I read the NY Times article Child’s Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young. This is a bit of a rambling discourse because I am still feeling quite jet-lagged. I doubt if I’m making my points clearly.

I suppose I should be grateful if focusing on children to highlight the problem with psychiatric drugs will also benefit adults who feel they are being force medicated and overmedicated. Doctors don’t seem to be making the mental leap, judging by what I read in the article. Actually, the article made me extremely angry because it seems that the focus on children may be diverting attention from the greater flaws in the drug paradigm system. I am very cranky after reading this article.

If you read the comments section that accompanies this article, you will see that a great deal of the criticism is directed against  the doctors who prescribed the drugs, but equally against the mother who allowed this to happen. Everybody has jumped all over this one and readers have offered up all kinds of parenting advice. Show us an innocent child and we all say, oh, it is obvious that the parent didn’t know what she was doing when she medicated this child. All the family needs is counselling, not drugs. True, true, but how does this change when the child is an adult? What seems ridiculously easy to spot in children somehow becomes “a true illness” as soon as they reach the age of psychosis, which is 15 to 25 in men and 25 to 35 in women.

I’ll start with the word “young” in the title of the article “Child’s Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young.” The risks are the same for everybody – weight gain, diabetes, leaking breasts. Why isn’t this point made more forcefully? I guess the answer is found in the quote from Dr. Gleason, below. Apparently, there is mental illness for which antipsychotics can be justified.

Dr. Gleason says Kyle’s current status proves he probably never had bipolar disorder, autism or psychosis. His doctors now say Kyle’s tantrums arose from family turmoil and language delays, not any of the diagnoses used to justify antipsychotics.

So, the myth will continue to be peddled by people who benefit from enforcing these labels that there is something akin to true bipolar, autism or psychosis. Where’s the scientific validation, doctor, for mental illness? Show me! Dr. Gleason’s justifying antipsychotics is opinion based on wishful thinking. It is laughably easy to see that Kyle suffered from poverty, and a medically naive young unwed mother. It is not so easy, but shouldn’t be impossible, to figure out that adults with these labels are just children who have aged a few years.

Here’s the myth being promulgated in one of the comments to this article. Stephen Reidbord, MD, San Francisco writes: Antipsychotics are tremendously helpful for severe conditions such as schizophrenia, where the benefits usually outweigh the considerable risks. For lesser conditions, the risk/benefit ratio swings the other way.

The benefits to whom, exactly? Prove that they are “tremendously helpful.” Where’s the evidence? How patronizing.

…………………
“There are too many children getting on too many of these drugs too soon,” Dr. Mark Olfson, professor of clinical psychiatry and lead researcher in the government-financed study, said.

You mean that it is okay to get on these drugs later?
…………………

The article, which is not remarkable because there are so many of them today, has left me furious because it’s trying to separate obvious innocents from the older victims of this abuse. Since “Kyle” is a bright happy six year old today, he couldn’t possibly have had “real” psychosis. Anyone reading the article would agree. Now what about the over 18s?

How many of us are really excellent parents? Poor parenting? Yes and no. Parenting is difficult no matter who you are. Nobody, but nobody gets it consistently right. Some parents, such as single and divorced parents, are obvious candidates for criticism, particularly if they are poor, and they are forced to bear the brunt of the criticism because their situation is dysfunctional. The public at large gets this, as the comments to the article attest. What the public doesn’t often grasp when they get on the single parent bandwagon is that no matter who you are or how old you are when you first have children, having children doesn’t give us sudden wisdom. It increases the strain. Just getting married increases our anxieties. Having more children increases stress.

There is a good comment in the comments section from CJ, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. She gets it and is willing to admit that she was struggling, too.

Back in the day (1970) when my eldest son was about 5, I found him difficult to handle, easily distracted and inclined not to obey. Bright and articulate, he nonetheless made me crazy and unable to deal with him, much less his two younger brothers.Around that time, the term “hyperactive” first came into play, a condition with which even his pediatrician was unfamiliar. J. was hospitalized for 2-3 days for observation and then prescribed Ritalin. The results of the medication were that they calmed J. right into oblivion. In other words, it totally knocked him out for the afternoon or… it didn’t effect him at all. We never knew which to expect.

We kept him on it for most of the 30-day prescription, at which time it was either strengthen the dosage or take him off it. I opted to take him off it, without consulting the doctor, “asking” permission or anything else. It was breaking my heart to see what was happening to my bright-eyed firstborn.

Although he’s had his issues throughout the years, at least I know they weren’t caused by over-medication administered by his parents. And today he’s a happily married, soon-to-be-45-year-old –– hard-working, responsible and still employed, despite the economic downturn.

