Kids and disease mongering

It goes well beyond DTC advertising. There is a cultural sickness that involves a preoccupation with technological fixes of what are not technological problems. A dominant belief that there are technological solutions to the problems of living and a refusal to accept that the most personal problems are those of mind and soul and not amenable to technology–but rather to virtues such as practice, self-discipline, patience, and faith–and that the cultivation of these qualities is a life-long struggle that begins in toddlerhood and persists with frequent failures throughout life.

In fact, to the many of the consumers of these meds, and their parents, the language of virtue, words like discipline, effort, and self-denial, is offensive language.

Much more comfortable is the language of “chemical imbalance” demanding the solution for selfish egocentric behavior be a “medication adjustment” because the child “can’t control himself”.

Well, he didn’t have the neural wiring to control his bowels at one time either, but at some point his mother wouldn’t tolerate it any longer and he made the effort and after many failures, the neural apparatus developed and he learned.

It is the same with learning to restrain the impulse to hit those who oppose his will, keep quiet until called upon, etc. Effort and attention, motivated by consequences, are required and that is work for the child and adults. Life should be free and easy and nothing ever hard nor one ever feel bad over having failed.