Moodiness and temper outbursts are fairly common traits during adolescence, since it’s a stressful phase due to social/relationship pressure, rebellion/separation from parents, changing bodies, and worries about the future. In the 1990s the criteria for bipolar disorder were greatly expanded; this enabled teens’ moods and outbursts to instead be seen as symptoms of illness. These traits may be exaggerated if teens take stimulants for ‘ADHD,’ which by this age agitate instead of calm (as can antidepressants); stimulants have been given to soldiers to arouse aggression, notably the Nazis.1 They are addictive, so legal and illicit users get depressed upon crashing or withdrawing2 and thus suicide ten times as often.34 Psychiatry’s labeling normal teens as ‘bipolar,’ along with rampantly giving them speed just as Hitler did with his army, explains our 40-fold youth ‘bipolar’ rate increase.5
Once they’re labeled bipolar, teens are less likely to learn how to responsibly manage their wild, aggressive urges, as follows: When parents accept the bipolar label, something seems to click in their minds, and it’s in this instant that their kid’s life is forever ruined. Until this ‘Aha!’ moment, they believed their kid was capable of maturing, and that raising kids is hard work. But now they retrospectively view all the turmoil that began in puberty as due to permanent brain illness rather than normal, outgrowable adolescent issues. So they give up and greatly reduce the expectations, demands, and discipline that are needed to help kids learn mature coping tools and other abilities.
‘Bipolar’ kids’ tantrums, verbal abuse, and harmful actions are excused since they’re supposedly not their fault but just illness symptoms. Parents say: “their meds stopped working,” “their bipolar acted up” or “they missed a dose.” With no risk of consequence like parental punishment, eviction from home, or police arrest, they won’t need to learn to act civilly. Rather than set limits, schools make accommodations that ease workload and allow tantrums, again removing any need to learn self-control. Even if hospitalized for violence, the experience may be so supportive, friendly, and cushy that teenagers find it more rewarding than punishing.
So society gives their innate wildness free reign; it fails to instill a conscience. There’s nothing to feel guilty about anyway — it’s just “their chemistry was off.” It’s thus expectable that once labeled bipolar, they’ll thereafter seek instant satisfaction of urges whenever they’re in the mood, having learned they don’t need to wait or obey rules. This cultivates the bipolar potential that’s in us all.
And when they’re told that they have brain diseases that limit their ability to control themselves, this holds them back from trying. They think it’s pointless to try to learn mature ways to manage conflict, frustration or stress since such efforts would be futile. They learn to be helpless. The only skill they do learn is how to take drugs and passively let them do the coping. Responsibility now falls on MDs to cure them by sedating away their mood/temper. The drugs impair kids’ abilities to learn mature coping tools, anyway, as well as impairing any academic,6 athletic,7 or creative abilities.
The bipolar label also promotes seeing painful feelings as due to chemical imbalance. Bad moods used to be seen as signs that something’s bothering them that they must actively work on in order to feel better. If they were really upset, that just meant a big issue was really troubling them. Parents used to react to kids’ emotional cues by asking what they’re upset about, listening and understanding their issues, and giving advice. Such helpful responses were vital to their social/emotional growth; kids got in touch with, vented about and resolved issues, and formed close relationships in the process.
But psychiatry has proclaimed this approach is wrong: Unpleasant feelings are no longer adaptive tools that aid in survival, as Charles Darwin deduced8 — they have been declared to be treatable diseases. This discourages the active addressing of kids’ issues via meaningful social interaction. So just when they’re struggling to transition from childhood to adulthood and thus need the most listening and understanding, they get the least.
This is an especially big waste of opportunity for teenagers since their brains are at peak learning capacity. They’re flexible enough to be guided to learn new coping styles since their personalities are not firmly set yet. And adolescence is when facing issues is most crucial, since it’s when kids must learn the tools needed for social/job success as adults. But rather than learn to cope with the issues that cause their moods, they learn to ‘cope’ with the moods themselves, by accepting their illness, taking mind-numbing meds, and needlessly giving up on solving issues or achieving goals.
Adolescence used to be seen as a challenging but normal and transient phase that had to be navigated successfully to pave the way for adult success. But it’s instead being transformed into permanent, disabling bipolar disorder in a self-fulfilling prophecy. And giving kids speed for ‘ADHD,’ which the DSM admits can ‘induce bipolar,’ and then sedatives for ‘bipolar’ that shut their brains off, facilitates this process. Most ‘bipolar’ teens had in fact previously been prescribed stimulants.9
Psychiatry parasitically profits from its permanent-child processing plants. Its bipolar creations usually become lifelong clients,1011 so maturation-prevention is good business. As in ‘ADHD,’ pediatric bipolar’s invention is an example of the irresponsible promotion of irresponsibility. So I suggest merging ‘ADHD and bipolar’ into one term that reflects their common cause: “Psychiatric Labeling-Induced Maturational Disorder” (PLIMD), with a type 1 (distractible, impulsive) and a type 2 (moody, explosive).
