Mar 20, 2023·edited Mar 20, 2023Liked by Adrian Gaty
I finished "ADHD Nation", by Steven Schwartz, a few months ago. Prior to that I'd read "Your Drug May Be Your Problem" by Peter Breggin. I was interested in these books because around me I notice so many adults ready to talk about their "adult ADHD", I have two nieces in their teens on Lexapro, and I'm old enough to remember when the psych meds were very rare. That would have been before the early 90s. And I mentored a young girl who'd been put on ADHD meds, which turned into a passive drooling boob, and when she'd go into withdrawal, she'd be out of control. Did she need the Ritalin? Need? I'm leaning towards the answer no, that maybe no one needs these meds. And to say that in public is like walking into a fan.
Maybe pressure on doctors is so great because the direct-to-consumer marketing is so relentless. Maybe they get browbeaten by parents and school administrators who want a quick fix to bad behavior. The broken families, the illegitimacy, the chaos at home, the sugar-laden garbage the kids get fed, none of that could be to blame, right?
And when I'm out in public and looking at people I frequently see eyes that look vacant and I'm starting to think: which tranquilizer is it? Or is it Concerta?
If the American public doesn't quit taking the marketing as gospel, I don't see an end to this.
This is a dose of reality to wake up to on a Monday morning! I have read Walker Percy but will have not come across the Thanatos Syndrome. The docility expected of students is leading to an excessive diagnosis of ADHD, especially in boys, and creating an evermore complacent populace.
"In such a world, in our world, to be well read becomes an act of rebellion against one’s own education." Anesthetized students are additionally rendered obedient through the educational system itself (see my post How to Train Sheeple- A crash course in John Taylor Gatto's educational Machine resistance):
“Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.” John Taylor Gatto
I recommend reading “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness “ by Robert Whittaker. I first read the book about 5 years ago. It’s such a page turner that I literally stayed up all night reading it. Nobody should even consider taking any psychiatric medications, or let them be prescribed for their child , before reading that book. The reason I was interested in the topic is that I know so many adults and children who are on these medications. I just thought “what in the world is going on? “. Where will our culture end up with so many adults and children who have been talked in to taking these mind altering drugs for years on end? There is just no way this will end well.
I fear this will only get worse due to the antagonistic social mechanisms operating on young people today. On the one hand, you are competing for an ever shrinking number of coveted “knowledge economy” jobs that require you to focus while sitting at a screen for 8 hours plus a day. On the other, you have your attention span being depleted by the pernicious limbic capitalism of social and mass media.
Instead of doing anything to change this corrosive social environment, we are given more medical and pharmacological interventions to help us tolerate it. It is not sustainable.
Happy belated Easter. Good thing He is Risen, or else we all would have no hope.
Today, a piece from Vice makes me want to glue that tin foil hat on permanently.
Imagine the gamesmanship of big pharma (et al) creating addicted sheeple & kids, panicked by a supply shortage, coached to "express their truth" while in withdrawal from those zombie pills. Add in a few Red Flag abuses and we've got some big entertainment coming to town!
Very glad to read your posts and reader comments. Thanks for being. And writing.
I’ve actually heard providers say that buprenorphine should be in our water supply to “curb the opiate epidemic.” Not surprised tho since so many have drank the kool aid pharma pushes!
Xanax or whatever is the benzo du joir, is given status whereas you can’t say anything bad about it cause bipolar is a real thing. I’m not a psychiatrist so I’ll leave that alone.
I finished "ADHD Nation", by Steven Schwartz, a few months ago. Prior to that I'd read "Your Drug May Be Your Problem" by Peter Breggin. I was interested in these books because around me I notice so many adults ready to talk about their "adult ADHD", I have two nieces in their teens on Lexapro, and I'm old enough to remember when the psych meds were very rare. That would have been before the early 90s. And I mentored a young girl who'd been put on ADHD meds, which turned into a passive drooling boob, and when she'd go into withdrawal, she'd be out of control. Did she need the Ritalin? Need? I'm leaning towards the answer no, that maybe no one needs these meds. And to say that in public is like walking into a fan.
Maybe pressure on doctors is so great because the direct-to-consumer marketing is so relentless. Maybe they get browbeaten by parents and school administrators who want a quick fix to bad behavior. The broken families, the illegitimacy, the chaos at home, the sugar-laden garbage the kids get fed, none of that could be to blame, right?
And when I'm out in public and looking at people I frequently see eyes that look vacant and I'm starting to think: which tranquilizer is it? Or is it Concerta?
If the American public doesn't quit taking the marketing as gospel, I don't see an end to this.
Definitely none of that is to blame ; )
This is a dose of reality to wake up to on a Monday morning! I have read Walker Percy but will have not come across the Thanatos Syndrome. The docility expected of students is leading to an excessive diagnosis of ADHD, especially in boys, and creating an evermore complacent populace.
"In such a world, in our world, to be well read becomes an act of rebellion against one’s own education." Anesthetized students are additionally rendered obedient through the educational system itself (see my post How to Train Sheeple- A crash course in John Taylor Gatto's educational Machine resistance):
“Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.” John Taylor Gatto
Exactly!
I recommend reading “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness “ by Robert Whittaker. I first read the book about 5 years ago. It’s such a page turner that I literally stayed up all night reading it. Nobody should even consider taking any psychiatric medications, or let them be prescribed for their child , before reading that book. The reason I was interested in the topic is that I know so many adults and children who are on these medications. I just thought “what in the world is going on? “. Where will our culture end up with so many adults and children who have been talked in to taking these mind altering drugs for years on end? There is just no way this will end well.
Thank you so much! Look forward to reading it. And yes, there is no way this ends well for our culture
Chilling, the reference “obedience in a tablet.” It reminds me of the first application of meth in soldiers for Nazi Germany.
I fear this will only get worse due to the antagonistic social mechanisms operating on young people today. On the one hand, you are competing for an ever shrinking number of coveted “knowledge economy” jobs that require you to focus while sitting at a screen for 8 hours plus a day. On the other, you have your attention span being depleted by the pernicious limbic capitalism of social and mass media.
Instead of doing anything to change this corrosive social environment, we are given more medical and pharmacological interventions to help us tolerate it. It is not sustainable.
Precisely!
Ye Gads! I'm off my meds!
Happy belated Easter. Good thing He is Risen, or else we all would have no hope.
Today, a piece from Vice makes me want to glue that tin foil hat on permanently.
Imagine the gamesmanship of big pharma (et al) creating addicted sheeple & kids, panicked by a supply shortage, coached to "express their truth" while in withdrawal from those zombie pills. Add in a few Red Flag abuses and we've got some big entertainment coming to town!
Very glad to read your posts and reader comments. Thanks for being. And writing.
Forgot to post the link to the Vice article:
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen%2Farticle%2Fz3mv99%2Fwhy-is-there-an-adderall-shortage
I’ve actually heard providers say that buprenorphine should be in our water supply to “curb the opiate epidemic.” Not surprised tho since so many have drank the kool aid pharma pushes!
Xanax or whatever is the benzo du joir, is given status whereas you can’t say anything bad about it cause bipolar is a real thing. I’m not a psychiatrist so I’ll leave that alone.