In retrospect, his father and I were 23 when we had him, both emotionally young, hyperactive adults prone to nervousness. What, then, could we expect in our little ones?
It appears today’s parents don’t want to take time to examine themselves, their lifestyles, their parenting skills (or lack thereof) to see what might be affecting their child/ren. In addition, they might look to the schools, who have in many instances effectively taken away all outlets for normal childhood rambunctiousness by eliminating recess and phys ed, and requiring these little ones stay at their desks most of the day.

As for parents and physicians “drugging” infants and preschoolers, well, as they say, you can’t cure dumb.

As a nation, we are doing our youngsters a great disservice, substituting drugs for parenting, and placing the blame on others. Parents, take control. Do this by first taking control of yourselves. Your children –– and their future –– is at risk.

The last leg of our vacation was attending a wedding anniversary celebration for Ian’s father and his father’s wife (no blood relation to Ian). I was particularly curious to get reacquainted with “Joan’s” eldest daughter, who I had not seen for almost twenty-five years. “Linda” was a nurse married to an ambitious, up-and-coming young man until it all fell apart after the birth of her second child. Linda was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. Her husband ditched her, took the children, and quickly remarried. She seemed like a lost soul for many, many years. From time to time I would hear from Joan that Linda was living out of her car, or living in church basements. Joan’s family doctor had told her after several years of trying to intervene, just to “let her go, there is nothing you can do.”

So, I went to the anniversary celebration half expecting to see Linda on the fringes of the room muttering incoherently to herself and looking dishevelled. (Dr. Abram Hoffer referred to untreated people with schizophrenia as “deteriorated schizophrenics.”) I am guessing that Linda was not now and had not been on medication based on the information I had picked up over the years. I used to worry that her not being on medication was affecting her brain and would make it harder for her to make a come-back. I had bought, without feeling really good about it, the “protect the brain” hype that the pharmaceutical companies were using to sell their products. Dr. Hoffer’s point was that megadose vitamins were better than medications, yet I doubt Linda had been taking vitamins.

At the gathering I looked all over the place for Linda and about half way through the party I spotted her. She was healthy and happy, and better yet, she was socially outgoing. She greeted me warmly and enthusiastically. I was dying to ask all kinds of inappropriate questions to find out how she had managed to be so well, but of course, I didn’t. I doubt if she has gone back to nursing, I even doubt if she is working at the moment, but I remain open to being surprised. I was told that her sister took a real interest in her welfare and has helped her tremendously in regaining her confidence.

Linda’s twenty something daughter is struggling, however. She has dealt with the aftermath of a premature birth all her young life. A few years ago she “came out” as a homosexual, married and divorced a woman, and was subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia. (Makes me wonder more than ever about the validity of these labels when you consider all the suffering.) The daughter is young and can work it through for herself in her own way, in her own time. Empathy is a great healer, too.

With great regret, but also some relief, I am posting my Gone Fishing sign for the month of August. Ian and I will be in the States, sans young men, except for Taylor, our youngest, who will be meeting us for a few days while we tour some battlefields and monuments.

What a difference time makes. A few years ago Ian and I couldn’t leave Chris alone because he deteriorated in our absence. We were confined to our sofa, night after night, watching endless reruns of Friends and downing bottles of red wine to maintain our equilibrium. We continue to down bottles of red wine for our equilibrium, but now we are “self-medicating” for all the right reasons!

Chris isn’t actually alone. He’s with Alex our middle son. It’s almost like being alone because Alex, when he’s not at work, generally stays in his room watching YouTube. (Check out Hamlet!) He parties on week-ends. Chris and Alex get along well, thank goodness.

Despite being on vacation, I will be ever on the look-out for blog ideas. What worked before is that when I got inspired by something I saw or heard, I jotted it down in a notebook or in my new post file if I had access to a computer. When I got back home I could then post something daily without having to think too hard.

So, have a great rest of the summer and see you in September, or periodically in August if I can’t keep my hands off a computer. I will still approve messages from time to time.

From Reuters Group plc on the proposed revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

Citing examples of new additions like “mild anxiety depression,” “psychosis risk syndrome,” and “temper dysregulation disorder,” they said many people previously seen as perfectly healthy could in future be told they are ill.

“It’s leaking into normality. It is shrinking the pool of what is normal to a puddle,” said Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London.

Labeling everybody as mentally ill kind of puts schizophrenia into perspective, then, doesn’t it? The ever elusive “normal” is becoming a shrunken pool.

