Finding Normal: A checklist makes a child appear mentally ill

From Pdf at orthomed.org
Dr. Marty McKay is a Clinical
Psychologist who has been practicing in
Toronto since 1976. She has worked as a
consultant to governmental agencies, no-
tably Children’s Aid societies, and social
and rehabilitation services. Dr. McKay
began by describing her involvement in
a CBC film “Finding Normal” which
documented the incredible odyssey of
“Jay,” through the child welfare and
psychiatric bureaucracy where he was
subjected to abuse, multiple non-existent
psychiatric diagnoses, and powerful drug
treatments which almost cost him his
life. In the end, he was rescued by Dr.
McKay and brought back to health.
She made many friends and a few
enemies after the airing of the exposé
and said that the case of Jay is not an
anomaly. Through various flaws and
a collective lack of responsibility in
the medical, legal and child welfare
vested interest in child compliance, such
as group home workers who can simply
fill out a checklist that makes a child ap-
pear mentally ill. The child is then referred
for psychological assessment to “confirm”
the checklist, followed by a prescription
from a staff psychiatrist. Legally bound
to take a powerful drug regime, the child
soon develops new psychiatric side effects.
Thus begins an endless cycle of iatrogenic
mental illness from which it is almost
impossible for the child to escape.
Dr. McKay invoked Occam’s Ra-
zor, the principle which states “when
you have two competing theories which
make the same predictions, the one most
logical and simple is probably correct.” In
this case, children who are abused and
neglected, taken from their homes and
put in foster care are likely to be upset,
rather than suffering from a mysterious
simultaneous onset of Tourettes, OCD,
ADHD, schizophrenia or bipolar disease
requiring half a dozen medications.

Dr. McKay closed with an impas-
sioned plea for us to get second opinions,
question and refuse to “go along to get
along” with the medical profession. We
should embrace orthomolecular medicine
because it aims to cure, and shun psychia-
try whose goal is “management”–a state
where the goal is to become obedient con-
sumers of pharmaceutical product lines.