Labeling Part II ADD and ADHD

Consider a world where children are robbed of their excitement, their creativity, their imagination, their energy and the spark of light that makes them uniquely who they are. You can see them now in classrooms and homes across America. They are the millions diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. We adults accept this.

I will take you on a journey through a little history about the new age diagnosis and its impact it’s having in our culture. In part one of this post on the topic of labeling, I described my experience of having a brother, a daughter and a son who have been labeled or who have self labeled themselves ADD.   Below is the research I have done, prompted by curiosity and complete puzzlement on how these labels came into existence.  Here are my findings…..

The earliest roots of ADD take us back to almost a century ago when…

In 1905 Ernst Rudin founded the Geran Society for Racial Hygiene, co writing the sterilization laws with Nazi leader Hinrich Himmler and a fellow psychiatrist Kallman. The main focus was the research of schizophrenia.  Hinrich Himmler and Kallman defined schizophrenia as inappropriateness of thought, emotion or behavior.

Studies published by Kallman defined behaviors associated with Schizophrenia as “the unsociable, indecisive, bullheaded, malicious tyrants, daydreamers and those who were cranky” to name just a few of the adjectives used.  The definitions weren’t too scientific and were littered with judgmental and social overtones.  These diagnostic criteria are virtually identical to the ones used today to diagnose ADD.

This same doctor who defined these symptoms of Schizophrenia was half Jewish and was forced to flee Nazi Germany. He came to the United States where he became hailed as America’s leading psychiatric geneticists. His studies were published in the Journal of American Psychiatric Association.

Kind of scary don’t you think?

In 1970 the American Handbook of Psychiatry stated, “at risk children thus far indicate the pre-schizophrenic child has difficulty filtering stimulus input and has problems in attention leading to school difficulties and social problems.”

Twenty years later research on “at risk” children netted a government panel of experts to sanction amphetamines for use on hyperactive children.  At that time the symptoms were seen mostly in males, due to their genetic theory claiming the disorder was carried in the male chromosome.  The drug approved was Ritalin.  Ritalin has the same base properties as those fed to schizophrenia patients.  The side effects of amphetamine like products include impotence.

Schizophrenia had thus evolved into today’s attention deficit disorder.

In 1980 the official year that the term ADD was coined for active children who did not pay attention in school. Does this sound familiar? Psychiatrists used to tell parents and teach that most children outgrow hyperactivity, but today it has evolved into a life long illness with life long medications.

In 1991 the US Department of Health Education and Welfare mandated that teachers actively seek to identify ADD children and refer them for treatment. Most of the information available to parents of children with suspected ADD are supplied by the makers of the drugs used to tranquilize them.

This was shocking evidence to me.  It is based on someones filtered view and subsequent labeling.  We buy into pharmaceutical giants greed and culturally buy in to what is considered abnormal.  As a result suddenly ADD and ADHD is affecting  this country with many other countries close behind.  According to research presented by R.D. Hawkings, slightly less than 5.5 million children ranging in age from 5 to 17 were diagnosed with ADHD in 2009. When you look at the definition in its earliest form, I ask you how many of us day dream, are cranky and yes inattentive.

Could you consider just for a moment, that our culture and society may need to adjust to these creative, expressive and though different than what our culture has defined as normal, yet have so much to offer our world?  Might we consider that perhaps we need to accommodate their active minds instead of tranquilizing them?  Perhaps we need to rethink the motives behind the diagnosis and labeling of ADD and ADHD before buying into that consciousness.

What if our education system might need to adjust the way they teach. Shifting away  from the tired ways of  the  one size fits all mentality, or shoving the round into the square space , then determining when they don’t quite fit there must be something wrong with these children. Perhaps these new souls have arrived on this planet with the soul purpose of shifting our thinking away from the way it’s always been done.

Imagine an education system that doesn’t suppress,  hold hostage and tranquilize  these bright and creative energetic beings but instead inspires and encourages with a new way to educate them by utilizing their strengths and interests. These energetic souls have arrived here to teach us instead of the other way around.  If this is true, how will medicating them enable them to bring about this change?

What are your thoughts?  Please feel free to share your thoughts on this post.  I encourage all opposing views and of course the supporting ones.

Resources for this blog post include:

Foundation for Truth in Reality, Freedom Magazine volume 21, Issue 1. Article Index

The Myth of Attention Deficit Disorder

The cult of mental illness

Covert chemical Castration

ADD in Wender-land

Dangerous Drugs

Exposing the myth

My next post will offer a new perspective on the mis- diagnosis and mis- labeling of these wonderful souls who have been labeled inaccurately.  Yes I have some experience with this as well. Till next time….