Dr. John Breeding, professor, author and Ph.D. psychologist, calmly discusses Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the decade's diagnosis-du-jour, in this YouTube video. ADHD is the diagnosis that results in the medicating of millions of children who are prescribed mood-altering psychiatric drugs in the United States every year.
He has some wise words for parents and other adults concerned about their children's behavior: look at these children not as strange or pathological but as talented, energetic and zestful. He also says:
"Your child needs you to be relaxed and confident."
And:
"Remember to see your child through the eyes of delight."
Breeding is author of the "The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses" and frequently speaks out about the overuse of psychiatric medication. His site offers an alternative perspective to the bio-psychiatric industry, and to the millions of psychotropic prescriptions written for children and adults.
Although there certainly is value in psychiatric medications, I tell the people who I work that that they should be first resort only in a dire emergency and more frequently, last resort -- after counseling, lifestyle changes and serious self exploration -- when there is no emergency. Breeding speaks for the natural, built-in ways of psychological healing and maintains that with attention and adequate resources anyone can reemerge from even the greatest distress and most extreme states of mind.
