Dr. Gabor Mate explains ” the destruction of American Childhood” and how it is contributing to ADD ADHD symptoms.
Transcription…
AMY GOODMAN: In a little bit, I want to ask you about how taking all this medication- being so heavily medicated, especially for young person- affects their development. But I want to go to the point you just raised about the destruction of American childhood. What do you mean by that?
DR. GABOR MATÈ: The conditions in which children develop have been so corrupted and troubled over the last several decades that the template for normal brain development is no longer present for many, many kids. And Dr. Bessel Vanderkolk- who is a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University in Boston- he actually says that the neglect or abuse of children is the number one public health concerning the United States. A recent study coming out of Notre Dame by a psychologist there has shown that the conditions for child development that hunter-gatherer societies provided for their children- which are the optimal conditions for development- and are no longer present for our kids. She said, actually, that the way we raise our children today in this country is increasingly depriving them of practices that lead to well-being in the moral sense. What is really going on here now is that the development of conditions for healthy childhood- psychological and brain development- are less and less available. So that the issue of ADD is only small part of the general issue: children are no longer having the support for the way they need to develop.
Original Article – http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2010/11/24/drgabormatonadhd_bullying
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