Completely lacking in scientific proof or validity...

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is psychiatry’s “billing bible” of so-called "mental disorders". With the DSM, psychiatry has taken countless aspects of human behavior and reclassified them as a “mental illness” simply by adding the term “disorder” onto them. While even key DSM contributors admit that there is no scientific/medical validity to the “disorders,” the DSM nonetheless serves as a diagnostic tool, not only for individual treatment, but also for child custody disputes, discrimination cases, court testimony, education and more. As the diagnoses completely lack scientific criteria, anyone can be labeled mentally ill, and subjected to dangerous and life threatening “treatments” based solely on opinion.

Originator of DSM acknowledges psychiatry has no effective treatment or cures for psychiatric disorders...

Masquerading as the science of mental health requires that certain appearances be maintained. It was German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin who, in the 1800s, first worked on a system of codification of human behavior, while simultaneously acknowledging that psychiatry had no effective treatments or cures for psychiatric disorders.

Since Kraepelin, the number of psychiatric condemnations of human behavior has steadily expanded. Today, they are codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Mental Disorders Section. First published in 1952 with a list of 112 maladies, the 1994 issue of DSM specifies more than 370 disorders. Where did all these disorders come from?

How ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) came into being and it's effects...

“In 1987, ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ (ADHD) was literally voted into existence by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and enshrined in the DSM-III-R (third edition-revised).  Within one year, 500,000 children in the U.S. alone were diagnosed with this affliction created by a vote - a show of hands.”
—from the booklet "Psychiatry — Betraying and Drugging Children" published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights

By 1997, the number of labeled kids had risen to 4.4 million, and estimates today range as high as 6 million. That’s 6 million children who have been prescribed cocaine-like drugs, and for a condition that has never been scientifically proven to exist.

It is unfortunately “common knowledge” that a child diagnosed with ADHD has a physical disorder in the brain.

However, the official psychiatric criteria for diagnosing ADHD is in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV), published in 1994.  There are 2 types of ADHD; in order to be diagnosed with the inattention type, a child must have 6 or more of the following symptoms, for at least 6 months, “to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level.” These are verbatim from DSM-IV:

• often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work or other activities
• often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities
• often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
• often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)
• often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
• often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework)
• often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g., toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools)
• is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
• is often forgetful in daily activities

A mother fights back...

Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist famous for his anti-psychiatry views, tells a heroic story of a mother's battle to get her son back from the clutches of Ritalin:

"Marty entered third grade, a scrawny brown-haired boy with a quizzical look and a feverish imagination.  He annoyed fellow students by following them, pad and pen in hand, jotting down their every word. He lead a class strike over a math assignment, persuading 25 other kids to repeatedly shout, ‘No pay, no work!’ (Marty) could drive (his mother) to distraction as well.  He had a habit of waking her up in the middle of the night to share his latest tall tale.

"Marty was repeatedly diagnosed as ADHD by teachers and medical professionals who pressured his parents to medicate him with Ritalin. When Marty’s mother finally gave in to drugging him, she couldn’t bear the changes that she witnessed: ‘He wasn’t there.  He did everything he was supposed to do.  But his personality was gone.’  She missed him.

"Marty’s mom stopped the medication and recommitted herself to doing everything in her power to help her son without drugging him.  She went to his classes to help him learn discipline, she met with his teachers, she encouraged the school to create more interesting assignments for him, she resolved conflicts with her husband about how to raise him, and she made necessary changes in herself to deal better with her son’s lack of self-control.

"Now Marty is having a fine year in the 11th grade, still as energetic as ever, getting good grades in courses that interest him, writing screenplays as a hobby, working 20 hours a week at a Pizza Hut, and getting himself to school on time.

"Fortunately, his mother was willing to go to great lengths to help him.  Extraordinary children can make extraordinary demands on their parents — but the rewards can be extraordinary as well.”

—Dr. Peter Breggin, from his book "Talking Back to Ritalin"

Parents go back to the basics...

“As a youngster, Eric (son of the author) was relentlessly active, demanding, and loud.  He threw wild tantrums as a toddler and didn’t sleep through the night until he was nearly 3.  With age he became increasingly oppositional and impulsive. 

When Eric started school the problems quickly compounded.  By the third grade he was reading well below grade level and had become a major behavioral problem.  He could not play games without losing his temper (unless everything was going his way) and often snapped at his teachers when reprimanded.  In class he was talkative and generally inattentive.

In short, at 9 years of age Eric exhibited every symptom now associated with not only attention deficit disorder (ADD) but also pronounced learning disabilities.

Two years later Eric was reading above grade level, making all but straight A’s, and his behavior - while not completely turned around - was manageable.  During that two years he did not receive any medication, was enrolled in no special programs in school, and received no tutoring.

What happened?  First, our family made the transition from being child-centered to being marriage-centered.  From that nuclear position we were able to take control of a situation that had been spinning out of control.  Second we assigned nearly all of the day-to-day housework to Eric and his younger sister Amy.  Every day Cinderella and Cinderfella did such things as wash floors, clean bathrooms, and vacuum.  Their chores, although considerable, were arranged such that neither child worked more than about one hour a day.  Lastly, we banished the television set from our home and lived without the idiot box for 4 years.

In short, Willie and I began rearing our children much as we ourselves had been reared.  And everything changed, most notably Eric.  Our story, mind you, is not all that unique.  In the course of doing talks and workshops around the country I collected a fair number of similar “testimonials” from parents who’ve effected comparable turnarounds with their children…

Sometimes when I tell this story, someone will scoffingly contend that the brevity of Eric’s turnaround says he really didn’t have ADD.  My answer to that is if Eric didn’t really have ADD then maybe there aren’t any children that have it.”

–John Rosemond, psychologist, from his article, "Living with Attention Deficit"

Read about psychiatry's "solution" for ADHD and it's harmful side effects...

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