America’s Medicated Kids
It was with sadness that I watched America’s Medicated Kids last night on BBC2. As a fan of Louis Theroux I think he coped with interviewing these families very well asking questions (that we all wanted to ask) and not invading their space.
However, it still made for uncomfortable viewing. I’m writing a paper at the moment on ADHD with regards to genetics and environment. There are so many multifactoral reasons for a child to get ADHD, none of which were covered in this programme, and too many to mention in this blog (perhaps I’ll write again on the subject later).
To me the children’s behaviour (despite being medicated) was in the usual parameters of being a child or a stroppy rude insolent teenager – nothing new there. In fact if you look at the children Jo Frost aka SuperNanny has to deal with – some of these so-called ADHD children were polite in comparison.
The medication seemed to be used to parent. A kid gets stroppy, plays up, doesnt concentrate in class, and they are labelled with a mental health issue and zoned out and tranquillsed on the latest drug that has been manufactured for the latest invented mental health issue.
We also did not get to see behind the scenes of what was really going on in these children’s lives when the cameras were off. When Louis interviewed the 10 yr old Hugh, he replied like an actor who had been fed lines – something strange was going on in that family. In fact something strange and sinister seems to be happening all over mid-America with the numbers of ‘ADHD’ soaring every year…. and yes it’s spreading in the UK as well.
