Drug Treatment & Alcohol Rehab

Mind to Take a Pill?
The Psychiatric Hoax

The basis of our lifestyle is based on mutual trust. We have faith that our government will do its best to improve the country's economy, the standard of living of its citizens, and national unity. The same goes with our health care system. We have partial if not complete faith in the doctors, medical assistants and surgeons running the hospitals.

However, numerous circumstances and situations have shown us that we all make mistakes, and that even though doctors have our best intentions at heart, they are still human. No human is perfect, so it simply wouldn't make sense to state that a psychiatrist is always right, a judicial court official never condemned an innocent man, or that pharmaceutical companies don't wish to increase their annual revenues. Pharmaceutical companies are before anything else a corporation. A corporation is there to make a

profit, to increase its annual revenues and particularly to please its shareholders. However, to improve the company's efficiency and prosperity, additional medication and medical supplies have to be sold. Several different types of advertisements are aired on national and international television stations boasting the "miraculous" properties of medications. It's a fact: pills don't cure anything; the most they can do is attenuate the symptoms. The same goes for other types of medications. The body's immune system and defence mechanism is the one actually battling against the disease.

So why do we take pills again? It's quite simple. Doctors prescribe them, pharmacists deliver the merchandise, the customers purchase the product, and the pharmaceutical companies make a profit. It's a running industry that has been prospering for decades now. Nevertheless, is the population's best interest still their first priority?

Ritalin, a popular medication prescribed for kids diagnosed with ADHD, is an extremely addictive drug belonging to the amphetamine family. So what exactly is ADHD? ⁴Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition that becomes apparent in some children in the preschool and early school years. It is hard for these children to control their behaviour and/or pay attention. It is estimated that between 3 and 5 percent of children have ADHD, or approximately 2 million children in the United States. This means that in a classroom of 25 to 30 children, it is likely that at least one will have ADHD. ADHD itself reflects many of the normal behaviours of children: their joy of life, their curiosity for the world around them and their continuous excitement for new activities. The majority of children diagnosed with ADHD are prescribed drugs to treat this so called disease, and will "calm" the child, hence enabling him/her to concentrate on the tasks asked of him/her. Yet, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to drug today's youth, the numbers rising up to 17 million children worldwide, for a "disease" which could be "treated" with other healthy methods. The drugs don't cure anything; they are only a temporary solution that may ultimately cause long-term damage.

When a child's schoolwork and behaviour improve soon after starting medication, the child, parents, and teachers tend to applaud the drug for causing the sudden changes. Unfortunately, when people see such immediate improvement, they often think medication is all that's needed. But medications don't cure ADHD; they only control the symptoms on the day they are taken.

How is it that a society constantly claiming to "wage war on drugs" lets such a drug get prescribed? Has the government overlooked the dangerous effects, or is it simply denying the scientific evidence? The simple fact that this drug is highly addictive, dangerous and sometimes fatal, should be worrisome. 5In the U.S. alone, approximately 4 million children are currently on the psychiatric drug Ritalin, a drug which the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) places in the same category (a schedule II drug) as opium, morphine and cocaine. Imagine the dangerous consequences Ritalin could have on a developing child's body and brain. Parents having their child's best interests at heart should immediately obtain additional information on the topic, and seriously consider another alternative for the treatment of ADHD. Drugs are not a solution.

Yet psychiatrists have this unconditional power to prescribe "off-label" drugs (drugs for which no scientific study of the drug has been conducted and whether or not it is safe or beneficial). These drugs pose a serious threat, particularly since they haven't been completely tested for dangerous side effects or possible long-term effects. However, psychiatrists still have the right to prescribe them, which is downright unacceptable.

Numerous diagnosed mental illnesses are getting treated by other types of highly addictive and "off-label" drugs. The lives of millions of individuals are threatened due to the carelessness of the drug being administered. Does anyone have the right to take this type of risk with a life, especially if this individual is affected by a mental illness? Well, psychiatrists do so everyday without any opposition. They are supported by the government and unsurprisingly enough, by the pharmaceutical industry.

Nevertheless, those toxic psychiatric drugs have particularly deadly side effects, and not only for the person using them. All around us, we see increased violence and assaults. Simply by looking at the daily news broadcast, we sit stunned by the violent acts and cruel sardonic murders, which recently occurred. We blame it on the abundance of guns and weapons, the color of skin, the age of the victim, or whatnot, but in many cases, we are far from the truth.

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