THE “INVISIBLE” DISABILITY – ANN LANDERS COLUMN
Dear Ann Landers: Thank you for your compassionate response to the mother whose 8-year-old son didn't want to be friends with the 8-year-old "bully." No one liked this boy, and he had academic problems, as well. That same description could apply to my own son, who struggles with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder. My son has a good heart but no impulse control. Even on medication he is socially dysfunctional. Over the years, the teasing and being "left out" have turned him into a bully. With professional help, however, he is holding his own. I have every hope that eventually, he will learn how to conduct himself more appropriately and be "accepted." Please tell your readers again to reach out to unpopular children and show compassion for them. They may be struggling with an invisible disability such as ADHD. One day, these children will be able to compensate for the shortcomings of this disorder, but they never will recover from the emotional scars inflicted by thoughtless children and adults during their childhood. -- Mother in Baltimore, Md. Dear Baltimore Mom: Thank you for pointing out that not all handicaps are visible, and often, children who are the least "lovable" need to be included and accepted far more than the others. This is a lesson children learn at home, early in life, and it is one that will serve them well forever. Lonesome? Take charge of your life and turn it around. Write for Ann Landers' new booklet, "How to Make Friends and Stop Being Lonely." Send a self-addressed, long, business-size envelope and a check or money order for $4.25 (this includes postage and handling) to: Friends, c/o Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, Ill. 60611-0562. (In Canada, send $5.15.) ANN LANDERS (R)
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dear Ann, what you should have told this mother is that before they allow their
child to be put on Ritalin, Adderal, Dexedrine, or some other known substance of
addictionall of them dangerous and deadly (more often than we know) as
well--their child should have a visible, objectively verified, verifiable,
disease-physical abnormality--one clearly needing to be made normal, or more
nearly normal. As it is we in the US, as nowhere else in the world, have
6,000,000 children taking such medication, whose first and only objective
abnormality is the foreign, addictive, dangerous, sometimes deadly medication
readily found in any organ or body fluid in which, in life, or death, it is
sought.
Macauley Showalter, formerly of Minneapolis, MN, diagnosed ADHD at 3 years 7
month, dead at 8 years, one day, had no abnormalities evident at post mortem
other than metabolites of all 4 of the psychiatric drugs he was on. No other
disease or cause of death was found. ADHD could not be found. ADHD has never
been found/validated as an actual disease. The Baltimore mothers son having
been "socially dysfunctional," "teased and "left out," "a bully," and
"unaccepted" are not signs (objective abnormalities) of a disease, and should
not be diagnosed or treated as such. Calling it a disease, and drugging the
normal children, as is invariably done, is a crime and must be exposed and
prosecuted as such.]