Parents: Don’t entrust your kids to a field that electrocutes and lobotomizes people. Don’t speed them up, shut them up, or give up on their maturing. Patiently talk with them and raise them instead, unless you want them to become permanent adolescents!
Good article Lawrence. Well reasoned, and well articulated.
I would just like to point out that Freud is in part a precursor to the problems that you outlined. I would also like to point out that the self-fulfilling prophecies that produce troubled youth are inherent in the word “teenager.” Before the 20th century there were no teenagers, and the transition from youth to adulthood was as natural as the transition from a chrysalis to a butterfly.
“Word Origin and History for teenager Expand (n.) also teen ager, teen-ager; derived noun from teenage (q.v.), 1922. The earlier word for this was teener, attested in American English from 1894, and teen had been used as a noun to mean ‘teen-aged person’ in 1818, though this was not common before 20c.” http://www.dictionary.com/browse/teenager
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Again bashing Freud Dragon Slayer. Whereas I agree that your entitled to your opinion, I must continue to attest your comments. Teenagers are what they are and defy definition. Personally, I believe they are what they are and don’t judge or look for definitions in the dictionary.
I respect their views. I don’t always agree, but want to understand what their thoughts are and where there coming from. Communication is key to any relationship and believe Dr. K. stresses that in his writing.
I coach 10-12 year old girls (softball), and 10-12 year old boys in little league. I don’t judge anyone. I find it a personal pleasure to help each and everyone become a better ball player and build on their weaknesses. It’s not hard to access talent, but what’s hard is to access weakness and build on them. In the end, you hope that they become better people. Not an easy job, but quite fulfilling.
I can’t stress this point more than that children today need mom at home during their formative years. Day care centers, baby sitters etc. are not family. Any wonder why kids have problems and issues today. Both mom and dad work. Our friends, the doctors are more than happy to prescribe some addictive drug to possibly treat an unnecessary illness because that’s the easy way out. Children need parents, love and communication, but in today’s day age, that doesn’t happen that often because of bills.
It is what it is, this is not my profession, all I can say is that my wife and I sacrificed and lived lean for 10 years but our two children are awesome and go getters. I couldn’t be more prouder of their efforts.
I don’t buy into this bipolar crap. How have people changed this much over time? Perhaps they didn’t, maybe their parents did and doctors are more than happy to oblige their so called illness by making money off their patients.
Dr. K. awesome article
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In adolescence , in males there is a 30 times increase of testosterone. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25151053
Like all animals that compete for females to have offspring, the male is supposed to show how smart, strong or skilled they are with this increase.
If the King(father) and Queen(mother) believe the (lies of the) quacks they will drug their child into following orders with horrible results.
Can’t overtly physically punish the children for wrong behavior, we have to invisibly punish with drugs (drugs called medicine).
http://nationalpost.com/health/canadian-children-now-take-far-more-mood-altering-drugs
253 prescriptions filled for every 1,000 youth under 18.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mental-health-services-youth-1.4466903
In 2017, CHEO experienced a jump of 69 per cent in the number of young people needing mental health services, according to Pajer. The actual numbers will soon be released in CHEO’s year-end update.
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Good insight Lawrence, it is all about denying people adulthood.
But so also is psychotherapy, it continues to make people into basket cases by infantilizing them.
The alternative is to fight back, to find ways to intercede and to punish perpetrators. Political and legal action, as well as just old fashioned street level activism.
We need to be putting white coats out of business, and we need to be punishing some parents. We need to get some laws changed, and we need to engage in disruptive street demonstrations.
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A few warnings to any parents whose children might be labeled “bipolar.”
1.) None of the DSM disorders are actually scientifically valid diseases, even according to the head of the National Institute of Mental Health, in 2013.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml
2.) Today’s DSM recommended treatments for “bipolar,” which largely consist of combining the mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355961
These DSM treatment recommendations are really bad medical advice, because combining these drug classes can create symptoms that mirror both the negative and positive symptoms of “schizophrenia” or “bipolar.” Symptoms that appear to be the negative symptoms of “schizophrenia,” or “depression,” can be created via neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroleptic-Induced_Deficit_Syndrome
And symptoms that appear to be the positive symptoms of “schizophrenia” or “bipolar,” including “psychosis” or “mania,” can be created via antidepressant and/or antipsychotic induced anticholinergic toxidrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxidrome
And your child’s psychiatrist will always misdiagnose these known psychiatric drug induced illnesses as one of the billable DSM disorders, since your child’s psychiatrist wants to get paid, and neither of those medically known psychiatric drug induced syndrome are listed in the DSM. Out of sight, out of mind, but very profitable for the psychiatric industry as a whole.
3.) “Forced psychiatric treatment is torture,” even according to the UN.
https://www.narpa.org/reference/un-forced-psychiatric-treatment-is-torture
If your child has been labeled as “bipolar,” please oh please, find a new doctor. One who is willing to slowly and carefully wean your child off the “bipolar” drugs. Be forewarned that weaning a person from these drug classes can actually create a drug withdrawal induced “super sensitivity manic psychosis,” which will always be misdiagnosed by doctors as a return of the “bipolar.”
