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ADHD Is
Not a “Disease”
There are no objective scientific criteria confirming the existence of ADHD,
but its reported symptoms are revealing. According to the DSM, symptoms
of ADHD include: fails to give close attention to details or may make careless
mistakes in schoolwork or other tasks; work is often messy or careless; has
difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities; appears as if they
are not listening, fails to complete schoolwork, chores, or other duties, often
fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat; often runs about or climbs excessively
in situations in which it is inappropriate; often has difficulty playing or
engaging in leisure activities quietly; and is often on the go.
In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health held an experts’ “Consensus
Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD” that concluded, “We don’t
have an independent, valid test for ADHD; there are no data to indicate that
ADHD is due to a brain malfunction … and finally, after years of clinical research
and experience with ADHD, our knowledge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains
speculative.”
In 2004, faced with a court order to hand over research to substantiate the
existence of DAMP (the Swedish nomenclature for ADHD), coworkers of psychiatrist
Christopher Gillbergs, who first asserted its existence, destroyed 100,000 pages
of research so that his “findings” could never be challenged.
According to Dr. Walker, “a child who sees a DSM-oriented doctor is almost
assured of a psychiatric label and a prescription, even if the child is perfectly
fine. ... This willy-nilly labeling of virtually everyone as mentally ill is
a serious danger to healthy children, because virtually all children have enough
symptoms to get a DSM label and a drug.”
Dr. Block is unequivocal: “If there is no valid test for ADHD, no data proving
ADHD is a brain dysfunction, no long-term studies of the drugs’ effects, and
if the drugs do not improve academic performance or social skills and the drugs
can cause compulsive and mood disorders and can lead to illicit drug use, why
in the world are millions of children, teenagers and adults … being labeled
with ADHD and prescribed these drugs?”
“Hyperactivity is not a disease,” wrote Dr. Walker. “It’s a hoax perpetrated
by doctors who have no idea what’s really wrong with these children.”
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