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Chicago Independent Media Center
TeenScreen Calls Physical Illness a Mental Disorder
by Kenneth W. Thomas
12 Feb 2006
The symptoms of "mental illness" are real. Many of them can be caused
by genuine physical illnesses and treated with medical
(non-psychiatric) means. The diagnosis of a "mental disorder"
generally means that the patient's symptoms will now be glossed over
with dangerous mood and mind-altering drugs. Now TeenScreen is pushing
these diagnoses into our schools, targeting children as young as nine
years old. Our children deserve better treatment.
I am a Registered Nurse with 29 years of experience. I've worked in
the critical care units, emergency rooms, medical-to-surgical units,
and even psychiatric units. Based on my direct observation and
experience, many of the patients I've seen with so-called "mental
illness" actually have underlying physical conditions that are easily
treatable by medical, non-psychiatric, methods. Even "mental health"
screening programs like TeenScreen routinely mis-diagnose genuine
physical illnesses as "mental illness".
"Anxiety disorder" is a good example of this. A certain list of
symptoms prompt a psychiatrist to dish out Prozac, Xanax, Ativan,
Valium, Zoloft, etc. No medical testing is necessary for a psychiatric
diagnosis. Yet these symptoms - unknown fear, anxiety stomach,
disorientation with the sensation that the body is going to die,
sweating or clammy hands are also all symptoms of hypoglycemia, which
simply means low blood sugar. A friend of mine, also a nurse, was sent
home recently from work because she was "acting erratically" and
didn't seem to know where she was. After thorough medical testing, she
found out that she has hypoglycemia. She had been suffering with that
undetected condition on and off for 15 years. She had been through the
whole regimen of expensive anti-anxiety medications in attempts to
treat it. After the actual cause of her symptoms were located, she
changed her eating habits, the symptoms did not return and no drugs
were needed to handle this condition.
In my work, I have seen first hand the finding of heart valve
prolapse, which had gone undetected for years in some women. This
condition causes the sensation of rapid heartbeat, fluttering in the
chest, sweating and anxiety. These are the symptoms of "panic attacks"
and many of these women had been treated with anti-anxiety drugs.
These are cases of actual undetected physical illness being passed off
as "mental illness" for months or years, only to eventually find that
there is a REAL cause and it can be treated and resolved. Half the
battle today is the false advertising of psych drugs to treat chemical
imbalances in the brain. A theory only with no clinical evidence,
patients are put on mood-altering drugs at the whim of a psychiatrist
or medical practitioner.
The elderly in our nursing homes are regularly put on anti-depressants
for their "depression";. Most of them lived 7 or more decades without
drugging away their blues. If you had just been taken from your home
and put into an unfamiliar place confined to bed or wheelchair,
wouldn't you be upset? Frankly, I would. Any loss of personal freedom
tends to bring people downward emotionally. There are many ways to
help an elderly person gain more independence and have some autonomy
even in restricted conditions such as these nursing homes and rehab
centers. Most of these elderly just need someone to talk to, not
another pill.
I have personally observed and spoken with many parents about their
children's' diets. I found that most parents with kids on Ritalin,
Adderal, Concerta, or any other drug given to treat "attention"
disorders, have no clue how refined sugars affect their kids'
hyperactivity. I have watched in dismay as mothers in grocery stores
give their youngsters candy in hopes that they will be quiet until the
shopping is complete. She is likely to have a yelling, out-of-control
brat in 30 minutes for all of us to enjoy as well at the check out
line. This is a known effect of blood sugar levels and food
allergies/sensitivities. Some hyperactivity in kids, including the
inability to concentrate, can be reproduced at will with food. Most
kids with this condition have food allergies that prompt them to feel
frantic and ill. Being young and unable to voice their physical
discomfort, they go from play item to play item, get moody and
irritable, and basically try to work off the effects of the food with
activity, high amounts of it.
TeenScreen and other screening programs are infiltrating schools and
other institutions testing children for symptoms of "mental
disorders". Those teens who answer yes to such broad questions as
"Have you often felt very nervous when you've had to do things in
front of people?" are likely to get a life-long label and a
prescription, without any proper medical testing or even an inquiry
about their diet.
Those are my observations of so-called "mental illnesses". Many, if
not all, can be found to have physical causes and can be handled in
ways not requiring glossing over with dangerous mood and mind-altering
drugs. Our population, especially the elderly and the children,
deserve better treatment.
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--
Regards,
Catherine
";Life is not an exact
science, it is an art."
-- Samuel Butler --
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