Tag: Mental Health

Whistleblower Ohio Teacher Comes Forward to AbleChild on School Recommending Drugs in IEP

Written by Sheila Matthews on December 5, 2023. Posted in Articles.

I have been a middle school teacher for the last 24 years. I have watched young people, more often boys, be affected by the pushing of drugs for ADHD. I, myself have filled out the paperwork a thousand times sent by doctors that ask the most ridiculous questions to attempt to determine if a child should be medicated to change the chemical compounds of their brain. These children are already going through chemical changes in their bodies as they are typically of pre-pubescent/ pubescent age.

One big problem that I have noticed in the schools lately is that they have not only been adding more and more psychologists/psychiatrists to the districts but they are adding social workers to schools at all levels (elementaries to high schools). They are even giving degrees and incentivizing teachers to get added degrees in social work to bring more social workers into districts. This is such a mistake. They are trying to add an element of parental trust by using social workers because they believe these people will get parents to do what they want in terms of signing IEPs, listening to drs, starting them on meds, building trust, etc.

The National Defense Education Act versus the Mental Health & Drug Industries

Written by Sheila Matthews on May 30, 2023. Posted in Lawmaking, Public School.

The Biden-Harris Administration wants to help schools deliver “critical mental health care services” to students by, once again, proposing millions for an industry that has enjoyed billions over the years with deadly outcomes producing a generation in decline. This massive mental/behavioral health industry started out as a “carved out research program” on children. The program never received proper public hearings allowing the public, and particularly parents, to begin to understand the potential consequences of the strong pharmaceutical influence in the lives of their child’s daily routine at school or the potentially serious, long-term medical outcomes. The program was pushed into the education system; and it began in the smallest State, Rhode Island, in July, of 1970.

Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

Written by AbleChild on August 9, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book is a heavily-researched history, background and overview of the barbaric and inhumane treatments of the mentally ill that would shock any reader. Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment provides much-needed muckracking into what has really been going on with mental health in the United States for the past couple of centuries.

This book really digs into the science and doesn’t just accept the medical, psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries’ marketing jargon that so many have come to believe over the years. The research in Mad in America goes back to the moral therapy used by the Quakers in the early 1800s, the eugenics movement of the mentally ill that took place in the 1930s, and takes a magnifying glass to how schizophrenics are really doing in the present day (they happen to be worse off than patients in some of the poorest countries, according to the research done in this book).

Mad in America also breaks apart many of the narratives the pharmaceutical industry has peddled about psychiatric medication and how it has supposedly allowed higher functioning of the mentally ill. Once again, this content is all backed by medical journalist Robert Whitaker’s exhaustive research and data. This book is packed with solid historical and scientific data that connects the dots about something that plays such a huge part in our every day lives: mental health and psychiatry. Mad in America has already made a lasting impact on America, and is sure to continue doing so for years to come.

About the Author

Robert Whitaker is an American medical journalist and author, whose books include Anatomy of an Epidemic (which won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism), Mad in America, ( which was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002), On the Laps of Gods and The Mapmaker’s Wife.

He has written numerous articles about the mentally ill and pharmaceutical industry, which have led him to receive several awards: the George Polk Award for Medical Writing, a National Association of Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article, and Whitaker was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Whitaker co-wrote a series on series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe in 1998, and has published more than twenty short stories in literary magazines such as the Indiana Review, Black Warrior Review, Florida Review, and Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose. Whitaker is now the publisher of MadinAmerica.com.

Reviews

Mother Jones:

“A passionate, compellingly researched polemic, as fascinating as it is ultimately horrifying.”

Chicago Tribune:

“Controversial…. [Whitaker] marshals a surprising amount of evidence.”

Seattle Times:

“Intelligent and bold.”

Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal

Written by AbleChild on August 9, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book is an eye-opener that gives a remarkably thorough history of psychiatry, dating back from the 19th century to the present day. It exposes the manner in which power, money and influence helped peddle theories as facts, which all led to the stronghold that psychiatry had developed on our world today.

Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal covers everything from electric shock treatments in the 50s to the Holocaust. It examines the role that politicians and the media have had over the years. It really gives the reader an entirely new outlook on ideas so many of us just accepted for years without much thought. It shows how many people believed the lies and unknowingly helped contribute to the growth of this monster, and how many others knew all along that they were hurting our children and robbing them of education and growth, but did it anyways.

This very well-researched book schools our society on the fact that these professionals we have listened to and let infiltrate every area of our lives and our children’s lives, who we allow to tell us what is wrong with us and how we should fix it, have no concern in our best interest. Psychiatry, the Ultimate Betrayal says that now is the time we break apart these evil forces and starting turning society around.