But it is not a return of the “illness,” your child can heal from this drug withdrawal effect. It will take time and energy to help your child heal, but properly caring for your children with love and understanding is a rewarding and important aspect of being a parent. God bless, if you’ve found yourself in this situation, and I’m sorry. But have hope and keep the faith, you can help your child heal, and grow up to experience a normal and happy life.
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Oh, a few more recommendations for any “bipolar” parents, who do choose to wean their children from the drugs. I do recommend providing safe exercise options, which will be helpful if “mania” is an issue. I recommend healthy food choices as well as creative outlets, especially that your child keep a journal. But providing art supplies for a freer, less cerebral, way of expressing him/herself may also be helpful.
Since as your child has his/her wits restored, there will be some justified anger at the maltreatment, and providing outlets for that justifiable anger will make life easier for you. And may provide inspiration in the future for your child to tell their story.
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Well written and hard to argue with. Guess there’s no one to fire you, huh? 🙂
Btw would you agree that the term “psychotherapy” is problematic no matter what takes place under its aegis, and with my premise that, beyond semantics, it refers to so many practices as to be meaningless as a discussion topic in and of itself?
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oldhead:
I would certainly agree with that. And in general I have found your comments to be helpful in clarifying various issues.
Lawrence
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Good to know, thanks.
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I laughed when I read the title, because “bipolar” behavior is pretty synonymous with teenage behavior.
I like the arguments and the conclusions you draw, as far as they went. I especially like the idea of “active addressing of kids’ issues via meaningful social interaction” as a means of handling behavioral issues.
I would love to see you work in a couple more concepts, though. For one thing, the school system itself is the cause of most “ADHD” and thereby at least indirectly a lot of “bipolar” behavior in kids. We expect young people to do things that don’t make sense to them and to comply with adult authorities unquestioningly, and this exacerbates the natural rebelliousness of youth. Additionally, schools are increasingly focused on forcing academic learning on kids who don’t need it and/or can’t handle it, and vocational options are often not available, so non-academic kids have no means to feel any sense of accomplishment. These structural issues contribute greatly to ALL kids’ struggles in school, and providing alternative avenues to success would to a great deal to improve “discipline,” as it’s hard to be truly disciplined without a purpose to pursue.
Additionally, parental abuse/neglect/lack of skill is a huge contributor to the group designated “bipolar” in adolescence, and the drugs provide cover for parents and other “professionals” who are mistreating kids or neglecting their needs.
Finally, I have to take exception to the comment: “Even if hospitalized for violence, the experience may be so supportive, friendly, and cushy that teenagers find it more rewarding than punishing.” There may be a facility here or there that is “cushy,” but most psych hospitalizations are humiliating and disempowering in every possible way. The only times I saw kids wanting to go to the hospital was to avoid other institutional mistreatment (by schools, foster homes, group homes, etc.) that seemed even worse.
None of this is to invalidate your arguments regarding the disturbing underlying message of diagnosing kids just because they are struggling. Struggling is part of human experience, and should be a call for learning and development, not pity and infantilization. But I did not want our other institutions, including the institution of the family, to be let off the hook in our zeal to identify the myriad shortcomings of the psychiatric model.
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I must agree, “I have to take exception to the comment: ‘Even if hospitalized for violence, the experience may be so supportive, friendly, and cushy that teenagers find it more rewarding than punishing.’ There may be a facility here or there that is ‘cushy,’ but most psych hospitalizations are humiliating and disempowering in every possible way.” Thus increase the likelihood of suicide attempts dramatically, so keep your children away from inpatient treatment, if at all possible.
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Someone else:
Excellent comments and advice, although it will be hard to find a psychiatrist willing to taper you completely off psych “meds”, just as it would be hard to find street drug dealers willing to help you detox off their drugs. As far as my comment about child psych hospitals, I appreciate the feedback and education. I worked in an old-style one in the 1990s, where the kids were often sad to leave due to having made close friends, experiencing caring staff who gave more listening and understanding than they often had at home, and doing lots of leisure activities outside on the beautiful grounds. Probably there are no more of these facilities, and all that’s left are the ones that just diagnose and sedate into oblivion.
Lawrence
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Thank you, Lawrence. I do agree finding psychiatrists who are willing to taper people off the drugs is hard to do. I did find two who did so, however. Although I must confess I had to deluded the first one into believing he “cured” me. And I had to embarrass the second psychiatrist by quoting another doctor, regarding the lack of logic, thus impropriety, of his forced treatments.
As to the actual downright criminal behavior of today’s force hospitalization doctors, one of my forced treatment doctors was eventually convicted by the FBI for fraud. He was having lots and lots of patients medically unnecessarily shipped long distances to himself, “snowing” patients in the hopes they would stop breathing, so unneeded tracheotomies could be done on the patients for profit.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/oak-brook-doctor-convicted-kickback-scheme-sacred-heart-hospital
Unfortunately, today’s forced treatments are more about the money, more about covering up prior malpractice, than they are about helping the clients. And when the drugs create the symptoms of the illnesses they are supposed to cure, there is a ton of malpractice that needs to be covered up, isn’t there? It is a shame how low, today’s doctors have chosen to go. Although, it’s good there are some decent doctors, like you, speaking out against today’s psychiatric fraud and crimes against humanity. Thank you.
