ADHD—Labelling normal kids “mentally ill”

ADHD is a bogus mental “disorder” based only on a checklist of behaviours. There are no medical tests to prove any child has ADHD, yet more than 4.5 million kids have been diagnosed and put on drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall and Concerta, which the U.S. DEA places in the same highly addictive category of drugs as cocaine, morphine and opium. According to the Centre for Disease Control, boys are much more likely to be diagnosed “ADHD” than girls. The “checklist” for ADHD could fit any normal child and literally includes such ridiculous criteria as

 ” runs about or climbs excessively in situations when it is not appropriate” (we are talking about KIDS here… right?) ” is often ‘on the go ”acts as if driven by a motor” ”blurts out answers” ”is easily distracted” ” loses pencils or toys” “often doesn’t seem to listen”
 
To be perfectly clear — this is ALL that it takes to diagnoses a child with a ‘mental disorder’ of ADHD; a checklist of behaviours (the above is taken directly from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry’s billing bible. There is no medical or scientific test that is then taken afterwards to ‘confirm’ this diagnoses – simply because there isn’t one. So the ONLY way a kid is ever diagnosed is simply based on the checklist. That’s it. There are no blood tests, brain scans, chemical imbalance tests, X-rays or “genetic” factors to prove any child has a mental “illness” called ADHD. This is simply a list of child-like behaviours that psychiatrists clustered together, repackaged as a mental disorder and the result is a multi- billion dollar empire — the child labelling and drugging industry.

In 2006, when our daughter Samantha Parnell was just 15 she, like many teenage children, experimented with recreational drugs, her choice being skunk, a selection of selectively bred cannabis strains.
We became aware when she started behaving out of character, in fact her we thought that our daughter had a brain tumour such was the drastic change we had seen in her. Alarmed by this, we took Sam to a local hospital whereupon she finally admitted that she was smoking cannabis.

Confused and showing signs of agitation a doctor injected Sam and told her that it would help calm her, the hospital then prescribed her Risperdal, an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia. The hospital told us that Risperdal was a standard drug they used to treat teenagers who had taken street drugs. We were also informed that the "medicine" was well tolerated.
As weeks turned into months Sam found it difficult to tolerate the Risperdal, in fact, "the Risperdal made things worse." When Sam told the health care professionals about her intolerance they simply upped the dose. She was told by medical staff that they needed to keep adjusting the dose until "they got it right" as everyone needed "different amounts."

In 2007, seeing no marked improvement, Sam was prescribed Zyprexa. Concerned, we told the prescribing doctor that we’re not happy that Sam was being prescribed drugs and asked if there were any alternatives. The doctor told us there were no alternatives and that this was the standard treatment.

Things went downhill for Sam and her behaviour became worse, so bad was her behaviour that she was sent into an acute young person’s unit where she was given more psychiatric drugs. We noticed that Sam became lethargic and showed little or no emotion and also learned that she was self-harming, she also lost track of time and didn't know what day it was. It was just a downward spiral, by this time she was a shadow of her former self. She asked Steve and me several times please help me to die. Can you imagine that, she even said I’ll write you a letter so you and daddy don’t get into trouble.

Sam was becoming more violent and we noticed that it became worse just a couple of weeks prior to her menstrual cycle. Sharon relayed this to Sam’s doctor as she felt it may be of importance. Her doctor, apparently, never investigated this finding.
During 2007 Sam was in and out of hospital units and was also sectioned under the mental health act where she was prescribed Clozaril, an atypical antipsychotic, we had to sign a consent form and were told that Sam’s blood would be checked regularly as it could interfere with her white blood cells.

We didn’t like the sound of it at all but it was said this was the last she could try as this is the drug they use for treatment resistant people.
At this point Sam was taking three drugs, Zyprexa, Abilify and Lamictal, a fourth, Clozaril, was added to the mix and each time medical staff tried to 'up' the dose Sam’s heart reacted which ultimately saw her admitted to a cardiac unit where she was told the Clozaril had to be stopped with immediate effect.

Whilst introducing Clozaril they reduced her from Zyprexa. Each time they tried to raise Clozaril her heart reacted so the cardiac doctor said it must be stopped immediately. They then proceeded to put her back on Zyprexa and also adding Abilify and lamotrogine.
Sam’s Clozaril was substituted with Diazepam, a benzodiazepine used for the short-term relief of symptoms related to 'anxiety disorders'.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if we knew then, what we know now, we would have said no. Sam’s life at this moment in time is a mess; I never want to hear of another child being abused by so called doctors again with these so called medicines. Sam has been so violent and she has hurt people and damaged lots of things too but their drugs have done that to her.
On 20th May 2011 we took Sam to a private hospital too see a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist. Sharon explained all of our daughter's mood swings and violent outbursts. After discussion, he prescribed Oestrogen patches for Sam to wear two weeks on and two weeks off and said, "if you get a 10% difference after the two cycles then I will put her on the lowest dose to start just too see and then maybe go up to the next dose if it works for her."

The patches seemed to calm Sam down somewhat, although she was still experiencing rage. The patches, stopped her more violent outbursts, she stopped attacking people and smashing up the place.

Unfortunately, Sam had previously attacked a bus driver who had refused her on a bus, Sam had tried to board the bus with a train travel card and lashed out when she was refused to board.
 
Sam, now 20, was sent to a medium secure unit. Mum wrote a letter to the court explaining what she believes to be the reasons why Sam acts the way she does. It bore no weight with the magistrate.
We know from the research that we have done on these so called medicines that two of the drugs Sam was on, clearly says can interfere with women’s hormones and they never told us that in the beginning. The same as they only chose to tell of what they call minor side effects. Anyone who has been on these drugs and anyone who has looked after anyone on these drugs know they are actual effects. We have been creating awareness about the use of psychiatric drugs in children and wishes for parents across the UK to research any psychiatric drug prescribed to their children.

To date Sam has been prescribed the following psychiatric drugs;

Diazepam
Phenergan
Olanzapine
Lamotrigine
Risperidone
Clonazepam
Aripiprazole
Clozaril
Seroquel

She is currently spending time at a secure unit, a young woman trapped in the mental health system, hooked on psychiatric medication that has escalated her problems and eradicated nothing.

We have sought the help of professionals, that help resulted in misery starting in 2006. Our daughter has been punished enough, it's time for those responsible to remove their heads from the sand, it's time to stop the chemical cosh whipping.

She is one of many thousands of children, teenagers, adults and elderly caught in the mental health trap.