This Theroux doc. is called “America’s Medicated Kids”. It is a disturbing look at the ever-increasing number of mental disorders now diagnosed in children, including “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, and the new favourite “Pediatric Bipolar Disorder”. Most kids are diagnosed with more than one condition – often four. You can tack on “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” (failure to follow orders from teachers and/or parents) to almost any child’s diagnosis, as is evident in the video. Each “condition” requires at least one pill, and parents list of the names of strong tranquilizers, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and some psychotropics that I had never even heard of before, and there is something unnerving about the expressions on their faces. What is it? It took me a minute to realize it was the fact that this seemed so very normal to them. They could have been talking about the most mundane topic – listing off groceries that needed to be picked up or something – but instead they were talking about the large variety of psychopharmaceuticals they fed their children everyday. Often when a parent puts a child on medication, they decide they need a little picker upper themselves – usually an antidepressant – and this is shown in the video as well. What a wonderful way to open up the whole family to Big Pharma’s “happy pills”.
