Book Review: Suffer the Children, Wedge Marilyn, PhD., (2011), Norton, New York
There is a rise in children’s diagnoses of ADHD, depression, autism and bipolar disorder.
More than four and a half million kids in the U.S. are diagnosed with ADHD and 1 million with bipolar disorder. In the U.S., taking a child to a physician for medication is as common place as taking them to dancing lessons or soccer practice. Cocktails of psychotropic drugs are given to children as young as 2. Marilyn Wedge, a California Marriage and Family Therapist reminds the reader that children are odd, defiant and impulsive and question if we believe there is no better way to help them conform to our expectations than to brand them with a psychiatric label and insist they take drugs to cure them. She contends that there is no doubt that parents have good intentions when they take their children for a diagnosis. Parents want their kids to succeed at school and in life. If meds can help kids to be less fidgety, more focused or less oppositional and moody at home, I can see how parents are willing to accept this route.
Parents are more distraught than the mothers and fathers that I have seen in the past- often because teachers are so concerned about school performance, parents are anxious to resolve their kids’ problems immediately and to see their children on a normal path.
More and more teachers are suggesting diagnoses for kids to their parents.
As child psychopharmacology has ascended to the top of the therapeutic ladder, Wedge implores that it is now time for parents and professionals to adopt a more humane approach to children’s emotional and behavioural problems. She says that we must look at what can change in a child’s world in order for the child to start feeling better.
Filled with poignant stories this book reminded me that diagnoses are like bullets. An incorrect or hastily made diagnosis can shatter a child’s life and reduce the family to despair.
Often times, Wedge explains that a child’s behaviour is driven by their feelings, especially when they feel caught in the cross-fire of their parents’ relationship.
I highly recommend this book to doctors, educators, parents and mental health professionals especially marriage and family therapists.
