A Brave New Medicated World
I was watching Cutting-Edge last night on SBS. It was a documentary called The Medicated Child. It was about the enormous increase in the diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses in young children. And when I say young and I mean young, ages two to four. The documentary mainly focused on children who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder, this used to be known as manic depression, sufferers go through periods of mania and depression.
The thing is all the kids I’ve known do seem to show this kind of behaviour. You give the kid red cordial they go nuts get tired, irritable and begin crying. This is normal behaviour. How the fuck can these so-called psychiatrists determine what is normal childhood behaviour and what is a psychiatric illness? Sounds like an impossible task to me. Some of these kids are put on nine different medications - most have not even been tested sufficiently on children. The studies they do have are nearly always funded by pharmaceutical companies.
I believe the current rise in the number of difficult children probably has a lot to do with what they eat. Highly processed food with lots of sugar, salt and god knows what else probably share some of the responsibility. Parents should avoid buying all those bags of chips, lollies, chocolates and sugary soft drinks - drinking water may be boring, but it is often the best source of hydration.
Another part of the blame properly lies with the fact that often both parents work. Unfortunately, our culture is developed in such a way that parents have no choice but to work lest they default on their mortgage.
I do believe that in some cases medication is the answer. I have taken medication for depression in the past and I think it really did help me. In my case I asked for the medication and was aware of all the side-effects before I began taking it. I don’t feel a child is able to make such a decision. I feel it is bad form for parents to make a decision to medicated child just because the kid is a bit of a handful or even a huge handful. Parenthood can be a very difficult challenging undertaking medication should always be an absolute last resort.
Sometimes, I think some psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies will not be happy until 99% of the population is taking some kind of psychiatric medication. Science-fiction authors such as Larry Niven and Aldous Huxley predicted exactly this. Do we really want to live in a boring brave new world where any deviation from a so-called normality is considered an illness and heavily medicated?
March 5th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
chris, that show was an eye-opener and I was disgusted at how ridiculous the whole situation has become. i think another important factor is that none of the ’so called’ doctors/psychiatrists made mention of the poor/lacking parenting skills which drives those parents to seek the ‘last resort’ solution of medicating their kids as their first, effort-free solution. as you say, irritable, crying, isbehaving children is normal, but parents now have the option to stop these ‘normal’ symptoms with a simple pill or 2.. crazy! Perhaps they would think twice if the label on the box read ‘ecstacy’…
your final comments reminded me of a movie a watched recently “equilibrium” - worth watching!
March 6th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I have to agree with you there. Unfortunately, some parents do seem to have a lot of trouble controlling their children. I try to avoid blaming parents for their misbehaving children as it has become a bit of a cliché.
I don’t have a lot of exposure to children, but one theory I used to control them is treating them as a little adult. I try to extend to children the same level of respect I would to another adult. If the child refuses to respect me back that’s when it gets nasty. What do you say to an adult who is being rude or an arsehole? You tell them off the very first time they do it. I have a very low tolerance for bullshit no matter what the source.
This theory doesn’t always work, but it does work 99% of the time for me. I think one of the most important things a parent can do is to listen to their child and also respect them as a fellow human being. Parents and children also need to learn to trust each other. For example when I was young my mother always believed I was telling the truth even if another adult accused me of lying. She knew that not all adults as truthful as children. I was never able to lie to my mother because if I got caught in a lie I would lose her trust.
I feel it is still an open question whether it is always the parents fault. There are some little Hitler’s out there who are impossible to control no matter what you do - but they are rare.
March 7th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
how can you even diagnose mental illness in a child of that age? Unless they go all Michael Myers and dismember their family with a carving knife it’s pretty difficult I’d say, developmental issues sure, but mental illness? c’mon.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Also, bear in mind that parents are increasingly being deterred from disciplining their children, too. When I was a child, it was nothing for one of my parents to give me a slap on the bottom if I was misbehaving, whereas now all parents are allowed (or all they think they are allowed) to do is say something like, “Now, Johnny, don’t do that, please,” or some other such useless thing, when talking to a two-year-old. Two-year-olds are unable to reason things out like this, and there is no point trying to talk such a young child into behaving correctly.
Lack of positive role models has a bearing, also. One mother on ABC radio some time ago told the talkback announcer, “My child doesn’t need another male role model; they already have ‘The Wiggles’!” (Believe it or not, she was completely serious)
Something has got to be done about the insane number of prescription drugs being handed out to these parents who haven’t even tried more conventional methods of controlling their children.