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“So I suggest merging ‘ADHD and bipolar’ into one term that reflects their common cause: “Psychiatric Labeling-Induced Maturational Disorder” (PLIMD), with a type 1 (distractible, impulsive) and a type 2 (moody, explosive).”
Since the antidepressants do represent another iatrogenic pathway to a “bipolar” misdiagnosis, you may want to add a type 3 (depressive, manic), although that is just different words for “moody, explosive.” But I agree, all the so called DSM disorders do come down to the reality that they have iatrogenic causes, as opposed to “genetic” ones.
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
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Steve:
I agree that schools play a huge part. But it’s hard for parents to resist when all of society’s authorities – government, schools, healthcare providers, scientists, corporations, legal systems, etc. all push fake labels with miracle cures on them. We can’t change things by trying to get any of these authorities to change, since they’re all profiting too much to consider giving up their gravy trains. Our only chance of success is to educate the people who are willingly submitting themselves and their children to these authorities, about how they are making terrible, at times fatal, mistakes. Then they will say “no” to these authorities.
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Lawrence
Good blog.
To add to your above point, it is hard to expect people, especially children, to accept authority and obey rules in an overall society that is perceived (often in more primitive ways even by very young children) as unfair, unequal, hypocritical, overly authoritarian, and down right exploitative in most relationships encountered in their world. There are real material reasons for the rebelliousness of children in an unjust world; its not just a natural consequence of their youthfulness.
Many of today’s children and teenagers that end up being drugged are exactly the type of youth who rose up in rightious rebellion in the 1960’s. Psychiatry and their Disease/Drug Based paradigm of “treatment, serves an important function in today’s world by suppressing dissent from the very sections of society most likely to rise up in resistance against the injustices in the world.
Richard
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Very well put, Richard. And Lawrence, too – I do get your point, but I still think it very important to note that a huge part of the purpose of psych drugging is to cover up and/or minimize the impact of oppressive adult individuals and institutions.
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Agreed.
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I’m not taking up for parents here by any means. I was a teacher for fifteen years and no longer teach in great part due to parents, who were either too lenient or too hard on their kids. But I will say that often times, in the city where I live parents who are unwilling to take the advice of the “school psychologist” that their kids have ADHD or are “bi-polar” and drug their kids are threatened by authorities. If they won’t bow down they run the chance of having their kids taken away by authorities. They then get caught in a Catch-22 situation and usually end up drugging the kids in order to keep them at home, and not in some terrible foster care system where the chances of being traumatized are quite high.
I’m of the opinion that it’s not such a good thing to have “school psychologists” because they end up having way too much power. Also, it’s often the case that teachers are the ones who want students labeled as ADHD, as if they’re some kind of authority about all of this. There are some very fine teachers in the public schools and then there are some very lazy teachers who would rather label kids as try to help them deal with what have become very complicated lives for kids these days.
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Too many teachers are either not aware of their own issues or refuse to do anything about their issues. It’s dangerous to put people who are not self-aware in positions of power over others, especially over kids. But we do it all the time in our educational system.
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I agree, we have too many teachers who like to diagnose children with the “mental health” labels, despite this NOT being their job. And sadly, I’ve spoken with teachers about this problem, and they claim drugging the children is the only way they can control their classrooms. But, of course, this is not the only way, it’s just an easy way to shut the children up, while likely ruining the rest of the children’s lives.
And, yes, parents are being threatened by the authorities if they don’t agree to drug their children, did you see this video about this abuse of power run amok?
http://medicalkidnap.com/2014/07/20/judge-upholds-detroit-mothers-right-to-protect-daughter-from-forced-drugging/
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Yes, I remember when this mother took on the police to save her daughter from being drugged. It’s pretty frightening that something like this could even get this far, but it did. What will the “mental health” system and the legal system cook up for us next? And they’ll do it all “for our own good”, of course!
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Then they will say “no” to these authorities.
Easier said than done when those “authorities” wield state power.
But yes, change will not come primarily as the result of a collective epiphany on the part of the psych establishment, but the rejection of its narrative by the public.
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You start to get bored with your obsession with discipline. It is parents and teachers who deserve to be disciplined, not children.
Adults are completely unable to control their behavior with children. They regress. They maintain sado-masochistic relations with them: they impose arbitrary rules and punish them when they do not respect them.
Is this how we treat human beings? We do not even treat animals like that. He who punishes his dog to make it obey is a bad master; he who dreams of abandoning it or of delivering it to the pound to manage it is an execrable master.
