Does anyone actually believe this nonsense?

[Gregg]

There are few better examples that I'm aware of to demonstrate why therapists are dangerous to children that the "beliefs" listed below.. (But then I've only been on this form a few minutes, I'm sure it gets better..)

   Can there be any doubt that it's the therapists who really need to be helped after reading this complete nonsense below???

For a child with pediatric bipolar disorder, the risk of dying by suicide is 20%. Most of those happen within the first three or four years after diagnosis.

Treated, the risk drops to 11%.

Lithium is very effective in bipolar children, but the need to closely monitor blood levels, while the child is constantly growing and changing, makes it not necessarily the first line treatment.

Other mood stabilizers control the mood swings just as well, usually, so usually it doesn't come down to needing to go to lithium.

Mania causes brain damage. The longer a child with pediatric bipolar disorder is allowed to be unstable, the more damage their is to the child's frontal lobes, resulting in IQ loss, as well as regression in reading, mathematics, writing---not simply failure to learn, but actual loss of skills already learned. Executive function problems, psychosis, extremely violent bipolar rages that do damage to people or property--rages lasting four to five hours.

Failing to stabilize a bipolar child can mean the difference between learning in school and ultimately being a functional adult with a job, versus total lifelong social security-qualifying disability.

The drugs have risks, but for severe, serious mental illnesses, the risks of the drugs are lower than the risks of leaving the child unstable.

I wouldn't wish my childhood hell of being bipolar without diagnosis or treatment on anyone.

Much that the parents of children with pediatric bipolar disorder have noticed and know from experience is still being researched and documented by the scientific community.

The drugs work. When you can cut your child's risk of suicide in half, you take it.

There are pros and cons to various treatments of other disorders, but for pediatric bipolar disorder, medication is absolutely essential. It makes the difference between a despairing, totally disabled child and a happy, functional child.

Medication doesn't make those of us with bipolar disorder normal, but it does make us more stable and better off than we are without it.

Timoclea

[Anonymous]

Here's some advice I found on www.bpkids.org. Basically, let the shrinks try one drug after another, be prepared to give your kid one or more drugs daily for a long period of time, and if one parent is uncooperative, get a court order. Wow, now there's some advice to help heal a struggling family!

"Medications used to treat adults are often helpful in stabilizing mood in children. Most doctors start medication immediately upon diagnosis if both parents agree. If one parent disagrees, a short period of watchful waiting and charting of symptoms can be helpful. Treatment should not be postponed for long, however, because of the risk of suicide and school failure.

A symptomatic child should never be left unsupervised. If parental disagreement makes treatment impossible, as may happen in families undergoing divorce, a court order regarding treatment may be necessary.

Other treatments, such as psychotherapy, may not be effective until mood stabilization occurs. In fact, stimulants and antidepressants given without a mood stabilizer (often the result of misdiagnosis) can cause havoc in bipolar children, potentially inducing mania, more frequent cycling, and increases in aggressive outbursts.

No one medication works in all children. The family should expect a trial-and-error process lasting weeks, months, or longer as doctors try several medications alone and in combination before they find the best treatment for your child. It is important not to become discouraged during the initial treatment phase. Two or more mood stabilizers, plus additional medications for symptoms that remain, are often necessary to achieve and maintain stability."

[Gregg]

What is really needed is something to stabalise the therapists from their addiction to the money these false diagnoses and prescribing drugs to treat these fake illnesses generate for them..

   I'd like to know how % of their patients are not on these drugs.. (0% maybe???)

   Their economic survival depends on selling this nonsense. Maybe immunity from prosecution could help their condition if they agree to testify against the drug companies?? And a type of welfare assistance since most are incapable of any type of productive work.. as long as they agree not of bother any child or adult again with their problems. If you do the math it would be a bargain for the people who are allready forced to support them through higher health insurance costs and tax revenue..

  What a racket!

