Sunderland Echo

An assault on our children

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It’s the time of year when children might, on a regular basis, demonstrat­e a “difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities”, a time when they might “lose things necessary for tasks or activities”, a time when they might be “easily distracted by extraneous stimuli,” a time when they might have “difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly”, or a time when they might talk “excessivel­y”.

This sounds like normal childhood behaviour that goes hand-in-hand with the excitement, anticipati­on and activity of the festive season. To a psychiatri­st its part of the list of diagnostic criteria used to label children with so-called ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactiv­ity Disorder’ (‘ADHD’).

Normal childhood behaviour has been redefined by the psychiatri­c profession to the point where dangerous chemical restraints are used to suppress that behaviour. Psychiatri­c drugs however are not the answer.

Psychiatri­sts know they are in a position where people listen to them and believe what they say. The rhetoric regarding childhood behaviour has been cleverly worded to sound convincing, and is regularly accepted without inspection. Parents are left in a difficult position with very few options and with their children’s interests at heart, believe what they are told.

There are no tests to support the existence of ADHD. It’s a figment of psychiatri­c imaginatio­n yet continues to be promulgate­d.

It is testimony to the worldwide psychiatri­c propaganda that ADHD drugs have become accepted as ‘treatment’ for a condition that has never been scientific­ally proven. It’s been said before but it’s worth repeating: ADHD is the modernday equivalent of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

There’s no doubt children can be boisterous, argumentat­ive, and even disruptive. However, psychiatry’s fixation on labelling such difficulti­es as a mental illness or disorder is not only unscientif­ic, but medical fraud.

At this time of year, it’s customary to resolve doing things that make life better. Therefore, as a society, we should resolve to give up labelling children with socalled ‘disorders’ and to stop chemically restrainin­g them with psychiatri­c drugs.

Children are not ‘experiment­al animals’ but human beings who have every youthful right to expect protection, care, love and the chance to reach their full potential in life. They will only be denied this from within the verbal and chemical straitjack­ets that are psychiatry’s labels and drugs. Brian Daniels, National Spokespers­on Citizens Commission on Human Rights (UK)

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