Natural authority comes from good advices and good rules. If the orders are good for the community and their transgression causes problems, then the community will correct itself by operant conditioning. It is good, moreover, that the rules are sometimes transgressed: this makes it possible to check if a rule is justified or if it must be amended. If there is transgression, there is no fault, there is conflict: and there is no reason to take the side of the rule rather than the transgression. A new agreement must be found if one part of the community conflicts with the other, and there are many without the need for violence: reparation, forgiveness, exception, discussion, new rule… If part of the community feels compelled to use force to enforce its own rules, this community does not deserve to survive. Let it be warned that violence will respond to violence if it seeks to impose rules that do not suit the entire community.
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Wow, Sylvain, I can’t believe no one has commented on this.
The part about natural authority was so beautifully written.
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This is also the time when your marginal high sugar low mineral childhood diet catches up to you. The high sugar intake helps you develop giant mood swings, while low mineral and vitamin levels ensure you’ll go through the day tense and nervous- and maybe start regularly using drugs to feel good.
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And then you have the situation in this country where huge numbers of kids come to school hungry because there is nothing at home to eat or parents are too damned lazy to get up and fix a simple breakfast for them. And of course, a certain political party that will remain unnamed, wants to do away with any program that they see as “welfare”, within which the free school breakfast and lunch programs fall under.
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You can’t learn when your brain is not being nourished on a daily basis, especially brains that are still growing and maturing.
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Thank the Black Panther Party for instituting free breakfast programs in schools, not the “Democratic” Party.
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Right.
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Why have children you can’t or won’t feed? That’s always puzzled me. Seems the parents always have enough to eat. Criminal neglect.
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After teaching for fifteen years I came to believe that half of all people who had children probably shouldn’t have. I taught in rich Catholic schools and found that even in rich households kids could be abused and neglected. They might have all of the material things a person could ever want but they often didn’t have what counted, the love and support of their parents. I didn’t pick up on physical abuse so much as I did verbal and emotional abuse. I also ran into numerous parents who were trying to re-live their lives through their children. Of course this was just my personal opinion but it was striking how many times I ran into this.
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I know 3 women, – my friends, – who were sexually molested/raped by their fathers. By the time they got old enough to tell what happened, “Dad” & “Mom” had taken them to psychiatrists, and had them labeled/”diagnosed” and drugged. Thus, “Oh, she’s just crazy, – she has “mental illness”. You can’t believe anything she says….” See how that works? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. All 3 families were Roman Catholic, although, yes, this type of abuse also occurs in families of other religions, too….But it’s psychiatry that’s the keystone of this scam.
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Bradford
I have no doubt, knowing what I know now, that many of my students had probably been sexually abused by family. Good ol’ “family secrets”. I believe you totally about your friends and what happened to them.
One in four girls and one in every six boys are sexually abused, usually by a family member or someone that they know well. And it takes them telling, on the average, seven adults about the abuse before someone finally believes them. Often, if the abuse was done by the father the mother is the first one to say that the child is lying. Too many seem to choose the men in their lives over the well-being of their very own children.
I know a woman in the city where I live who told me that the life of her entire family was destroyed due to her unwillingness to accept the fact that her two daughters and one son were telling her the truth about being molested and raped by their father. The situation went to trial and became infamous in the city. Now, the woman’s three children still don’t speak to her even though they’re adults. She lost everything because she supported her husband over her children and now she’s miserable as she enters her old age.
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Covering up child abuse is the primary actual function of today’s psychiatric system, according to their own medical literature. Today, “the prevalence of childhood trauma exposure within borderline personality disorder patients has been evidenced to be as high as 92% (Yen et al., 2002). Within individuals diagnosed with psychotic or affective disorders, it reaches 82% (Larsson et al., 2012).”
And, of course, the treatments for these disorders create the symptoms of the disorders.
But when western civilization is controlled by “satanic pedophiles,” those “elite” “powers that be” will not want to get rid of their multibillion dollar, primarily child abuse covering up, psychiatric system.
https://www.usatoday24x7.com/putin-the-west-is-controlled-by-satanic-pedophiles/
I, and thankfully now, many are disgusted by these self proclaimed “elite” and their en mass, child abuse covering up, psychiatric and psychological minion.
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NAMI is not just a front for drug companies but abusive parents and partners too.
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Bradford, let me guess. The parents expressed joy that it was nobody’s fault and became staunch supporters of NAMI. Wonder how often this happens. Yes, there are evil psychiatrists who wink at child abuse. But many are probably clueless idiots and patsies.
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Well, “FeelinDiscouraged”, you hit the nail on the head in one case! “Dad” became a vocal local leader in NAMI, and the family was so glad to blame their “designated patient”/scapegoat, rather than deal with a harsh truth.
But also, I’d like to see the whole issue of incest treated as less of a life-ruining trauma. Not trying to make it acceptable, just make it easier to deal with, and less likely to occur. There are also many non-evil psychs, deep in denial and ignorant, who also don’t see child abuse for what it is. “Clueless idiots and patsies”, YES!, that’s what they are! LOL….
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I don’t think of the bipolar affective disorder label as any sort of an exception when it comes to labeling adolescent behavior pathological. Freud, after all, advanced his own theories about people with neurosis being stuck in earlier stages of development than adulthood properly speaking.
