The Time article astonished me in all sorts of ways. I took Abnormal Psych at Western last year and we discussed all sorts of mental illnesses and how common they are among Americans. If I recall correctly the statistics in that textbook were somewhere close to 30-50% of Americans may have a mental illness but may never be diagnosed. The article in this class discussing the mental disorders in children was very interesting.
I can't say I agree with everything that is being done about mental illness however I also have never suffered intensely from one myself. I have watched family members do terrible things when they were feeling sad or sick: not themselves. The article brought up an interesting idea and I am curious as to what you all may think. Prescribing medicines to children or teens before their brain is fully developed so they can handle life at a younger age is causing a controversey for what their brain will be like when they are an adult. The quote, "What worries some doctors is that if you medicate a child's developing brain, you may be burning the village to save it," is what I am more curious about.
Burning the village to save it, it makes me wonder how the pills affect the brain in which the pills are making the brain seem more healthy but if they are triggering the brain to do things before it is fully developed... what could happen to our future generations if the majority of us are on meds helping mental illnesses and our brains can't fully develope?
I find it very scary that medications with the side effects the meds used to treat ADHD or depression have, are being used on children so often. I am aware there are extreme cases that do require medication to get control of the situation but I also feel that these medications are commonly prescribed in cases that are not severe and other treatments could be tried first. The long term effects can be too scary to just prescribe stimulants and other medications to youth without a very strong reason.
ReplyDeleteGood reflection blog this week Anna, i just like you found this artcle both eye opening and very intersting. Abnormal pysch seems like a realyl fun class, some of the medacation they talked about this week and some of the side affects they gave are pretty scary. That fact was very intresting about un diagnosed metal illness in amaerica becasue im sure we all know a few people we might suspect have something wrong. Great resposne it was very intersting!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how scary it can be to see such blasé use of medications in children. I liked the quote that you pulled from the article as it is one that stood out to me too.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth McMains