The mental health industry by Armstrong Williams, July 16, 2002 - Commentary by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD

Armstrong Williams (archive)

July 16, 2002

The mental health industry

In 1987, a smoke filled room of pharmaceutical executives invented the
diagnosis, "attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)."

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
wrong,
Mr. Williams. In 1970 Congressional hearings (Federal Involvement in the
Use of Behavior Modification Drugs on Grammar School
Children of The Right to Privacy Inquiry Hearing Before Subcommittee on The
Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives 91st Congress,
Second Session September 29, 1970) it was already apparent that psychiatry
in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government was
already representing what was then called minimal brain damage, minimal
brain dysfunction, MBD, hyperactive child syndrome—all forerunners of
ADD/ADHD to be an actual diseases of the brain, justifying, requiring
“treatment” with one and all drugs, poisons they called “treatments” and
this would be totally arbitrary, regardless of dangers or death rates,
determined, only by profit margins.]

In a nutshell: ADHD is described as a neurological disorder

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
as a
disease/an objective, physical abnormality within the child/brain of the
child]

that prevents children from focusing on a specific task. It is
worth noting that there exists no scientific method for diagnosing

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
means to demonstrate/adduce the abnormality]

this ailment. Simply, if a child is
observed to be acting bored, distracted and/or boisterous in the classroom,
he is often believed to be suffering from ADHD; as opposed to suffering
from, say, childhood

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
just as pediatrician William Carey testified at
the NIH Consensus Conference, 11/16-18/98, ADHD is a set of normal behaviors
in normal children. I added in testimony at the CC that for psychiatry,
mental health to call them a disease, their purpose being to make “patients”
of normals, to drug them is “a total, 100% fraud“]

.
Presently, every public school child is required to undergo testing for
attention deficit disorder

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
really? Is there a federal program requiring this?

.
The most recent analysis from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reports that 1.6 million elementary school children
were diagnosed with ADHD between 1997 and 98.

By drugging these children into complacency, the pharmaceutical companies
give order to the chaos of childhood

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
order that should be attained by
appropriate discipline and training through appropriate parenting and
teaching]

and make lots of money. Just one thing: A recent study
published in The Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that
the chief medication prescribed for treating ADHD, Ritalin, has addictive
qualities and cardiac side effects similar to those of cocaine. Nonetheless,
"production of Ritalin has increased more than sevenfold in the past eight
years, and 90 percent of it is consumed in the U.S.," reports Time magazine.
Lawrence Smith and his wife are deeply sensible about the dangers associated
with this powerful amphetamine. They lost their 14-year-old boy, Mathew,
after Ritalin treatment exacerbated an existing heart condition, resulting
in the child's death. Smith says he was pressured into putting Mathew on
Ritalin by the school's social worker. "She said that if we wouldn't
consider getting Mathew on Ritalin for their diagnosis of Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, that social services could charge us for neglecting
his educational and emotional needs. My wife and I were scared of the
possibility of losing our children, if we did not comply."
Smith feels that if they were informed about the risks involved with Ritalin
or about available alternatives, their child might be alive today

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
as
importantly, or more so, had they been told that Matthew was a normal child
behaving normally, and that ADHD is not a disease at all but a fraud, and
that it is a fraud, not a disease is actually known by ex-Surgeon General
Satcher, PS Jensen, S Hyman, X. Castellanos, Z Zametkin, and all in research
and academic psychiatry responsible for deceiving the public, violating
their informed consent rights, getting them to put their normal children on
these dangerous, addictive, deadly, wholly, medically-unnecessary
drugs]

.
So who is making all of these ADHD diagnoses? Often times it is school
counselors who are not equipped to make mental health assessments. Dr. Mary
Ann Block, an advocate for the treatment of ADHD without drugs, warns that
most of the schoolchildren labeled ADHD "have never had a thorough medical
exam to rule out any health problems causing the symptoms, or as a
precaution before prescribing typical ADHD drugs that carry so many risks."
In lieu of overmedicating our children, might I suggest that we consider a
return to parenting? A not-so-subtle example: My father was confronted with
several boisterous children who tended toward excitability. That is to say,
like most children, our young consciousness raced lightening quick in about
43 directions at all times. My father's solution was a few stern words and
the loud snap of a belt. Believe me, we began paying attention.
Of course, nowadays parents are made to feel guilty for disciplining their
children

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
and this too, make no mistake is orchestrated by
psychiatry/mental health, wanting to take over the parenting, wanting to
drug the children]

.
There can even be hell to pay in lawsuits. So we
opt instead to murder our children's consciousness with medication. Medicate
the child whose eyes glaze during science class. Medicate the child who
displays a little too much childlike exuberance. Medicate him. Medicate her.
Medicate everyone.

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 1 million children
take psychotropic drugs to help control their behavior. Some of those
children will suffer serious side effects as a result of a faulty diagnosis
of ADHD. Others, like Mathew, will die

[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:

Shaina Dunkle, 10 years old and
normal until her physician prescribed desipramine has just died. She too
was being treated for the fictitious, fraudulent “disease”—ADHD. Cameron
Pettus, 12, of Austin, Texas, likewise normal until “treatment” with
desipramine commenced, died from the treatment. They have in their
armamentarium; many drugs that can render normal children abnormal and that
can kill them.

Stephanie Hall, 11, going on 12, died in her sleep the night
after an increase in her Ritalin. Travis Neal, 13, of Chattanooga, TN,
keeled over and died in gym class, and—just like

Matthew Smith, his heart
was massively enlarged, abnormal, the results of Ritalin. Never the result
of ADHD because, ADHD, for which these poisons are prescribed is a fraud,
always will be.]

Against this backdrop, it is imperative that we pass legislation prohibiting
teachers and other unqualified school personnel from making mental health
diagnoses. Lawmakers also need to ensure that children receive thorough
medical examinations to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms
associated with ADHD. Equally important is that parents receive full
disclosure of the dangerous side effects of the psychotropic drugs being
prescribed to their children.

Very simply, our schools should not be co-opted by drug companies. Nor
should the minds of our youth be so carelessly tossed on the psychiatric
assembly line.