Behaviorism and Mental Health

Alternative perspective on psychiatry's so-called mental disorders | PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.

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Drugging Children Gives Them the Wrong Message

April 6, 2013 By Phil Hickey | 1 Comment

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The routine drugging of children for the ordinary problems of childhood is destructive for two reasons:  firstly because of the toxic effects of the pharmaceutical products, and secondly because it conveys to the child the message that drugs are an acceptable way to deal with life’s problems.

This latter kind of damage is graphically illustrated in a tragic NY Times article by Ted Gup.  You can see it here.  Ted is a fellow of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.

He recounts how he agreed to have his rambunctious child placed on Ritalin when he was in the second grade, and Ted links this decision to his son’s tragic death from a drug/alcohol mix at age 21.  The article is brief but compelling.

We’ve been seeing an increasing number of these tragedies in recent years, and with DSM-5’s widening scope of the ADHD “diagnosis,” we will presumably see a great many more in the future.

Please read Ted’s article.  I’m sure it took a lot of courage to write.

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Filed Under: A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders Tagged With: ADHD, dealing with problems of daily living, expansion of psychiatric turf, over-medicalization of everyday life

About Phil Hickey

I am a licensed psychologist, presently retired. I have worked in clinical and managerial positions in the mental health, corrections, and addictions fields in the United States and England. My wife Nancy and I have been married since 1970 and have four grown children.

 

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The phrase "mental health" as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

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