While there was some doubt about schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, ye auld manic depressive psychosis, at one time (as in my college textbook) was thought mostly genetic. Now that bipolar disorder has pushed ahead of schizophrenia in terms of numbers, I think doubt about it’s genetic origin must be increasing as well. Genes just don’t mutate that fast as a rule. There is also the fact that drug use, as in those adolescents labeled ADHD and taking stimulants, is seen as a causative factor. Illicit drug use has definitely been, it would seem, disrupting sleep cycles and such, an additional causative (non-genetic) factor.
Presently psychiatry has other mood swing disorder labels to further increase the would-be complexity of the matter. Not only do you have bipolar disorder distancing schizophrenia in terms of popularity of diagnosis, but you have related mood swing disorder labels to further blur any distinctions. Take the so-called schizo-affective disorder label, schizo-affective disorder represents a grab bag between schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. If you don’t want to label a person one or the other, you’ve got this in between tag, and with that, as happened to me, they can put their patient on lithium and a neuroleptic.
“Psychiatric Labeling-Induced Maturational Disorder” (PLIMD), would represent an interesting diagnosis indeed, but I think patients should be allowed to reverse the diagnosis. I think there is something juvenile in doctors excessive labeling of what you call “normality”, and dispensing of drugs as if they were candy. It is very unfair, in fact, that everybody but the doctor should be excluded from the diagnosis process. What do psychiatrists know anyway? Given a quick look at the numbers, and the rapid increase in “species” of “disorder”, I should think it would be apparent that they know very little about the subject of their own field of inquiry. Were they gaining in knowledge, the numbers should be declining, shouldn’t they? That’s certainly not the way things are going.
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Frank:
I believe these life-ruining psychiatrists “suffer from” EDHD (Ethical-Deficit Hypersedativity Disorder). As with the Nazis, they seem to think that what they’re doing is okay, or know that they can get away with it if they realize it’s not okay, because almost all the other psychiatrists and many other healthcare providers are also doing it, with the full support of our schools, government, scientists, and most of our society. It’s pure greed.
Lawrence
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It’s okay, because they’re not treating real human beings after all. Only in “treating” the mad can you have a 0% recovery rate and carve 25 years off the lifespan of your patients.
As that ancient poem Job goes: Worthless physicians are all of you!
Job, the epitome of unjust suffering, could have been referring to shrinks!
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Job definitely is one with whom one can relate, when one is dealing with today’s psychiatric industry, I agree.
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Please, Dr. K.! Yes, you’re correct about the Nazis giving speed to their troops. But, so did Russia, Japan, U.S., England, etc.,etc. I think it lessens your argument to needlessly, – and deceptively, – invoke Nazis too much. Why don’t you look into the gross over-drugging of U.S. troops by the Pentagon, and veterans by the VA?….
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I don’t think that it’s needless to talk about what the Nazis did to their own troops, but agree that he also needs to point out that the U.S. government is not lily white when it comes to things like this.
Americans like to believe that our government is so much different than totalitarian regimes but I hate to tell them that all governments do these kinds of things and they do it with no qualms of conscience. They invoke the old line about the “lives of a few being sacrificed for the need of the many”. They try to make it sound like this “sacrifice’ is some grand thing that these soldiers embraced on their own when the reality is that they didn’t know at all about what was done to them. And then when they are discharged from the armed services and turn up with all kinds of gross and terrible health problems we deny them benefits for treatment. We deny and tap dance around claiming that these people have no claims to health care. It’s obscene really.
Governments are ruthless behind closed doors and officials only allow us to see what they want us to see. And I will state that this takes place whether liberals or conservatives are in control of the government. I had a family member who spent a career in the armed services carrying out the behind the doors orders of our government. He told me way too much when he would drink too much and get loose lips.
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dr kelmenson——–you are right on…the drugging of children is awful…the drugging of everyone one is awful…we are drugging all of our problems ….and we live in an awful dictatorial world of power and money..
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Littleturtle:
And all this harm is a result of the concept of “mental illness”, especially its being claimed to be “biologically caused”. We should explain to people that it’s all a lie, so they stop unwittingly ruining their and their kids’ lives by accepting it.
Lawrence
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Don’t forget the number of teenagers that are prescribed SSRIs because they are depressed or anxious (for whatever reasons), some of whom then go on to experience SSRI induced mania which is then re-labelled or re-branded as “bipolar disorder”.
Once a person is labelled this way, it is not just he/she who is in danger, but anyone biologically related to him/her. Said person will become a “family history of ‘bipolar disorder’ ” to his/her biological relatives.
The next doctor who sees a relative of the initially labelled person may not even look at the actual history of how the original person came to be labelled that way, but will certainly see the “diagnosis”/label.
I say this from practical experience.
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Good point, registeredforthissite. Preventing that from happening to my children is why I became a psycho pharmacology researcher. And pointing out my findings, as mentioned above, to a decent, ethical, and self confident doctor did get that “bipolar” misdiagnosis off my medical records. That doctor even had me teach one of his students that some patients are “one in a million” medical researchers.
