It's no doubt that there is a lot of controversy about mental disorders, medication, therapy, and so on. Everyone has their own opinion. To me, mental disorders are just something in the brain. I don't really get how something physical could cause a mental disorder, unless somehow you've got a brain injury that messes with imbalances in the brain. Other than that it doesn't make sense. The only problem I have with mental disorders is that some people refer to them as diseases. Yes, diseases can result from something genetically wrong or not functioning properly. But you can also take medication to cure it or in some cases get a vaccination. As far as I know, there is no vaccination for mental disorders and even if you do take medication, most will not go away if you stop taking them, or will not go away completely just by taking the medication. If you stop the medication, they'll come back. So why they're called diseases, I don't get it.
When it comes to actually medicating them, it's insane. The frontline video watched in class was ridiculous. Kids as young as four or even five shouldn't be given medication for disorders they may not even have. When kids are that young, they're supposed to be hyper. They're supposed to have emotions and throw tantrums because that's just what kids do. To put them on medication basically takes away their childhood. Am I really supposed to believe that a four year old can experience mania and depression and realize what's going on? No. He's not even old enough to tell you how he feels. If a kid just starts becoming reserved, maybe there's another reason. Maybe he's growing up to become a shyer kid. Maybe he doesn't have a lot of friends or maybe he's being bullied. Jumping to mental disorders when you can barely ask him what's wrong won't solve anything. Especially since it's all trial and error. You test the medication and hope something works. If it doesn't, you move onto something else. Doing something like this with medication not thoroughly tested on kids is dangerous.
This article talks about a boy named Gavin who takes 119 pills each week. He started taking them when he was five. His parents are convinced that their family could not function without the medication. But not once does it say therapy had been tried. The article also mentions a Dr. Mani Pavuluri, and he says medication should be the last resort. He also says it's better to wait until they're a bit older than five. Which is true. He also says the way parents treat their kids has an effect on how the child behaves. Back to Gavin, they say without the pills he experiences hallucinations and cannot determine what is real and what is not. He boasts about being able to jump out the window and fly and sometimes runs in front of cars or becomes violent. In a case like that, medication may be necessary. I still don't think 119 pills is necessary, however. I've never even heard of an adult taking that many.
This article says that medicating children can be abusive. Some parents give their children medication just to calm them down, even if it's not prescribed. And that they say is maltreatment. Which of course it is. Anyone who says otherwise clearly needs to be educated. In 2005 a day care worker gave a year old toddler a fatal dose of cough medicine to put her to sleep. .. Really? Unless the child has a cough she should not have been given cough medicine. Especially more than the amount it says to give them. The excuses for giving medication to kids is because it's "better than losing control" and hitting them or yelling. Personally, I'd rather yell at my kid than risk killing him because he's hyper or won't behave.
I don't really get what makes it okay to diagnose a child with some form of mental disorder, yet they don't want to diagnose almost everyone else until they're of a certain age. If my doctor ever tries to say that my child is bipolar or depressed or whatever it may be, the first thing I'd try is therapy. Medication will be a last resort and it should be that way for everyone. Because honestly, if you need medication to "calm down" your child, you shouldn't even have one in the first place. It should be no surprise that they're hyperactive and don't want to listen. If you go into it thinking your child is going to be perfect, you really shouldn't be having a kid at all.
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