[Sushi]

I thought the article made a case that kids with problems are undertreated, but not undermedicated or underdiagnosed as in the thread title.

If it turns out the "prevailing wisdom" that kids are getting diagnosed and medicated for every little thing is false, I'm OK with that.

[Liberator]

Meh. I think the more psychiatrists understand the way childrens' minds work, the more impetus there is to try and make them 'normal.' At what point do we stop diagnosing personality traits as 'disorders' that need to be medicated?

Till we all look like

[iamzack]

I am probably what they talk about when talking about undermedicated. ****ers. The side effects haven't been worth it for any of the medications I've been forced to take.

[Nuke]

i havent taken meds since i was still in highschool. i dont miss them either. funny thing was i was given both uppers and downers for depression and add respectively. their effects essentially canceled eachother out while leaving me in a total daze, making the whole (completely misunderstood) problem worse. didnt help considering all the quacks i had to see because my mom was on welfare. i was diagnosed with everything from brain seizures, depression, odd, add, hd, to name a few, many of which were completely bogus.

[iamzack]

ODD, lol... talk about made-up mental illnesses.

[Nuke]

i totally agree there. but its the brain seizures that i dont see how they coulda ****ed up on, i never had them, not one. hyperactivity as well, i was a god dammed couch potato growing up. they probibly confused add with bordom, considering by the time i was diagnosed with that, i was already in a special school for the disturbed, where they were teaching us with material at least 4 grades below our current level. my question is how can shrinks be so stupid?

[Liberator]

They only have what we give them to work with.  A shrink will talk to you and ask you how you feel and that sort of thing.  When in point of fact they should be digging into your life's history to determine patterns of behavior and using that to make a diagnosis.  An hour on the couch with the average teenager, who probably doesn't want to be there in the first place, is going to net you a plate of condescension and side of backtalk and that's about all.

[Nuke]

i started seeing shrinks when i was 9, by the time i was a teenager it was so regular that it didnt bother me. on the other hand im sure many troubled teenagers would welcome an adult that actually listens to them (their parents certainly arent). sure a teenager that first sees a shrink is gonna hate it, but after a few sessions they kinda welcome it. observations straight from the nuthouse. the problem is most teens hardly get any couch time at all, they see the shrink for 15 minutes, which is just long enough to write a prescription for prozac and make sure they havent tried to kill themselves.

[Colonol Dekker]

We've all got our skeleton cupboards.
 
 
Incidentally I think a good round of national service would sort out confidence issues.

[Dilmah G]

Incidentally I think a good round of national service would sort out confidence issues.

And ODD, 

[Nuke]

i did try joining the marines back in '03, they they said i was too crazy to join.

does make a good point though. even if the childhood illnesses are completely bogus, the stigma associated with them is not. the shortcuts parents take are for them, these parents have no concern for the future of their children, they dont even face the possibility of their children becoming adults. its like "he will grow out of it, for now, just keep him drugged". the result is adults which are completely mal-adapted to society.

[iamzack]

the problem is most teens hardly get any couch time at all, they see the shrink for 15 minutes, which is just long enough to write a prescription for prozac and make sure they havent tried to kill themselves.

this. seeing a shrink in the first place was my idea, not my mum's. turned out to be a huge mistake. i would not recommend seeing head doctors to teenagers. i wish i'd waited until i was 18.

[MP-Ryan]

the problem is most teens hardly get any couch time at all, they see the shrink for 15 minutes, which is just long enough to write a prescription for prozac and make sure they havent tried to kill themselves.

this. seeing a shrink in the first place was my idea, not my mum's. turned out to be a huge mistake. i would not recommend seeing head doctors to teenagers. i wish i'd waited until i was 18.

Generally, responsible psychologists are going to be very cautious about diagnosing mental illness or disorder in teenagers anyway.

Based on the posts you constantly make on the subject, I'm frequently wondering if you either leave out important details, or persist in seeing some nutbar with a psychology degree.  What you post is not representative of the fields of psychology or psychiatry at all.  I'm just reserving judgment on where the discrepancy is originating.

[iamzack]

Maybe I just had bad luck in seeing 9 incompetent shrinks in a year and a half. But I can only be told that my opinion on whether I should take a drug doesn't matter in the slightest due to being 16/17 so often before I write off the process entirely.

[Nuke]

teens dont get much choice in the shrinks they get to see. especially when their parents are supported by welfare or whatever. you kinda just have to deal with the quacks that will see you.