10-23-2007, 10:53 AM
10-28-2007, 03:23 AM
I believe this has to do with TMAP (Texas Medication Algorithm Project) and TeenScreen (the group trying to administer these tests to every teenager ,usually between age 11-18, in America). I read up on this a couple of years ago. One of the tactics used where they are currently giving out screenings is to mail a letter home about the screening test that's going to be given out, and if the parents don't send a reply to the school expressing opposition, then this is considered to be consent. Other tactics include giving out pizza coupons and such to those who return permission slips, so that more kids remember to show them to their parents (resulting in more kids being tested).
One major flaw is that it is tremendously inaccurate. While in theory it would be good to have a large number of false positives, so that fewer people needing help fly under the radar, since "treatment" often emphasizes consulting with a psychiatrist and seeing about medication, it also adds to the number of people going on medication when perhaps their problems are minor, temporary, or otherwise not needing medication.
It also, I fear, would contribute to the growing sense that to have a time of depression is considered just as much in need of medication as someone who is so depressed that they cannot function, that those who fall outside of the norm are defective and in desperate need of curing, that those who do not fit in the narrow yet arbitrary guidelines as to what a mentally healthy (and thus automatically placed in a class considered superior to its alternative) person is.
TeenScreen has huge financial ties to the pharmaceutical industries. They are trying to fill their pockets even more, and this culture of perfection will only feed that greed, and vice versa. After all: Supply and Demand make the goods go round. I have read of this girl who in Texas, after the screening recommending further evaluation, she was diagnosed with (I think OCD or depression), put on medications, to which she had reactions negatively, which was diagnosed as a mental illness rather than how she reacted to the meds, and she ended up in an institution, where they forcibly injected her with the likes of Haldol in forced confinement.
No person, let alone a child or adolescent, should be subjected to this. I have read many people who experienced this and then, after being screened and "treated", described how they were categorized as mentally ill for things such as slight shyness, experiencing stage fright, being sad, and a number of other things that are minor enough that they should never be given meds to a child for. I wonder how many undiagnosed Aspies, whose social difficulties may be misconstrued as social anxiety, would be given a list of false diagnoses and poorly chosen treatments and wreck them, mentally and/or physically. It happens all too often WITHOUT widespread or forced screening. Nobody, AS or NT, should be put under such a system.
One major flaw is that it is tremendously inaccurate. While in theory it would be good to have a large number of false positives, so that fewer people needing help fly under the radar, since "treatment" often emphasizes consulting with a psychiatrist and seeing about medication, it also adds to the number of people going on medication when perhaps their problems are minor, temporary, or otherwise not needing medication.
It also, I fear, would contribute to the growing sense that to have a time of depression is considered just as much in need of medication as someone who is so depressed that they cannot function, that those who fall outside of the norm are defective and in desperate need of curing, that those who do not fit in the narrow yet arbitrary guidelines as to what a mentally healthy (and thus automatically placed in a class considered superior to its alternative) person is.
TeenScreen has huge financial ties to the pharmaceutical industries. They are trying to fill their pockets even more, and this culture of perfection will only feed that greed, and vice versa. After all: Supply and Demand make the goods go round. I have read of this girl who in Texas, after the screening recommending further evaluation, she was diagnosed with (I think OCD or depression), put on medications, to which she had reactions negatively, which was diagnosed as a mental illness rather than how she reacted to the meds, and she ended up in an institution, where they forcibly injected her with the likes of Haldol in forced confinement.
No person, let alone a child or adolescent, should be subjected to this. I have read many people who experienced this and then, after being screened and "treated", described how they were categorized as mentally ill for things such as slight shyness, experiencing stage fright, being sad, and a number of other things that are minor enough that they should never be given meds to a child for. I wonder how many undiagnosed Aspies, whose social difficulties may be misconstrued as social anxiety, would be given a list of false diagnoses and poorly chosen treatments and wreck them, mentally and/or physically. It happens all too often WITHOUT widespread or forced screening. Nobody, AS or NT, should be put under such a system.
10-28-2007, 04:16 AM
Considering that in the US, textbooks might be chosen not for accuracy but to avoid pissing off the local pastor, might it also be the case that the real motivation for all this is to catch anyone who might "think outside the box". That means less likely to think inside whatever box the powers that be want them to. So, catch them while they're young and vulnerable. The treatments and drugs will either bring them into compliance or $#%& their minds up so bad that they are no threat.
This is personal to me. Back in the third grade (early 1980's), some lady at my school (apparently with too much time on her hands) noticed me not socializing or whatever (drawing in my free time instead of yapping), and made it her business to send her "concerns" to my parents. That set off a chain of events that I'm sure many of you are familiar with, including an IQ test in which I scored too high for their convenience.
And to think that kind of crap might be guaranteed for everyone.
This is personal to me. Back in the third grade (early 1980's), some lady at my school (apparently with too much time on her hands) noticed me not socializing or whatever (drawing in my free time instead of yapping), and made it her business to send her "concerns" to my parents. That set off a chain of events that I'm sure many of you are familiar with, including an IQ test in which I scored too high for their convenience.
And to think that kind of crap might be guaranteed for everyone.
10-28-2007, 06:05 PM
There is already a system where suspecting teachers can send a suspect kid to a visiting child psychologist.. I've been through that many times. But the "child psychologists" as I know from someone training to be one, have goals higher than their qualifications. In other words, they will see the symptoms, but can they pin the AS tail on the Autistic Spectrum Donkey? Flip a coin..
I know that if I did not act my way out of their offices as a kid, when AS awareness was much worse, I'd be another one of those multi-diagnosis travesty stories.
I know that if I did not act my way out of their offices as a kid, when AS awareness was much worse, I'd be another one of those multi-diagnosis travesty stories.
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