And utilizing my medical findings can work for anyone labeled as “bipolar,” because the doctors can not refute the reality that the antidepressants and/or antipsychotics can indeed create the symptoms of “bipolar,” via NIDS and anticholinergic toxidrome. And in a sick kind of way, it is kind of fun to watch the doctors squirm and shake, when you point this out to the doctors who are mass drugging children for profit.
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registeredforthissite:
Psychiatry is on a roll. It won’t stop until it ruins everyone’s life one way or another.
Lawrence
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Or, more optimistically speaking, when WE stop IT.
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Amen.
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Even the wildest teens can be tamed by the teen-whisperer.
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Trying to grow up now at 44. Besides getting off my drugs I had to go to a place where no one “knows” that I’m “bipolar.” If you are treated like a childish imbecile it’s hard to act otherwise.
A case worker once told me that “SMI” people quit maturing emotionally at the point where they become “sick.” This makes sense since the System steps in at that time and locks you into a role of childish dependence. For life.
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Yes, psychiatry has perfected the business model of tricking people into becoming, or tricking them into having their kids become permanent customers.
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FeelingDiscouraged
I’ve been talking about this very thing for months now at the state “hospital” where I work. I deal with numbers of people who don’t know how to do things that they should have learned as children, like how to delay gratification to be able to achieve more important things. They came out of families where these things were never taught or the system got its nasty and disgusting hands on them as kids and inculcated the “you’re not capable of doing things for yourself and making decisions for yourself because you’re mentally ill” at a time when they were vulnerable and believed such bull shit. I heard a young man talk about “normal people” as opposed to himself and I stopped him and stated that he was as normal as anyone else running around loose outside the walls of the “hospital”.
Yes, the system locks people into the role of childish dependence, for life.
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Again, talk is okay. But we also need to identify places where we can strike, and then plan actions.
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Where I live everyone drank the Kool-Aid and took the bait hook line and sinker. They’re total believers. Often people that the system has harmed even believe the lies told about themselves by the system. I’ve run into very few people who are willing to state that the system is lying and who are willing to do anything about it. It’s absolutely amazing to me that the situation is the way it is. I can’t find anyone who doesn’t believe the lies.
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Or, if they do admit to the lies they don’t do it openly and don’t want to continue the conversation.
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Stephen Gilbert, I don’t know where you live, but some areas of the US are more conformist than others. This goes way back and is usually tied to a religion of personal salvation seeking, and that was often operating alongside a system of slavery.
But anyway, it is easier for people to admit to bogus personal defect than it is to indict and try to get reparations from abusers.
And in all of this, the mental health system is a serious evil.
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Thank you Dr Kelmenson,
You describe the truth very accurately and eloquently.
This Article should be published in every decent national newspaper.
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Fiachra:
Thank you. Maybe it would also be effective if our articles were circulated widely on social media. If teenagers read articles such as this one, maybe they’d say “no” to their parents and schools giving up on them and needlessly sedating away their thoughts, feelings, and capabilities.
Lawrence
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…….
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You’re right, of course. And that’s, obviously, what should matter most. Sadly, though, it does not. Accountability is a crummy marketing gimmick and it’s, literally, reviled in pathogenic families. I welcomed that message as a reassuring hard-line against childhood-robbing #FAKESCIENCE . But, the public bitterly resents your demanding advice, regardless of its safety and effectiveness. Let’s face it – you’re correct, but still a killjoy. Psychiatry is a handy tool for discarding willful children, and it’s PR is actually turning parents into Munchausens. It won’t be squashed by anything shy of a #FAKESCIENCE revolt.
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Bipolar Disorder, as a psychiatric label, confines a person into a category of second class citizens known as “The mentally ill.”
When one person speaks of another as “mentally ill” he is placing that person into a subset of inferior human beings.
A racial epithet does the exact same thing. It not only categorizes them by race, it defines them as second class and unworthy of certain rights and privileges.
If a supervisor used a racial epithet to define a worker one day and the man was later fired from his job, one might conclude racism played a role.
Those who throw around a mental illness label in the workplace may be creating a similar dynamic as the racial epithet.
I think the term mental illness is no better and no different than a racial epithet and often used is the same way. The term “bipolar” is also often used in the same way as a slur. Referring to another as “a bipolar” is rarely helpful and often harmful.
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I read a book by a shrink a few years ago called Images of Madness in the Media. In it he decried using “bipolar” as a light-hearted term of deprecation. The levity was what truly bothered him. In addition to his fear that “No one will take bipolar–a real and serious illness–seriously!” Seems Dr. Pillshill was upset they were invading his turf. 😀
He claimed to be concerned about how badly people treated those his profession labels hopelessly insane. Maybe he believed this himself. But his true motives come through at the end. “People will be afraid to seek out the ‘help’ they need.” Stigma is bad for business people! How can poor Dr. Pillshill buy his new 40 foot yacht without enough clients? And the ones he has are inconsiderate and die young.
