There is in fact such a massive surge in seriously ill teens and children that there is talk of a hidden epidemic. No one wants to acknowledge it b/c no one can explain it. But there is no doubt the numbers have exploded and the patients are truly ill.
Not ill, just distressed.
Any little boy who acts like a little boy (or the way we used to expect little boys to behave) is now labeled ADD/ADHD or ODD or some such. That hurts! They're not furniture, they can hear and understand as their parents and other adults talk about them, even introduce them, as a problem. I've seen it again and again. First time I met one kid, his parents and good family friend told me, right off the bat, about his bed wetting problem.
I wanted to pimp slap all of them in a row Shemp style. Nother great kid who's dosed up on poten amphetamines most of the time these days. Same thing. If you meet her mother, before you hear anything about the kid's artistic abilities and genius at taking apart and putting together just about anything she finds, you'll hear that she's impossible, possibly autistic, troubled and troubling. I've never had a minute's trouble with this kid. But then I've never humiliated her by complaining to strangers about what a problem she is right in front of her.
How do you think that sort of treatment effects a person over years? You think maybe, possibly, all this pathologizing and labeling might have some effect on the subjects?
I think maybe, possibly, kids are coming into this world pretty much the same as they have for thousands of years and maybe, just possibly, there's something different about the way we treat and view them.
