A wrote:
Dear Dr. Baughman:
The information on your website while informative is not usefule to
parents of children with ADHD. What I need to know is how do I help
my child. My son's school once threatened to report me to the state
for neglecting my child because I resisted putting him on Ritilin. I
am always searching for resources that would offer an alternative.
My son's condition is real whether it is a disease or not.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
The challenges/problems your son presents to the adults in his
life, his parents and teachers are no doubt real but they do not
constitute a disease, they are not a medical problem and their is
not, therefore a medical solution. If there is no disease--for which
their must be a diagnostic, objective, physical abnormality on some
exam/test, the problems your son/child has and presents to all in
his life, family, school and community, are situational and are his
failure and that of all adults in his life charged with his rearing
and for his preparation. Psychiatry and all that is 'mental health'
wants you to think otherwise so he will become a patient, fodder for
the mental health industry and for the pharmaceutical industry that
owns and controls it all. Succumb to that and you will, in effect be
surrendering your responsibility to your child and family and you
will be surrendering him. In other words, parenting is tough and it
is never ending, there is no point at which you are entitled to give up
not even in the form of saying 'it is medical--a chemical imbalance.' Find
the book by David B. Stein of Longwood, VA. U. on child rearing without
labeling and drugging. By the way, I am not merely refuting the
fraudulent claim that adhd is a fraud, that it does not exist, I am telling
you that your son is your responsibility, and the schools responsibility.
If problems persist, if he feels life is not worth living, analysis and
effort must start and end at home. Do not turn, wishful thinking like to
the disease/drug model, it is very seductive and it is an out for parents
when there is no such thing as a parent 'out'. Good luck to you, your family
and your son.
Sincerely, Fred Baughman, Jr. MD.]
begrudgingly have to admit that not for the Ritilin my son would be
failing out of school and may have committed suicide by now. I can't
understand opinions which merely refute the very existence of ADHD
without offering hope to those who suffer with it. And it is a
disease, if I can use that term, which affects an entire family.
Who is the target audience for such information and who does it help?
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