Thirty five percent of children receiving mental health services are receiving it through their primary care Physician. What does this mean? It means that children and teens are being prescribed medications when their brains are still developing that are typically tested for 8-12 weeks when your child or teen will be on a medication typically for years if not decades.

Further twenty six percent were receiving services for mental health through a Psychiatrist. The Psychiatrist specializes in mental health issues , however, 90% typically do not provide psychotherapy or counseling services for the youth.

Research by Psychiatrist and Physicians state that counseling in con junction with medication shows best outcomes. So if a child is on medication he or she should be receiving counseling services from someone who specializes in child, tee, and family issues if they are not seeing a physician that provides psychotherapy.

One of the biggest mental disorders that is treated is ADHD and the second is anxiety and mood disorders. Many children and teens can learn ways to manage behavior with reinforcement from parents through behavior modification, mindfulness, CBT, Family therapy, parenting tips and more.

In a large research study over 74 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD were placed on medications. Over sixty percent of children and teenagers diagnosed with a mood disorder were placed on medication by their primary care physician or family doctor.

Dr Peter Breggin a harvard trained Psychiatrist who has written dozens of books and has expertise in clinical psychopharmacology states the following below:

The latest scientific literature indicates that boys averaging age 7-9 given a diagnosis of mild hyperactivity in the 1970s and treated with Ritalin (methylphenidate) have, as a group, come to a tragic outcome. Compared to a control group of normal children from the same time period, they have much higher rates of early death, atrophy of the brain, suicide, psychiatric hospitalization, incarceration, and drug addiction. By almost every measure, they have reduced quality of life and a shortened life.

Instead of hope and enthusiasm for their futures, too many children now grow up believing they are inherently defective, and controlled by bad genes and biochemical imbalances. They are shackled by the idea that they have ADHD and then subdued by the drugs that inevitably go along with the diagnosis. Unless something intervenes, many of them will go on to pass their days on Earth in a drug-impaired, demoralized state.

Why do children labeled ADHD and given stimulants as a group have such a dreadful outcome? There are multiple reasons, including:

(1) The initial stimulant causes adverse effects such as depression, anxiety, agitation, insomnia, psychosis, and aggression which are not recognized as side effects. Instead, they are viewed as the unmasking of other mental disorders, leading to the prescription of cocktails of drugs that over the years ruin the individuals life.

(2) The drugs “work” by stifling spontaneous behavior and enforcing OCD so that the child socializes less, thinks and imagines in a more constricted fashion, and simple cannot take advantage of ordinary growth experiences because of the limits on his social and psychological capacities.

(3) The initial diagnosis of ADHD ruins the child’s sense of personal responsibility and self-control, so that the child no longer thinks he can control himself. This almost inevitably disrupts emotional growth and renders the child less able to grow up into a mature adult.

(4) The initial diagnosis of ADHD undermines parental emphasis on teaching discipline and devoting the necessary time to the child. Professionals absolve the parents of parental responsibility, so they do not take classes or get therapy to help them improving their parenting.

(5) The initial diagnosis of ADHD discourages teachers from teaching discipline to children who need attention, and so the child is robbed of learning self-discipline in the classroom.