So many issues

Those of you who view this blog regularly might be wondering why I haven't written much lately (then again you might not be), it is simply because I have been too busy. There are many things I could write about; the economic situation, the euro crises, the BBC and its decision to drop AD and BC. I will probably look at those issues later, but I wanted to look at something that really irks me and should be reformed.

ADHD and Disability Living Allowance (DLA), this is something which many hundred's of thousands of people claim every year. In some cases there might be a just reason for people to receive this allowance, but in many cases there is no justification for this payment.

Currently the government spends £192 billion every year on welfare; an astronomical sum that is beyond comprehension. £12 billion of this £192 billion is paid out in DLA. You could argue that those who claim DLA must need it, and wouldn't receive it if they did not deserve it. But this simply cannot be true, there cannot be that many people in this country who are in some way disabled and need this benefit.

One of the things you can claim for is a car through this scheme; currently 575,000 people receive a car and out of those, 3,200 families with someone with ADHD receive a car. The questions have to be asked; do they really need a car? And is there such a thing as ADHD? To both of these questions I am going to say NO!!!!!!!

Firstly I do not believe there is such a thing as ADHD; I do not care whether someone says their child is hyperactive and cannot sit still, cannot concentrate or gets in trouble at school. I will never believe in this excuse to drug children.

ADHD as an 'illness' was practically unheard of 20 years ago. Those claiming welfare for someone with ADHD has gone from 800 a decade ago to 99,000 today. In 1991 2,000 prescriptions for Ritalin - which suppresses the symptoms of this so called 'illness', today it is close to 350,000.

I cannot believe that, in this modern day we can dish out so many drugs that changes and stifles the brain. The majority of those who receive this drug are male and children.

We look back at the likes of Lord Shaftsbury who fought to stop child labour with awe and respect. We look back at the creation of the welfare state and applaud this wonderful institution. Successive governments have brought in legislation to protect children and vulnerable people. Many children are taken into care every year for their protection. Many public sector bodies run compulsory courses on child protection. Anyone who goes near children in the course of their work have to have a CRB check to make sure they have never been convicted of any crime to do with children. All schools, youth clubs, scout groups, etc have child protection policies, but every year we feed children drugs that we do not really know or understand what the long term impact will be upon them.

This seems almost tantamount to abuse. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a teacher who said she has a child with ADHD in her class. This boy, she said was very disruptive, but is now no longer disruptive because he is now receiving 'treatment', in the form of drugs. I asked her, did this not concern her? And she said no, she said she was now able to teach the rest of the class without any problems and he was a lot calmer. I was a little shocked by this answer, I said 'if anyone was drugged it would surely have an impact upon the individual, just because their symptoms seem to be better, it does not mean that it is solving the problem.'

There is no way of scientifically diagnosing ADHD, it is a tick box exercise. Has anyone looked into the long term impact of drugging hundreds of thousands of children? Does anyone truly understand the workings of the human brain? Why are the majority of those who are diagnosed with ADHD boys? Why have the numbers of children being diagnosed with ADHD increased so much in the last twenty years?

I believe there are many reasons why we have seen an increase in diagnoses of a made up illness. Part of it might be bad parenting, another might be children being kept inside in front of the television (especially from an early age). The likes of Cbeebies might be great for harassed parents, but some children are just dumped in front of the TV all day from an early age, surely this cannot be very beneficial and physically stimulating. Many children now have all sorts of gadgets which they can sit in front of and not move anything except their eyes and hands; Wii's, play stations, etc. Has anyone looked at the impact upon the development of children's brains of so much of this type of visual stimulation?

Many children do not get much physical stimulation because of parents paranoia around children being hurt, and being abducted. Also our education system has been feminised, so boys are made to sit down and read and write, but not given much chance to run around and use up all that excess energy. I have two boys and a girl, and I know there is a massive difference between boys and girls. For years we have been told that boys and girls are just the same and it is society which says dictates how they turn out. But this is utter rubbish, boys are different to girls, they need to run around and climb trees and do the things that boys need to do.

In many of our schools there are no male teachers, or even any male members of staff. In my children's infant and junior school there is not one male member of staff; the teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff, cleaners, catering staff, even the person who comes into teach after school football is a woman. I believe this brings many problems and a total imbalance, likewise if there was a school which had all male members of staff there would be problems as well.

Just one other point on this, many of the women teaching are overweight and the thought of running around would be alien to them. Because they do not do any exercise they are unlikely to understand what it is like to have excess energy to burn off. This then means boys are left to sit around, and that is why many end up getting into trouble and being disruptive.

I believe this issue will have repercussions for our future, and I also believe that drugging children with massive quantities of drugs that effect the brain is totally wrong. It is about time someone took this issue seriously and decided to tackle rather than ignoring it.