When a headline features the word “drugging,” the report about ADHD that follows will not be well-balanced. Such was the case with Esquire’s recent salvo into the topic, “The Drugging of the American Boy.”
Esquire joins The New York Times in treating one of the most well-researched and documented conditions in medical history as a piñata. Bash ADHD and all the goodies fall out. Web traffic soars.The immense anti-psychiatry blogosphere races to showcase the latest proof that they’ve been right all along. Esquire actually calls this piece a “blockbuster investigation” — just in case the ASME judges missed it.
Lost in the shuffle: Accurate reporting on a critically important public health issue affecting millions of Americans.
You can read the rest at How Esquire Got ADHD Wrong.How Esquire Got ADHD Wrong.
If those who are most affected by ADHD don’t counter this rubbish, we risk losing a lot. At any time, weak-willed politicians in collusion with an often science-illiterate public could pull the plug on ADHD research funding, insurance reimbursements, and medication supplies.
Gina,
Everyone remotely connected with the ADHD community should tweet and forward your excellent, thoughtful, and spot-on piece linked here. I dropped a comment over there several days ago to support your perceptive and accurate reportage.
Your penetrating overview stands in marked contrast to the yellow journalism, the muckraking and hand wringing associated with gossip, street talk and rumor so characteristic of these irresponsible pieces. They collect words designed to sell, not to move this important discussion forward with constructive understanding.
We all know problems exist, but reductionistic thinking. only on the negative, simply does not address the progress I’ve seen in the last 20 years out on the road speaking to medical colleagues. As de Bono says: EBNE —- we are at a point of Excellent But Not Enough – his YouTube video on this poor thinking is here: http://corepsych.com/deBono-dogma.
You’ll love de Bono.
cp
Thanks, Chuck, as always, for always being on the front lines countering nonsense with clear thinking!