Poor Dr. Pillshill. His sad tale will bring tears to your eyes. *Violin chorus.*
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Bipolar is almost always used as a synonym for evil too. Anyone here notice that? Believing I was hopelessly intrinsically evil almost led me to commit suicide. Suicide was the only gift I could give my loved ones and humanity as a whole.
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Here is one of the problems I have with psychiatry. A person ends up in a psychiatrists office. The psychiatrist does his proprietary testing, adds his own subjective element, and renders a diagnosis. So at the conclusion of the visit, a diagnostic code is generated and submitted for insurance billing. The label is created.
The patient is given the label. Some will identify with it from then on. I’m bipolar. My doctor said so.
Then a prsecription is written, and the patient becomes “mentally ill.” The doctor, by labeling them, placed them into the category of mentally ill.
The prescription reinforces the diagnosis. The patient accepts the diagnosis as valid the day she pops the first pill. They are compliant. They believe.
So after one visit a normal person is turned into a bipolar. They take the drug acknowledging the validity of psychiatry. Few question the validity of the label. They take the little pink pill and they are a patient for life. There are no cures.
It’s sort of like someone going to a Jim Jones introductory meeting and at the end of the meeting signing a contract pledging allegiance to the church of Jim Jones. Once that first pill is popped, the patient has been indoctrinated into the cult of psychiatry. The taking of the pink pill is proof that they bought in, hook line and sinker, to the cult of psychiatry.
3% of people walk out of that office with a diagnosis of bipolar. 9% walk out with a diagnosis of ADHD. The psychiatrist has a list of 374 of these codes to choose from. Certainly he can find one for you and me.
To exit the office visit without a label is virtually impossible. Normal is not a valid billing code. No label, no pay. There is a financial incentive to render a code. A barcode like in the ryobi drill at Home Depot.
1. Visit psychiatrist. 2. Get label. 3. Get drug. 4. See me in 3 months.
Do not ask questions. Do not resist. Take your pill.
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Icagee:
Yes; this is modern psychiatry’s proven-successful business formula: Lure people in with promises of fake cures for fake diseases. Then, addict them, disable them, and get them to think they are inherently defective, so that they become your permanent customers (victims), while wrongly believing you are helping them.
Lawrence
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“The prescription reinforces the diagnosis. The patient accepts the diagnosis as valid the day she pops the first pill. They are compliant. They believe. They take the drug acknowledging the validity of psychiatry. Few question the validity of the label. They take the little pink pill and they are a patient for life. There are no cures. ”
There was a time when I had this phase. Complete indoctrination in the language of DSM labelling.
Frankly, it isn’t even the pills in and of themselves that are dangerous. People can start and stop pills whenever they want to, if it were under their voluntary control. It’s the middle-men, the shrinks, the labellers and defamers, that are dangerous. They rob away the truths of people’s lives by defaming them with DSM garbage, and can force unwanted drugs down people’s throats. And once labelled, anyone biologically related to the labelled individual is at risk.
And the people who accept these labels as “a part of them” are as dangerous as the labellers too. They truly lack insight into the damage they are doing to themselves, and some of them will even spread around the acceptance of these labels with truly good intentions of helping others.
It isn’t that the thoughts, features and life experiences associated with these terms aren’t real. Sure, they are. But the truth about an individual is descriptive. The life experiences and even underlying biology of two people labelled with the same set of labels will not be the same.
It’s ridiculous to justify using them by saying that “syndromal concepts” exist in other fields of medicine. Saying that someone’s leg has “chronic compartment syndrome”, is different than labelling a man a “schizophrenic” or “bipolar”. The social, political, and legal implications of DSM terminology is different than that of other fields of medicine.
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So what is it when one ceases to sleep and becomes manic ??
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It’s called “not sleeping and becoming manic”. Simple enough, right?
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Frances:
Everyone wants to feel happy. We can work ourselves up into a state of positive attitude, excitement, high self-confidence, and decreased inhibitions, in which we don’t need to sleep as much since this temporarily gives us more motivation and energy to accomplish things than usual. Chemicals such as cocaine, amphetamines, steroids, and at times antidepressants can help bring this about through their stimulating effects. Of course such a state cannot last, and eventually we crash. Life is full of ups and downs, especially when you are told you are “bipolar”, you believe it, and you accept everything that happens to be “symptoms” of it. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Lawrence
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In extreme cases of insomnia short term use of sleeping pills may help. Avoid getting these from a shrink! A friend of mine (duel diagnosed) was put on Lunesta. Permanently. Shrinks have no sense of moderation where addictive drugs are concerned. Because my friend already had issues with drug addiction nothing good came of this.
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This is so true, and refreshing to hear it from a physician. And don’t forget that the bipolar label stigmatizes the teen for life, if he/she is ever hospitalized, because the diagnosis goes into the patient’s permanent records with the hospital, county and state.
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This is the part that really scares me about countries like the US (and whichever other countries have recording systems like that). There is no escape huh?
It is almost psychopathic, the way the system is constructed. No wonder some people with such labels that have robbed away their life’s truths are afraid to seek medical care for even physical problems.
I fear that so-called developing nations will adopt this same model under the guise of “progress”.
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