About the Author

Bruce Wiseman is a human rights advocate who has fought for several decades to expose and end human rights abuses in the area of mental health. He is an internationally renowned speaker on the topic of psychiatric abuses, having made over 600 radio and television appearances on the damages psychiatry is inflicting on society, ranging from psychiatric drugs to psychiatric sexual abuse to electro shock therapy. He has done extensive work with legislative and judicial authorities in efforts to eliminate these mental health system abuses, and even testified against involuntary commitment of children in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee. Wiseman is a former chairman of the Department of History at the John F. Kennedy University, and currently serves as the U.S. national president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. He holds a master’s degree cum laude from California State University at San Jose, and resides in Los Angeles with his family.

Reviews

Clinton Miller, National Council for Improved Health:

“Not since Paul Revere took his midnight ride to alert our forefathers that the British were coming has a WARNING been so urgently needed as the wake-up call you deliver in PSYCHIATRY-THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL”

Morton Feldman, Executive Vice President, National Association of Chiefs of Police:

“Psychiatry-The Ultimate Betrayal…answers a tremendous number of questions as to what happened to cause the social unrest we see on a daily basis in this country.”

Director, Office of Consumer Affairs, New Hampshire Hospital, Concord:

“I think you know that I found Ultimate Betrayal to be unrivaled portrayal of psychiatry’s essential tendency to engage in social engineering under the guise of ‘medical expertise’–a dangerous role that they cleverly cultivate at our expense. This book is extremely well done, and I sincerely hope that it will be widely read.”

A Dose of Sanity: Mind, Medicine, and Misdiagnosis

Written by AbleChild on August 9, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Sydney Walker once again draws on his decades of experience to shine light on psychiatry’s over-reliance on psychiatric labels in this book. He explains how psychiatrists and mental health professionals have become accustomed to running down a list of symptoms and throwing a label on their patients. Instead, mental health professionals need to do further investigation to find if there are any underlying medical issues causing these symptoms, whether it’s hyperactivity, memory loss or depression. As a result of this over-reliance on psychiatric drugs, studies show that the rate of misdiagnosis is more than 4 in 10.

Beneath these symptoms that are all-too-quickly categorized as psychiatric disorders, are often medical conditions such as poor nutrition, Lyme disease, allergies or hypothyroidism. In A Dose of Sanity: Mind, Medicine, and Misdiagnosis, Dr. Walker teaches readers to take a step back and evaluate symptoms on a deeper, biological level to start understanding what they really mean. Dr. Walker believes that psychiatry is moving towards the hypothetical realm with the manner in which it diagnoses patients, and he offers an approach in this book that goes beyond this.

One of the useful tools included in A Dose of Sanity is the 24-hour profile that mental health consumers can use to track emotional and physical changes throughout the day to give their psychiatrist a more accurate picture of how they are feeling, and the patterns and causes surrounding their symptoms. For all mental health consumers, whether you are experiencing symptoms yourself and/or have been labelled, or if you have a loved one that has told you they have been labeled hyperactive, depression, dementia, etc., this book is a must-read.

About the Author

Sydney Walker III, M.D., is a board-certified neuropsychiatrist, Director of the Southern California Neuropsychiatric Institute, and founder of Behavioral Neurology International. His other books include Help for the Hyperactive Child, Psychiatric Signs and Symptoms Due to Medical Problems, and The Hyperactivity Hoax: How to Stop Drugging Your Child and Find Real Medical Help.

Reviews

Charles B. Inlander – President, People’s Medical Society:

“Bravo to Dr. Sydney Walker. He has written a masterful book for current and prospective mental health consumers. Before filling a prescription for Prozac or Ritalin, make sure you get A Dose of Sanity.”

Critical New Perspectives on ADHD

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

Critical New Perspectives on ADHD is an in-depth exploration, drawn from the analyses of experts worldwide, of the ADHD phenomenon that occurred in the 21st century. This book, edited by Gwynedd Lloyd, Joan Stead and David Cohen, explains how the concept of ADHD came to be, and the background surrounding it’s development. It examines the significant ways ADHD has altered schools, families and the lives of children across the across the world, and it seems that this psychiatric disorder is becoming more prevalent as each day passes.

The book takes a deep dive into the parallel growth of the pharmaceutical industry, examining how these pharmaceutical companies needed new markets for their medications, and how they have profited in recent years. Critical New Perspectives on ADHD, published in 2006, enters new territory, laying out theories and bringing to light evidence that can’t be found in most accepted reading material on this topic. The book takes a bold perspective, questioning current practices in the psychiatric industry that are based on controlling children’s behavior with medication. It’s a must-read for anyone curious about ADHD and other mental diagnoses.

Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health

Written by AbleChild on June 14, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book, written by psychiatrist Dr. William Glasser, exposes the field of psychopharmacology, and how it is replacing the role that psychotherapy used to play. The book explains how, while psychiatric drugs can be helpful in the short-term, they can have detrimental long-term effects and often only mask a problem that can be fixed through therapeutic means.

