ADHD is Not a Medical Condition
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
You know there’s a problem with mental health when a former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) goes public with the forbidden statement that ADHD is “not a medical condition.” Of course, the good doctor is right, there is zero evidence that there is any abnormality in the brain that is ADHD and, frankly, medicine knows it.
The apparent faux pas occurred when Dr. Iona Heath, a general practitioner in north London for nearly four decades, was interviewed for a news documentary that will air sometime next year in Great Britian. It’s almost sacrilegious to be so disrespectful as to verbalize the fact that medicine has no idea why children, and now an ever-increasing number of adults, are diagnosed as impulsive and hyperactive.
The problem, of course, is that all the great and near great in mental health can’t explain what causes the alleged Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Oh yeah, for sure, there’s lots of ideas about what is thought to cause the alleged disorder, but after nearly 100 years, everybody is basically clueless about the cause of the alleged ADHD. But, not knowing anything, never stopped the best and brightest in mental health from explaining that ADHD is caused by genes, brain structure, environmental risks, and will further report that the alleged disorder runs in families.
Ironically, the symptoms of the alleged “neurodevelopmental condition” ADHD reveals itself with the following behaviors, including daydreaming, forgetting or losing things, squirming or fidgeting, talking too much, making careless mistakes or taking unnecessary risks, having a hard time resisting temptation, having trouble taking turns, and having difficulty getting along with others to name a few.
Nobody wants to be Johnny Rain Cloud, but doesn’t everyone do some of these things all the time? Who doesn’t forget stuff? There are lots of people who talk too much, and most are in Congress. And isn’t taking unnecessary risks part of life, like taking a chance on things, jumping in with both feet, throwing care to the wind? With all due respect to the great scientific minds but these “symptoms” seem like normal everyday life.
Of course, it’s no secret that modern mental health’s bread and butter is finding every human emotion a “mental illness” like depression, anxiety, highs and lows in life and the beauty of the diagnosis is that there’s no science to it. All mental health diagnosing is simply the doctor’s opinion of one’s behavior. No actual abnormalities are found in the brain that are any of the alleged mental disorders. Medicine can’t find anything in anyone’s brain that is depression, anxiety or ADHD, including that old, wrong, fallback position of being short of Serotonin or Dopamine known as the thoroughly debunked “chemical imbalance.” Mental Health diagnosing is all about taking the psychiatrist’s word for it.
So, when someone as elevated as a former president of one of the great medical clubs, tells the world that the ADHD diagnosis isn’t “a medical condition,” well, all hell breaks loose and the RCGP immediately explains that the statement was not made on behalf of the college, explaining “the college recognizes ADHD as a neurodevelopmental condition…”
So, is it disorder or a condition? It matters. For example, “condition” is a broad neutral term for a state of health while “disorder” denotes a specific medical term for a disruption to normal body or mind functions. And “neurodevelopmental” refers to the growth and development of the brain and nervous system. Wouldn’t the neurodevelopment be happening all the time for everyone? So, the mental health community has no abnormality in the brain that is ADHD, but it can tell that there’s a “neurodevelopmental condition” in kids because they wiggle and talk out of turn?
Now, when a patient accepts the unscientific diagnosis, what can be done? Well, there are mind-altering drugs to “treat” what most people consider normal human emotions. This is where it gets tricky, though. The prescribed ADHD drugs don’t “treat” anything. Like illegal, recreational drugs, the prescribed drugs will change behavior but there isn’t an abnormality, like a growth or something that can be identified and targeted for “treatment.” This is all subjective nonsense and lots of kids are being diagnosed world-wide with the United States taking the lead with 7 million (11%) aged 3-17 with more than half of them being drugged as “treatment.”
All the prescription drugs that are used as “treatment” carry significant, even possibly, deadly side effects. For example, stimulants like Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta and Vyvanse all have possible unpleasant side effects like insomnia, weight loss, headaches, dizziness, nausea, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, increased nervousness and elevated blood pressure, psychosis, hallucinations, delusions and cardiovascular strain to name a few. One has to decide if wiggling and talking out of turn is so bad that it’s worth the possible adverse events that may occur.
The use of stimulant prescriptions has increased yearly. Between 2012 and 2023, for example, the number of prescriptions surged 60% from more than 50 million to more than 80 million. By anyone’s count, that’s seems like an awful lot of mind-altering drugs for kids who wiggle too much.
The fact that a former president of a medical organization across the pond would dare to state the truth is encouraging. In fact, at the end of Heath’s presidency at the college, she took her show on the road, attending medical/scientific conferences, speaking about the overmedicalization in healthcare.
Every now and then even the exalted mental health poo-bahs in the U.S. will pull the curtain back on diagnosing children. Allen Frances, the lead author of the DSM-IV, said in an interview that “diagnostic uncertainty in kids is so great that labels should always be written in pencil.” Yes. Extreme caution should be used when diagnosing kids, especially when there is no science to support the diagnosis and the “treatments” could be deadly.
AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
What you can do. Sign the Petition calling for federal hearings!
Donate! Every dollar you give is a powerful statement, a resounding declaration that the struggles of these families will no longer be ignored. Your generosity today will echo through generations, ensuring that the rights and well-being of children are fiercely guarded. Don’t let another family navigate this journey alone. Donate now and join us in creating a world where every child’s mind is nurtured, respected, and given the opportunity to thrive. As a 501(c)3 organization, your donation to AbleChild is not only an investment in the well-being of vulnerable children but also a tax-deductible contribution to a cause that transcends individual lives.
Read the full article here