A Disease Called Childhood Quotes

“In our pharmed culture, mischievous boys like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn would not be seen as active, adventure-loving kids who skipped school now and then because they were bored in a classroom that offered them little of interest. Society today would label them "mentally disabled" and give them drugs to make them behave like "normal" children.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“[W]e are apt to forget that mental health categories are tied closely to culture. [...] A striking example of how cultural beliefs and social forces figured in the invention of new categories of "mental illness" occurred in the nineteenth century, when a prominent Southern physician named Samuel Cartwright described two types of "insanity" peculiar to slaves[,] drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica. The first was to be diagnosed whenever a slave attempted to run away. The second was thought to be present when a slave displayed idleness or disrespect for his master's property. Cartwright recommended light whippings as a cure for both ailments.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“[T]he biological model of psychiatry appealed to parents who had often felt blamed when they took their child to a psychoanalytically oriented therapist. Parents became resistant when therapists began suggesting making changes to their parenting model as part of their children's treatment.
[...] [P]arents found relief in the idea that their child suffered from a real biological illness, in whose origins they or other family members played no role. [...] Instead of "blaming" parents for their children's problems, the new biological way of diagnosing children let parents off the hook entirely.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“Our egalitarian culture has encouraged us to be friends to our children rather than authority figures, and we hesitate to say no for fear of losing that friendship.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“[A] fierce ideological battle between the two traditions of psychiatry is playing out on the world stage today. One side (the neo-Kraepelinian biological psychiatrists) holds that ADHD symptoms constitute a distinct biological disorder, even without brain damage from recognized diseases or brain injury. The other side (the psychoanalysts, humanists, social psychologists, and family therapists) maintains that ADHD is simply a catchall name for social, emotional, and developmental issues of childhood.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“Instead of seeing ADHD-type behaviors as part of the spectrum of normal childhood that most kids eventually grow out of, or as responses to bumps or rough patches in a child's life, we cluster these behaviors into a discrete (and chronic) "illness" or "mental health condition" with clearly defined boundaries. And we are led to believe that this "illness" is rooted in the child's genetic makeup and requires treatment with psychiatric medication.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“But in giving children ADHD drugs are we also reshaping their personalities and asking them to give up something basic to their authentic selves? By nature, young children have a lot of energy. They are impulsive, physically active, have trouble sitting still, and don't pay attention for very long. Their natural curiosity leads them to blurt out questions, oblivious in their excitement to interrupting others. Yet we expect five- and six-year-old children to sit still and pay attention in classrooms and contain their curiosity. If they don't, we are quick to diagnose them with ADHD.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“There's no doubt that stimulant drugs work to improve attentiveness. The catch is that research has shown that stimulants help anyone focus, whether or not they have symptoms of ADHD.
[...] With this in mind, I can't help but wonder whether we are actually treating a childhood mental illness with these medications or instead are allowing the drugs to transform our very image of childhood.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic

“I believe ADHD is a constellation of symptoms that our society interprets as a medical condition [...]. ADHD certainly "exists," in the sense that many children exhibit behaviors that parents and teachers can see and doctors can measure. But in my view ADHD is neither an unnatural condition of childhood nor an illness that requires medication. Often, behaviors tagged as ADHD are normal childhood responses to stressful situations. I believe ADHD is overdiagnosed and overmedicated and that well-meaning parents from all backgrounds have been duped into believing that their perfectly normal and healthy child needs powerful psychostimulant medications just to be "normal" and successful. I believe this is harmful to parents and to children, and I believe there is a better way.”
― Marilyn Wedge, A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic