State mandated drugging of children as young as three years old is a disturbing yet growing trend. Here Gregory Hession, J.D., recounts one of his cases where he tried, in vain, to uphold a heartbroken mother’s wishes not to drug her six-year-old mildly autistic son, who had been taken into state custody after her refusal.
Without the presence of a single doctor, the court decided to put the child on five powerful anti-psychotic drugs, even though none of these drugs have been approved by the FDA for use in children.
Peter Breggin, M.D., author of Toxic Psychiatry and other books about the use of psychiatric drugs, maintains that no psychiatric drug treatment corrects or improves existing brain dysfunction (such as a biochemical imbalance.) This, he says, is a major misunderstanding about psychiatry that the profession tries to hide because it places these drugs outside the scope of proper treatment for mental disorders.
The central reason for today’s mental health diagnoses run amok is the fact that without a diagnosis code, your insurance company cannot reimburse your mental health provider.
All mental health diagnoses are codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), originally published in 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). At that time, it had 112 entries.
Since then the APA has added hundreds more, based on the current whims of the profession and the most current in-vogue maladies.
The current DSM-IV and the soon to be released DSM-V include such gems as:
- Mathematics disorder
- Caffeine disorder
- Disorder of Written Expression
- Telephone Scatialogia
- Malingering
These absurd codes make it possible for your mental health professional to invoice for your visit, no matter how normal or innocent the real problem might be. And with the bill comes a label, and most often a drug.
- Dr. Mercola’s comments:
For the last several years, we have known that antidepressants significantly increase the risk of suicide in children. They have also been associated with violent behavior, which would likely trigger yet additional psychotropic medications for these innocent children.
What’s even more troubling is that parents can now face criminal charges if they refuse to medicate, or decide to stop their child’s medications after seeing the negative side effects.
These medicines may provide some benefit in some extreme cases where an actual mental disorder exists. However, most of these diagnoses are fraudulent to begin with, and these drugs -- in no way, shape, or form -- even begin to treat the foundational cause of your child’s behavioral problem.
Throwing antipsychotic drugs -- particularly off-label concoctions meant for adults -- at kids is one of the worst abuses of conventional medicine. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that once conventional medicine's consciousness evolves, they will look at the current standard of care in prescribing anti-psychotic drugs to kids as equivalent to tobacco companies advertising cigarettes in professional medical journals.
How to Correct Behavioral Problems Without Drugs
The key strategy to protecting your child or children from state mandated drugging with a drug very similar to cocaine, is to make sure your child does not have any of these behaviors…
Fortunately, that is a simple step to take.
Behavioral problems in children are very frequently related to improper diet, and exposure to toxins. I have treated many thousands of children with ADHD and autism and have seen most of them improve in some way and frequently quite dramatically. Many completely normalize once we address the underlying causes, which are almost always related to these factors:
- Lack of high-quality omega-3 fats
- Excess of grains and sugars, along with soft drinks and fruit juices in their diets
- Exposure to toxins like mercury in vaccines
- The foods your children eat have a far more profound influence on their emotions than you may think. This is particularly true for sugars and grains that require insulin to metabolize them. Elevated insulin levels will lead to disrupted serotonin and other neurochemicals, which will lead to depression.
It’s downright tragic that wonderful tools like high-quality fish oil, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, are not used more frequently.
Sixty percent of your brain is composed of fat and half of that fat is DHA, one of the fats in fish oil. Your body can't make it, and if you don't supply it through your diet you will suffer neurological complications.
Exercise can also be beneficial in helping children with emotional disturbances of all kinds. Today many children lead sedentary lifestyles with little physical activity, which can add to the natural inclination of children to “act out.”
Other tools, which I’ve found to be more effective than traditional psychotherapy, are energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Consulting with an EFT professional can be an amazing start. Dr. Patricia Carrington has some guidelines on selecting an EFT therapist, followed by a list of EFT practitioners throughout the United States and the world.
There are indeed some basic options that do not include drugging your child. These simple interventions mentioned above could change their entire life.
From Dr. Mercola, with related articles: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/11/10/forced-medication-could-your-child-be-next.aspx