Debunking the Diabetes Analogy

“Let me clear this up right now. ADHD is not like diabetes and [the stimulant used for it] is not like insulin. Diabetes is a real medical condition that can be objectively diagnosed. ADHD is an invented label

“Let me clear this up right now. ADHD is not like diabetes and [the stimulant used for it] is not like insulin. Diabetes is a real medical condition that can be objectively diagnosed. ADHD is an invented label with no objective, valid means of identification. Insulin is a natural hormone produced by the body and it is essential for life. [This stimulant] is a chemically derived amphetamine-like drug that is not necessary for life. Diabetes is an insulin deficiency. Attention and behavioral problems are not a [stimulant] deficiency.”

Dr. Mary Ann Block

Author, No More ADHD

Psychiatrists deceitfully argue that ADHD requires “medication” in the same way that diabetes requires insulin treatment; they further argue that to deny children such “medication” would be like denying insulin to a diabetic. The analogy is psychiatry-serving and false.

Psychiatric drugs do not treat mental disorders in the same way as insulin treats diabetes. “What is implied in this statement is that psychotherapeutic drugs correct known chemical deficiencies (or excesses, or other instances), in the same way that insulin does. This analogy is repeated over and over again, not only in promotional material... and in articles published in professional journals, but, judging from reports from patients, every day in offices of psychiatrists and other physicians,” wrote Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D., biopsychologist and author of Blaming the Brain.

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that doctors tell patients they need to take a serotonin booster “like a diabetic takes insulin.” But “even in diabetes, when something is known about the physiology, only about 10% of patients have conditions severe enough to require insulin. For the rest, their less severe diabetes can often be managed with milder agents, diet, and lifestyle changes. What if doctors tried to make all diabetics dependent on insulin?”

CCHR What we Believe

Drugging Our Children

RECOGNITION OF CCHR

CCHR's humanitarian work has been recognised the world over for ensuring legal rights and protections for consumers and/or their families. Read more...

DRUG WARNINGS

CCHR led the fight for informed consent to psychiatric treatment, obtaining the first law in South Australia in 1979 that granted patients the right to consent to or refuse electroshock treatment. In recent years, it has filed numerous requests to the Therapeutic Goods Administration to reveal all the adverse drug reactions for psychotropic drugs reported to it. Click here to read more

DRUG SIDE EFFECTS

No matter what country someone is prescribed a psychiatric drug, the side effects are the same: dangerous, sometimes life-threatening, but always debilitating. CCHR International in Los Angeles decoded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration psychotropic drug reports database to produce this drug side effects search engine for consumers. This is also relevant to all Australians. You can also view a selection of ADHD drug reactions including Ritalin, Concerta, Dexamphetamine & Strattera obtained by CCHR.

Psychiatric Drugs

An Australian Report Titled, Psychiatric Drugs and Violence documents how Antidepressants and Antipsychotics can Cause Violence.
The report was written as Australians are not adequately warned that psychiatric drugs can cause homicidal actions and thoughts....

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