Dr. Glasser touches upon Choice Theory in the book, which he developed himself. The basic gist of the theory is that we all have choices to make, and understanding these choices is what liberates us from the grips of unhappiness. Most mental illnesses, according to Dr. Glasser, are an expression of one’s own unhappiness. While choosing to lift oneself out of unhappiness is a difficult thing to do, long-term psychiatric drugs such as Ritalin, Zoloft and Prosac often are not the answer, and in many cases can make things worse.

Below are a few more concepts that Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health touches upon:

Lack of mental health can lead to physical symptoms as well that will resolve themselves upon healing of one’s mental health.
It’s our desire to control others that leads to unhappiness, and once we learn to let go of this need for control, mental health improves.
Often, psychiatrists cannot tell the difference between a transformational breakthrough (which is a temporary dramatic experience that one needs to go through for a positive outcome) and an emotional breakdown. Because of this, many patients end up on psychiatric medications they don’t need.

One of the main solutions for improved mental health without psychotropic drugs that Dr. Glasser advocates for in the book is group therapy and connection with others. But the book goes much further than just recommending counseling. Since the majority of people with symptoms can’t afford or wont accept counseling, the book teaches how you can, by yourself or with your family’s help, improve your own mental health at no cost and at no risk to yourself.

About the Author

Willam Glasser, M.D., is a world-renowned psychiatrist who is president of the William Glassner Institute in Los Angeles, which he founded in 1967. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University with his M.D. in 1953 and became board certified in 1961. Dr. Glasser worked as a private practice psychiatrist from 1956 to 1986. He has written quite a few other books, which include Choice Theory, Reality Therapy, The Quality School, and Getting Together and Staying Together.

Reviews

Publisher’s Weekly:

“Swimming against what he sees as the tide of prescriptions written for antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Prozac, psychiatrist Glasser (Choice Theory) argues that these drugs can do more harm than good. He asserts that there has been some scientifically sound psychiatric research that suggests the drugs can damage mental health and even the brain itself. Through selective case studies and extrapolation of evidence, the author urges readers to think twice before accepting “brain drugs”; he states that the effectiveness of certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors has been exaggerated by the drug companies. To his credit, Glasser does offer several practical alternatives for patients. But he seems to cherish his outsider status and questions the way psychiatry is practiced today. Group therapy transcripts and case studies constitute the bulk of his case, and chapters like ‘Luck, Intimacy, and Our Quality World’ and ‘We Have Learned to Destroy Our Own Happiness’ are designed to help the reader understand symptoms. Some of the anecdotes are compelling, and individuals seeking alternatives to drug treatments may benefit.” Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mental Health Records Matter in Mass Shootings

Written by AbleChild on May 18, 2022. Posted in Articles, Violence.

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 25th Anniversary Edition

Written by AbleChild on March 23, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

With over 100 years of mandatory schooling behind us now, we have seen the progression of issues such as illiteracy and learning disabilities in our children. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, which is John Taylor Gatto’s radical treatise on how the formal education system is damaging our children and families, is a true eye-opener. This New Society Publisher’s bestseller was originally published in 1992, had a 10th anniversary edition published in 2002, and the most recent 25th anniversary edition was printed in 2017, with a foreword from Zachary Stayback, who is an Ivy League dropout and cofounder of tech startup career foundry Praxis.

Gatto, who spent 30 years teaching in the public school system before writing this book, is an advocate for education being central to the family, instead of being used to separate children from their families. In the book, Gatto makes a strong case that effective education should promote individuality and privacy instead of conformity. Gatto is an advocate for home schooling, and points out how back in the 1800s children’s skill levels were developed much earlier than they are now, and far beyond what our school systems consider acceptable nowadays. The book also introduces the idea that genius is a very common quality that is being suppressed in our society, and we have been made to believe that genius is a rarity.

Dumbing Us Down, which opens with a speech given by Gatto in 1991 when he was named “Teacher of the Year,” is known to be a fairly easy read. In the book, Gatto explains how the modern public school system is driving out the natural curiosity and problem-solving skills children are born with, and replacing it with rule-following, fragmented time, and disillusionment. Gatto encourages children to be their own teachers and in charge of designing their own education. And he makes a strong case for why the mass education system that has developed in America does not support democracy or any of the values the United States was taught as a result of the American Revolution.

While Gatto explains how the school system itself is setting children up for failure, he also believes there are many humane and caring teachers in our schools that are just caught in a faulty system. Another key takeaway from this extremely valuable and timeless text is Gatto’s concept that “the teaching function, in a healthy community, belongs to everyone,” and that we should not just be looking to education professionals to define “good teaching.”

