Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the most prevalent neuropsychiatric label in childhood, a valid medical condition? Should we really refer to the millions of children diagnosed with ADHD as children who suffer from the 'diabetes of psychiatry' — a chronic and harmful biological condition that must be treated regularly with powerful psychoactive substances? Building on previous critiques, this thorough, elegant, and mainly courageous book answers these questions through a step-by-step rebuttal of the scientific consensus about ADHD and its first-line treatment with stimulant medications.While maintaining scientific rigor, this book is written in a clear, creative, and flowing way, using colorful examples — some funny, some tragic — which sweep the reader and inspire social change. The book integrates key critiques into one consolidated source, uncovers massive evidence against the efficacy and safety of stimulant medications, and offers principal solutions to this burning socio-educational problem. But most importantly, this book reviews dozens of reliability and validity gaps in the overriding biomedical consensus. It exposes multiple biases and non-parsimonious bandages (unjustified rationalizations) aimed at hiding the scientific holes of the consensus and it redefines ADHD as a non-pathological quality/mode-of-thought that has both weaknesses and strengths. In this way, the book serves as the missing needle required to pierce the over-blown theoretical balloon commonly known as ADHD.Related Link(s)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. From the author of Irreversible Damage, an investigation into a mental health industry that is harming, not healing, American children In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing up. What’s gone wrong with America’s youth? In Bad Therapy, bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn’t the kids—it’s the mental health experts. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with child psychologists, parents, teachers, and young people, Shrier explores the ways the mental health industry has transformed the way we teach, treat, discipline, and even talk to our kids. She reveals that most of the therapeutic approaches have serious side effects and few proven benefits. Among her unsettling findings: Talk therapy can induce rumination, trapping children in cycles of anxiety and depression Social Emotional Learning handicaps our most vulnerable children, in both public schools and private “Gentle parenting” can encourage emotional turbulence – even violence – in children as they lash out, desperate for an adult in charge Mental health care can be lifesaving when properly applied to children with severe needs, but for the typical child, the cure can be worse than the disease. Bad Therapy is a must-read for anyone questioning why our efforts to bolster America’s kids have backfired—and what it will take for parents to lead a turnaround.

"...This invaluable guide presents the documented facts that your child's doctor might not know or think to tell you."- p. [4] of cover.

Millions of children take Ritalin for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The drug's manufacturer, Novartis, claims that Ritalin is the "solution" to this widespread problem. But hidden behind the well-oiled public-relations machine is a potentially devastating reality: children are being given a drug that can cause the same bad effects as amphetamine and cocaine, including behavioral disorders, growth suppression, neurological tics, agitation, addiction, and psychosis. Talking Back to Ritalin uncovers these and other startling facts and translates the research findings for parents and doctors alike. An advocate for education not medication, Dr. Breggin empowers parents to channel distracted, disenchanted, and energetic children into powerful, confident, and brilliant members of the family and society.

Ever year in the U.S., over two million children are given the drug Ritalin to combat Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Now, Dr. Mary Ann Block shows why Ritalin may be very dangerous to a child's health--and offers parents safer and more effective alternatives. Using thorough research and actual case histories from her clinic, Dr. Block provides powerful evidence that a drug-free approach works.

Up to one-third of all school-aged children in the U.S. are diagnosed with so-called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). They fall into a diagnostic category that didn't exist twenty years ago. Two million of these children are being coerced by teachers, administrators, and doctors into taking Ritalin, which has side effects ranging from insomnia and irritability to personality change, anorexia, and heart palpitations. Even more alarming is the way the drug interferes with normal height and weight gain. Other areas of great concern are the danger of addiction and an increasingly widespread illegal use of Ritalin as a recreational drug. This crusading book passionately advocates a new alternative to Ritalin -- the Caregivers Skill Program (CSP), a step-by-step plan for both school and home that focuses on behavioral and motivational problems. Based on extensive clinical trials and application, CSP offers concrete, easy-to-apply techniques for understanding and improving children's behavior, school performance, and self-esteem. The book also tells parents how to resist pressure from teachers and doctors to give their kids speed just to shut them up.

In a book as provocative and newsworthy as Listening to Prozac and Driven to Distraction, a physician speaks out on America's epidemic level of diagnoses for attention deficit disorder, and on the drug that has become almost a symbol of our times: Ritalin. In 1997 alone, nearly five million people in the United States were prescribed Ritalin--most of them young children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Use of this drug, which is a stimulant related to amphetamine, has increased by 700 percent since 1990. And this phenomenon appears to be uniquely American: 90 percent of the world's Ritalin is used here. Is this a cause for alarm--or simply the case of an effective treatment meeting a newly discovered need? Important medical advance--or drug of abuse, as some critics claim? Lawrence Diller has written the definitive book about this crucial debate--evenhanded, wide-ranging, and intimate in its knowledge of families, schools, and the pressures of our speeded-up society. As a pediatrician and family therapist, he has evaluated hundreds of children, adolescents, and adults for ADD, and he offers crucial information and treatment options for anyone struggling with this problem. Running on Ritalin also throws a spotlight on some of our most fundamental values and goals. What does Ritalin say about the old conundrums of nature vs. nurture, free will vs. responsibility? Is ADD a disability that entitles us to special treatment? If our best is not good enough, can we find motivation and success in a pill? Is there still a place for childhood in the performance-driven America of the late nineties?