing” but a total, one hundred percent fraud. No child diagnosed with “ADHD” is demonstrably abnormal/diseased. Their first and only abnormality is the intoxication with amphetamines and other psychotropic drugs that invariably follow the “diagnosis” of ADHD.

Lawrence Diller, quoted above, is widely viewed as a voice of moderation when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of this “disorder” that does not exist. On page 7 of his book Running on Ritalin: Should I Medicate My Child? Diller writes: “Before 1990 I needed perhaps one pad of a hundred forms every nine months; by 1997 I realized it was one every three months,” or approximately 400 Ritalin prescriptions a year, hardly “moderate” given that no such disease exists-that the children are normal to begin with.

 

Filed under: FDA Warns ADHD Drug Makers, Fred Baughman MD, 'ADHD'