About the Author

John Taylor Gatto was born in on December 15, 1935, in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as Cornell and Columbia in New York. Gatto then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky and Fort Houston, Texas. After his military service, Gatto completed graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva, the University of California, and Cornell.

Before and during Gatto’s teaching career, he served in various other occupations, many of which involved writing. He wrote scripts for the film business, wrote for advertising, was an ASCAP songwriter, and eventually founded Lava Mt. Records, which is an award-winning documentary record producer. Gatto’s record company has completed a variety of big-name projects, including presentations of speeches from Richard M. Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

Gatto’s teaching career garnered him quite a few awards. He was named New York City Teacher of the Year three times, and then held the title of New York State Teacher of the Year. After leaving his teaching career after 30 years, telling the Wall Street Journal that he was “no longer willing to hurt children,” he moved on to become a much-sought-after public speaker on the topic of school reform. His speaking engagements took him across all 50 states in the U.S., and to seven foreign countries.

Gatto had also recieved other awards, such as the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his contributions to the cause of liberty. From 1996 on, he has been included in the Who’s Who in America. He has authored a handful of other books, including A Different Kind of Teacher and The Underground History of American Education.

Gatto passed away on October 25, 2018. His obituary on the website for the Foundation for Economic Education stated that after three decades in the classroom, “Gatto dedicated the rest of his life to repairing the damage done by the public education system.”

Reviews

Meryn Callander, author and co-founder of the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children:

“Gatto presents a credible case for his belief that school is an essential support system for a model of social engineering that condemns most people to be subordinate stones in a pyramidal social order, even though such a premise is a fundamental betrayal of the American Revolution.”

Why Your Child is Hyperactive

Written by AbleChild on January 6, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

This book, written by practicing pediatrician and allergist Dr. Ben Feingold, contains sound research and medical advice about how artificial food coloring and flavoring is often the culprit of hyperactivity in children. From this book, the widely renowned “Feingold diet” was derived. And 36 years after it was first published, there are still many parents overflowing with gratitude for the positive effects the book’s diet recommendations have had on their children. In fact, the book is considered by many to be even more relevant today, since there are much more artificial ingredients in foods that make up a large part of peoples’ everyday diets.

While the advice in the book is laid out with simple and clear instructions, these changes are difficult to make, but as many parents have reported, the results make it all worth it. In Stage One of the Feingold Diet, synthetic flavors, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners are removed from the diet, along with salicylates such as aspirin. Dr. Feingold’s research has found many of these products trigger hyperactivity in children. In Stage Two of the Feingold Diet, some of the products removed in Stage One are slowly reintroduced and closely monitored to see if they have an adverse effects on the child’s behavior. With the Feingold Diet, it is important that parents keep a journal of what products have been removed from their child’s regimen and which products have been reintroduced.

The benefits of the work that goes into the Feingold Diet is that it’s all natural and will likely remove products that were never good for your child (or yourself if you choose to follow the diet). And Feingold recommends that if parents are able to see positive results from the diet, they should consider talking to their child’s psychiatrist about taking them off any medications they have been put on for ADD or ADHD. This should only be done under the supervision of a mental health professional, since many drugs prescribed for ADHD are forms of speed and can be dangerous to withdraw from too quickly. Why put any drug into your child’s body that they may not need and that can cause adverse side effects? The Feingold Diet may be the answer to your child’s behavioral issues that you have been waiting for. And it could be a program that parents themselves, along with the rest of the family, may also want to follow and reap the long-term benefits.

About the Author

Dr. Ben Feingold is a pediatric allergist who taught pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, and then moved to Los Angeles where he practiced pediatrics for 22 years. While in Los Angeles, Dr. Feingold served as chief of pediatrics at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, was an associate in allergy at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, and an attending pediatrician at the Los Angeles County Hospital. His research has been a source of controversy and heavy discussion among certain bodies in government. But much of his research has been of much interest to the U.S. Senate and State of California. Dr. Feingold can be thanked for the removal of certain harmful substances from our food supply, as well as the increased safety in food production around the world.

Feingold’s research led to more research done by others, which suggested in 1980 that artificial food dyes might indeed adversely affect the behavior of children. In 1951, Dr. Feingold married his wife, Helene. Together, they wrote The Feingold Cookbook for Hyperactive Children, which was published in 1979, four years after Why Your Child is Hyperactive.

Dr. Feingold was born in Pittsburgh in 1900 and did his undergraduate and medical work at the University of Pittsburgh. He was an intern at Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh, and then went on to serve as a fellow in pathology at the University of Gottingen in Germany in 1927, followed by a fellowship at the children’s clinic at the University of Vienna from 1928-1929.

Though Feingold is gone, the Feingold Foundation continues his valuable work and research, and you can find more information on their website.