There is a new ad campaign designed to scare and shame parents of children who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder/neurological atypicality. Okay, it's actually designed to drum up dollars. The other thing is just a side effect.

The New York University Child Study has devised a message that says, essentially, that children who fall outside the neurotypical range are being criminally held against their will by their disease.

You should pay the ransom - that is, donate to their cause - to help these poor kids out.

The wording is shockingly divisive and insulting. A kid with ADHD is a detriment to himself and those around him?

So much for diversity.

What a step backwards for parents who love their children, and see them as a gift, even if they are not "perfect" by the world's standards. It serves only to stigmatize and point out how different and "wrong" these suffering children are, while serving up a heaping dose of misinformation.

Here's an ad for autism:The ad sensationalizes the condition, while ignoring the fact that children are sometimes able to do better. Parents spend fortunes on therapies - and cognitive behavioral therapy, along with medications, diet, nutrition, all work to improve the condition. Jenny McCarthy has successfully treated her son, and has book and a website. Generation Rescue also is a good resource for "non-traditional" treatments and DAN! protocol, including a helpful resource for finding doctors. ("Non-traditional" is in quotes because the "traditional" treatment for severely autistic children was for parents to institutionalize them, which did not, to my knowledge, actually treat the condition.)
Here's a billboard actual parents of spectrum children have designed that I like a lot better!

Here's the ad for ADHD. So nice of them to promote the stereotype that ADHD kids are nothing but an impediment to others. I'm sure teachers around the nation will really be looking to bring out the natural gifts in their ADHD students now! (Insert sarcasm here)


What do you think? Are these ads helpful to informing the public, or do they portray children with disorders as hopeless husks, trapped by their disease and unable to contribute?

Labels: bipolar, children, health, Rants and Raves