Millions of American children are slogging (and in some cases, traipsing) through their days under the influence of psychotropic "medications." In some cases, these kids are consuming a cocktail made up of as many as twelve pills per day. Many are beginning these regimens at the ripe old age of two or three. What is wrong with these children that they should need so many powerful drugs just to function? Who decides which child needs what and how much they need? What are the long – term effects of this program? For the answers to these questions, we need to turn to the Psychiatric community. After all, they have all the answers…
     When you ask a Psychiatrist what causes ADD, ADHD, OCD, ODD, Depression, Bipolar Disorder (formerly called Manic Depression), Anxiety or any of the myriad diseases and disorders that seem to suddenly be troubling record numbers of our youth, you get the same generic, vague answer. According to these highly-trained professionals, all of these maladies are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Now, if you are bored one day and want to have some fun, gather a bunch of these people together and ask them which chemicals and how far out of balance. Then sit back and watch the dogfight begin. They will never agree on the answer to your question. This brings up another question. How do they diagnose a child as having a particular disorder? It may comfort you to know that they do agree on the methodology of diagnosis. One arrives at a diagnosis by "observing symptoms and behaviors." How is this careful observation carried out? That's easy. So easy, in fact, that one wonders what part of this practice calls for three hundred dollars per hour. The following is a description of the comprehensive observations of symptoms and behaviors that takes place in psychiatric offices every day.
    Parent or parents bring Mikey in to see the doctor. They begin telling the doctor that eight-year-old Mikey is quite the handful. He has boundless energy, seems easily distracted, doesn't like school and gets in trouble for acting up in class, talks a lot, gets angry and/or talks back when told to do something he doesn't want to do, doesn't want to go to bed when he's told, etc, etc, ad nauseum. After 15 or 20 minutes of listening to stories about how annoying Mikey is, out comes the pad and Mikey begins his new childhood mission, the endless pursuit of the White Rabbit. It is to this brief period that Psychiatrists refer when they describe their diagnostic methodology as the "observation of symptoms and behaviors." It is upon this careful study and investigation that they base their decisions to start pumping our children with powerful, brain altering drugs.
     Courtesy of the National Institutes of Mental Health, this is a chart showing some of the psychotropic medications being prescribed to our children in record numbers.

National Institutes of Health

Medications Chart

     At this point, I feel compelled to make a few observations, to be followed by a few suggestions.
     OBSERVATIONS
     All of these medications have dramatic effects on brain chemistry and function. The brains of children are in a constant state of growth and change. Finding a way to keep the dosages and balance of these added chemicals in proper lock-step with the ever-changing brain of a child, especially say, a child of THREE, is all but impossible. Psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical companies openly admit that these medications have not been tested on children and that the meds are being dispensed "off-label," meaning that they are intended to be used on adults but are routinely prescribed to children. By their own admission, they have no idea how chronic use of these drugs will impact the children, especially over the long-term, including possible effects on normal brain development. (I don't know why but every time I think about that, I am reminded of the Thalidomide babies. Actually, I DO know why).
     It seems as though every behavior exhibited by children throughout time is now a disorder requiring immediate chemical intervention. Can a pill alter the behavior of a person? Obviously. Does that mean that the first place we should run is the medicine cabinet? Conditions like Tourette's Syndrome or seizure disorders clearly require medication. These are neurological  disorders, not psychological. Unlike all of these weirdo, new "disorders" that mysteriously seem to have an expensive medication even before they are discovered, they are also proven diseases for which there are tangible, measurable tests. You don't need to guess at a person's brain chemistry in order to see that they are having a seizure. Assuming it even exists, is it really the best course of action to treat ADD in the same manner that we treat Epilepsy? If this "disease" had existed when I was in school, I would have been diagnosed and medicated in no time. The problem is, I didn't have ADD. I was bored. I learned too easily for a normal classroom pace to hold my interest. Still, in this day and age, I would have been diagnosed in record time and gulping down psychotropic drugs like they were Pez, all under doctor's orders.

     SUGGESTIONS
     May I suggest that spending 20 minutes listening to someone whine about how annoying their child is does not constitute "observation of symptoms and behavior." May I suggest that such tales of parental woe may be just as indicative of an inability of the parent to tolerate normal, annoying behavior as it is of a serious brain disorder on the part of the child. There is, after all, a very good reason why every one of us has heard our parents say, "I can't wait until YOU have kids! Then you'll understand!" Kids are commonly, noisy, pouty, angry, feisty, defiant, disruptive and generally annoying. Often all at the same time. That is why we call them "children." Childhood causes disorder but it is not a disorder in and of itself.
     May I suggest that automatically shoving pills down the throats of millions of children to manage their moods or behavior will likely have the result of creating an entire generation of adults who are constantly popping all sorts of pills to augment their daily lives and justifying it by pointing out that this is how their parents and doctors taught them to handle sadness, anxiety, anger, tension and whatever else life throws at them.
     May I remind you that we have no idea what the long-term use of these drugs will do to their bodies, minds, perhaps even their DNA but all of these kids are going to grow up to breed. We have no idea if Adderall or Haldol cause birth defects but I guarantee we won't find out until it is far too late. Again, remember Thalidomide? Is that really a risk worth taking to prevent Mikey from talking his mother's ear off or cracking jokes in class?
     While we dive blithely down the Rabbit Hole of zombiefying our kids, think about this: Shoving chemicals willy-nilly into the brains of our children is just like pulling the trigger on a gun. Once the bullet leaves the barrel, you have no control over the damage that it does.
     Chemically altering the developing brain of a child is no longer a decision of last resort, to be attempted rarely and with great caution, only after all other options have failed. That SHOULD be a scary thought. It doesn't seem to be. Now, that IS a scary thought.
     If you really want a Stepford Child, your friendly neighborhood psychiatrist will be only too happy to provide one for you. For a price.