The week-end was a whirlwind of consecutive but separate dinners out with two sets of friends who we haven’t seen for a while. The first couple also have three sons like us and their youngest is now officially depressed, seeing a psychiatrist and having problems with his course work at university. In his younger years he was given therapy for some kind of learning related disabilities (dysgraphia being one.) This pattern of ending up with a new diagnosis beyond learning disabilities around the age of eighteen seems to be not uncommon.

This young man has been seen as “having problems,” something not quite right most of his life. I wonder how this image feeds into his sense of well-being and prevents him from being who he is.

Our next set of visiting friends brought their two teenagers with them to the dinner. They are both very bright and engaging. The sixteen year old daughter casually mentioned she was seeing a psychiatrist, so of course, we got talking. Since she seemed so engaged I was trying to figure out the nature of her needing to see a psychiatrist. She was very au courant with her problems, with the jargon, with the limitations of her treatment. She suffers from anxiety. Well, how exactly does this play out, I asked?

What her brother and her agreed on was that there are hours on end when she completely freaks out and makes everyone’s life miserable. Still, I was puzzled because she seemed so aware and self-confident. Then it got interesting. She is a very, very religious Christian. Just talking about her passion for Christ was whipping her more and more into a sort of religious ecstasy and about then I decided to switch topics to diffuse a possible melt-down.

Her parents are very religous, especially her father. Her father is the anxious sort, but, like most of us, age has given him some coping skills. His daughter doesn’t have that filter. A reasonable guess is that her anxiety is related to being afraid to venture out beyond parental control. I don’t believe in Deepak Chopra she said, because he teaches that it’s all about happiness. (I think that’s a misinterpretation of Chopra.) I don’t believe we should live in the now. I want to be with Christ. And, you could tell, she really wanted to be one with Christ. Intense religiosity, in my opinion, is an internal destabilizing force.

From my more pan-Buddhist perspective, I would say a little yoga would temper her fixations.

I made a quick trip to our local drop-in medical clinic this morning before work. My right eardrum was vibrating and I figured it was ear wax. I didn’t want to leave it as long as the last time when I was in real pain and had to get my ear flushed out with water. The doctor had a young medical student with him so spent a long time mapping out the problem for his benefit. According to the doctor, the wax was superficial and dragging a hose in wasn’t necessary.

For the student’s benefit, the old doctor drew some diagrams of the ear with “corridors” leading to the eustachian tube and to the nasal passages. The drawings reminded me of a plumber showing me the cause of the leak or where the wedding ring is lodged. According to the doctor, my nose is a perfect pyramid shape and the narrow bridge can lead to these sorts of problems. “Just take some nose spray and ear drops and have a good day.” This is a my long winded way of saying this is what doctors are good at, the mechanics of your body. The doctor is a technician, like your plumber, like your car mechanic.

You can’t map out the mind like this and say with any confidence where the blockages are.

My day job is seriously getting in the way of my real passions. (Three more years!) The Internet has done some amazing things. Not only am I slowly getting up to speed on Twitter, but I also now regularly run my English through a German translator and vice versa. I can get the gist of what Germans are writing to me. Google Translate, for German at least, keeps getting better and better. You just move the verb from the end of the sentence and jam it somewhere back in the middle until it all makes sense.

A friend recommends TED Ideas worth spreading and raved about Ethan Zuckerman “listening to global voices.” I haven’t watched it yet, but thought you might want to get a jump start.

Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don’t even know.

Our mission: Spreading ideas.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you’re an important part of it. Have an idea? We want to hear from you.

There is a sad storyin the New York Times today of an abused, neglected boy. What caught me eye was this:

About age 12, Mr. Harris-Moore was determined to have several psychiatric conditions, including depression, attention deficit disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, according to a later psychiatric report. He was prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.

So he was prescribed antipsychotics, but psychotic wasn’t one of his labels. This practice is so widespread it’s hard believe in what it is exactly that antipsychotics do. If the drugs are supposed to be needed, what is an antipsychotic supposed to do for someone who doesn’t have psychosis? What does an antipsychotic do for people who do have psychosis?

Today’s post is simply a placeholder so I can refer to it in future posts if challenged to “prove” that NAMI cannot be an unbiased source of information about the medications your relative is taking.

Check out the NAMI Corporate Contributions page for the first quarter of 2010. Seeing all those pharmaceutical companies on the list doesn’t look like there is much incentive for NAMI to find other sources of funding.

The NAMI webpage states: The list reflects contributions only to the national organization. NAMI state organizations and affiliates are separate entities and where appropriate are established independently as non-profit 501c3 organizations.