[Anonymous]

Yes BPD is a legit problem for some people. But what do you think about these stats, again from www.bpkids.org:

How common is bipolar disorder in children?

It is not known, because epidemiological studies are lacking. However, bipolar disorder affects an estimated 1-2 percent of adults worldwide. The more we learn about this disorder, the more prevalent it appears to be among children.

It is suspected that a significant number of children diagnosed in the United States with attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD) have early-onset bipolar disorder instead of, or along with, ADHD.

Depression in children and teens is usually chronic and relapsing. According to several studies, a significant proportion of the 3.4 million children and adolescents with depression in the United States may actually be experiencing the early onset of bipolar disorder, but have not yet experienced the manic phase of the illness.

...For the general population, a conservative estimate of an individual's risk of having full-blown bipolar disorder is 1 percent. Disorders in the bipolar spectrum may affect 4-6%.

Wow, so at least 1 out of 100 people, and maybe even more than 1 out of 20 have either "full-blown" BPD or at least some degree of it, if you believe this crap.

This is my favorite bit -- a list of famous people who apparently had BPD but were untreated. I wonder if they would have made the same contributions to the world if they had been zonked out on powerful mood-altering drugs on a daily basis!

Bipolar disorder has left its mark on history. Many famous and accomplished people had symptoms of the illness, including:

Abraham Lincoln
Winston Churchill
Theodore Roosevelt
Goethe
Balzac
Handel
Schumann
Berlioz
Tolstoy
Virginia Woolf
Hemingway
Robert Lowell
Anne Sexton

The biographies of Beethoven, Newton, and Dickens, in particular, reveal severe and debilitating recurrent mood swings beginning in childhood.

[Anonymous]

Funny, I can just imagine a lithium-enhanced Abraham Lincoln saying something like, "Hey, if the South wants to have thier own country and keep their slaves, what's the big deal? Why is everyone so riled up about this?"

Or as we might say in modern times, "everybody just take a chill pill."

[Gregg]

Don't forget that Bipolar disorder is a legit problem. I think that the hype about it is bigger than the actual problem, but with no hard facts to support that statement I can't comment further. I do agree in general for lots of problems including bipolar disorder that alot of meds are handed out for reasons that seem pretty weak.

   Anyone suffering from the harmfull effects of psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat fake diseases will later exhibit so-called "symtoms of bi-polar disorder, as will those with undiagnosed allergies, unhealthy living habits not to mention perfectlt normal behaviors.

   The fact is there are no facts the support the existance of Bi-Polar disorders. If real scientific analysis is used the only evidence is the drugs used to treat Bi-Polar disorders in reality cause the chemical disturbances to the brain that give the impression that a disease is present when nothing is further from the truth. What you are really witnessing is a silent chemical assault on an innocent person.

[Anonymous]

The only thing I am witnessing right at the mo is my room spinning around my head.


STAY THE FUCK STILL!

Do you think all this crap is an "American" problem?

I dont see South Korean parents complaining about their Bi-Polar teens.
I would like to see the entire population on South Korea,and China too,be force fed Prozac daily (but thats a different topic.

IM CONVINCED that all this "mental disorder hysteria" is an "American thing".

[Anonymous]

Nah here in Korea they have students jumping out windows to commit suicide come exam time. Puts a whole new meaning to the song raining men. Surprisingly the rise in use of meds for people suffering from various nutter diseases is on the rise. It used to be very low and considered a loss of face, but now it is more and more part of life. Makes sense considering that the average Korean's idea of a life involves work, more work, more and more works, trip to massage parlor, soju shots, annnd more more and more work.

