Last week there was another school shooting in the United
States, home to more school shootings (by far) than any other country in the
world. Too often nowadays, tragedy leads
not to action, but fearful avoidance. There
have been 74 school shootings in the last 18 months, fifteen of which were of
the variety that make national headlines – the ones you would know about. 15 over 18 months is one every five weeks. The time has passed for talking about it and
the time has come to do something. Many
reasons exist for why these incidents have become more prevalent in the last
twenty years than ever before. Not to
discount any of the other reasons that these occurrences have increased, but the
primary intention of this column is to call into question the manner in which
our society has chosen to deal with mental instability in children and offer
solutions.
No matter the effect, there is always a cause. According to the National Institute of Mental
Health, close to 50% of all teenagers have been diagnosed with a mental
disorder. They also posit that 20% of
teenagers have or will suffer from a “severe” mental health disorder. There is quite a bit of controversy as to
whether or not the cause leading to such effects is based on faulty diagnosing
procedures (over diagnosis being the by-product) or real problems. All the while, the use of medication to
regulate behavior has spiked in the last decade, tripling the number of kids
who are taking drugs. The percentage of
children in the United States currently on behavioral prescriptions is now
around 10%. Every pharmaceutical drug
has side effects. We need to be a lot
more careful about making drugs the first option and transition them back to
their place as the last resort. “What’s
not known about the long-term effects [of drugs prescribed for mental health
disorders] is very troubling,” Christopher Bellonci, M.D., assistant professor
at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, said. “The younger you go,
the more you can affect the developing brain.”
If kids are angry, depressed, lacking in focus, or
otherwise, the protocols for how to handle them has seen a sharp de-emphasis on
the factors that can help these kids and their parents truly understand and overcome
their less than desirable conduct and are further emphasizing putting them on
prescription drugs. It’s a consequence
of the same dated mindset of treating disease by methods that produce opposite
effects of symptoms designed to satiate our rabid societal desire for instant
gratification. The American
Psychological Association has concluded, based on their research, “that all too
often, Americans are taking medications that may not work or may be
inappropriate for their mental health problems.” Though it is not working, it continues to be
a problem. Back in 2009, the US Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality reported “that in 2006 more money was spent
on treating mental disorders in children aged 0 to 17 than for any other
medical condition, with a total of $8.9 billion. By comparison, the cost of
treating trauma-related disorders, including fractures, sprains, burns, and
other physical injuries, was only $6.1 billion.” That’s a lot of money and not a lot of results. People recognize that these pharmacological
methods are ineffective and even dangerous, but little is being done about
it. Step one to doing something about it
is spreading awareness that it’s a fundamental flaw in the system to over
diagnose and under value the essential reasons why behavioral issues develop.
It would be helpful to have a general understanding of
how brain activity is conducted. The
human body works via electrical circuitry similar to what you have in your
house. That circuitry is called the
central nervous system. The brainstem
plays a regulatory role in the electrical activity throughout your body,
including that of your brain. There are
basic processes that depend on the integrity of the central nervous system to
allow for such normal functions as hearing or seeing something and being able
to establish a rationale, cognitive thought in reaction to it – in other words,
the inner workings that control behavioral response. Rationale thoughts and behaviors – hard to
call them “normal” when everyone is so different – require certain biochemical
and neurologic procedures to be in place.
Upper Cervical Care is the process of detecting and removing such
functional, neurologically based problems by ensuring that the brainstem is
working the way it is designed to. It
should be a part of the revised protocol to help identify the root for mental
health issues, as should the other things described below.
As so little in our world is black and white, I believe
that multiple factors have contributed to mental health problems being more
prevalent than ever. I agree that way
too many kids are diagnosed with “disorders” when, in reality, they’re just
being kids. Sometimes, the mistakes
children make are little more than their learning process for how to grow up
and adapt in a world that’s increasingly different. Yet, when it is an actual problem and not a
few bad choices, there are nutritional factors to consider, as our foods have
largely been stripped of their nutritional value in an effort to make eating
more convenient and fast. It is also a
cultural shift, which has led to teachers being handcuffed in their ability to
educate and entitled kids who don’t believe that they have anything to learn. Then, the media is so negative and the TV
shows so melodramatic that it is a wonder if children even know anymore that
the world has a lot to offer them if they offer something to it. Add to that the spotlight that kids are put
under from early ages through social media and online influences and the generally
regarded fact that kids no longer have a strong sense of personal
responsibility.
Failure to consider these fundamental factors and
assuming that the best option is to essentially numb bad behaviors and thoughts
is a dangerous game – literally. “Some
90 percent of school shootings over more than a decade have been linked to a
widely prescribed type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors or SSRIs,” according to British psychiatrist Dr. David Healy. Some sources say it’s actually 100%. Enough is enough; it’s time for a change. I sincerely hope that we will all soon come
to the conclusion that these tragedies should stimulate a serious revamping of
how we collectively view mental health.
Thinking good things for you,
Dr. Chad
