A new report from the The Partnership at Drugfree.org found teens in the United States are in the throes of a prescription drug abuse crisis with a new survey showing 24 percent of high school students (5 million kids) are ‘abusing” drugs like Ritalin and Adderall.
In May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is scheduled to release its fifth Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) superseding the DSM-IV published in 1994 and revised in 2000. The new “psychiatry bible” has been criticized by many as a testament to the insanity of the industry itself. Virtually every emotion experienced by a human being—sadness, grief, anxiety, frustration, impatience, excitement—is now being classified as a “mental disorder” demanding chemical treatment with—you guessed it—pharmaceutical drugs.
Psychiatry is succeeding on a large scale in convincing people that there normal human feelings are wrong – disorders. When you feel down, especially for more than two weeks, you must have major depressive disorder. If you child is super active and creative, he must be ADHD.
According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control, a staggering 6.4 million American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), whose key symptoms are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity—characteristics that most would consider typically childish behavior. High school boys, an age group particularly prone to childish antics and drifting attention spans, are particularly prone to being labeled as ADHD, with one out of every five high school boys diagnosed with the disorder.
More than a decade after a national scandal regarding the over-prescription of Ritalin and similar drugs to millions of American children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now reports a far higher rate of diagnosis than a decade ago.
An astounding 19 percent of high school-age boys – ages 14 to 17 – in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD and about 10 percent are taking medication for it. Ten percent of high school-age girls have likewise been diagnosed.