What about the subject of Straightlike Programs?
Do you see any Korean kids getting wrapped up in that sort of thing?
The closest thig I see in Korea to that is SungYungMoon recruiters on the subway.I had a guy come up to me and introduced himself as "Reverend",and with so many christians in Korea,thats what I thought he was.
He told me I should have a wife and even he could introduce one to me in the church.
I have church friends in Korea,so I took his card.Then I read SungYungMoon Unification Church on the card!
I also see a lot of these American Latter Day Saints recruiting on the subway,more annoying than those guys who jump in the door and hand a pair of socks to everyone and start talking real fast.I just hold my hands limp and let the socks drop to the floor.
And not just Korea,but any Asian country,I just dont see  families being duped in to a Straightlike  program.I guess they are all to busy being duped by other Asian type scams.And they dont know how to do anything but drink SoJu,how boring.
I guess Im looking for something to nail Straightlike as an American thing.
Of course here  in China,the "moral inventory" thing is  probably still used,but I dont see parents shipping their kids off to Straightlike.
Here they may be concerned with internet addiction and overweight kids,but I dont see anybody being strapped in to the Straightmobile.

[Anonymous]

When you're stabbed to death by someone who's bipolar--and in a manic phase, and psychotic with it--because God told him you were the emissary of Satan, I'll be happy to send your family sympathy cards that say, "But don't worry, it's just a fake diagnosis."

Julie

[Anonymous]

BTW--I didn't know Tom Cruise read fornits.  Wow.

Julie

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that Bipolar disorder is a legit problem. I think that the hype about it is bigger than the actual problem, but with no hard facts to support that statement I can't comment further. I do agree in general for lots of problems including bipolar disorder that alot of meds are handed out for reasons that seem pretty weak.

   Anyone suffering from the harmfull effects of psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat fake diseases will later exhibit so-called "symtoms of bi-polar disorder, as will those with undiagnosed allergies, unhealthy living habits not to mention perfectlt normal behaviors.

   The fact is there are no facts the support the existance of Bi-Polar disorders. If real scientific analysis is used the only evidence is the drugs used to treat Bi-Polar disorders in reality cause the chemical disturbances to the brain that give the impression that a disease is present when nothing is further from the truth. What you are really witnessing is a silent chemical assault on an innocent person.

So you're saying I don't have bipolar disorder?

Well, God says you're a fucktard.

Julie

[Anonymous]

Clams vs. Programmies: Who will be KO?

[Anonymous]

Get back on track Julie... Since when does Tom Cruise read fornits??

It was sarcasm.

Tom Cruise recently got fired from Paramount for his very public reiterations of Scientology's extreme, whacko, anti-psychiatry stance.

Julie

[Anonymous]

I thought it was a bit more than that he was fired for.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was a bit more than that he was fired for.

Yeah, but that would have been too involved to type.  The kicker was him bitching about Brooke Shields taking antidepressants for post-partum depression.

His market is middle aged women.

Most middle aged women have borne at least one child.

Almost every woman who has borne at least one child had at least a mild brush with the baby blues, and almost all of us have a friend or relative that got full-blown post-partum depression.

It pissed off his audience.  Mission Impossible 3 came out and ticket sales were very disappointing for Paramount.  They connected the dots and decided his Scientology ramblings about Shields pissed off or turned off enough middle aged women that they stayed home and didn't buy tickets.

Which is true of me.  I was a fan of his, saw most of his movies, didn't see MI:3.  I didn't stay home because I was mad, I stayed home because the face of himself he presented on that Larry King interview, which I watched, was icky.

Just that.  He came across to me as icky and creepy.

That made him not an attractive lead for a movie for me to spend ten bucks and a couple of hours on.

I want a male lead to be: "Wow....Sigh....."

not: "Ick.  Kinda strange there.  Ick."

He's not ugly or vile or heinous or anything like that---he's just vaguely creepy in a flaked-out sort of way.

I have plenty of eccentric friends I just love, and anybody who knows me would consider me eccentric, too.  I don't have a problem with eccentric.  A lot of my favorite people are differently normalled.

The creepy kind of flaky is what bothers me.

In that interview, Cruise crossed the line into the creepy kind of flaky in a way you can't go back from.

Obviously, Paramount thinks I'm not alone in that opinion.

Julie