Scientology --- ADDitude Magazine/CCHR & an Indiana Congressman

ADDitude Magazine/CCHR & an Indiana Congressman

This really says it all - congrats to the guy who wrote this - excellent!

http://www.additudemag.com/additude.asp?DEPT_NO=102&SUB_NO=35

By Bob Seay

It's time for Congress to stop talking about us and start talking to us.

There are at least 10 million experts on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the United States. These are the adults and children who have first hand insight into AD/HD because they live with it and its effects every day of their lives. I am one of those people.

Yet, after three Congressional hearings on AD/HD, not a one of us has been asked to testify about what it's like to live with it. It seems that Congress doesn't want to hear from people who have been successfully treated. They don't want to know about the positive results of AD/HD medications.

Instead, Dan Burton (R-IN) and others invite members of the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a known and avowed anti-psychiatry group, and people coached by CCHR to tell them that AD/HD is a fraud. These people not only don't know what it's like to have AD/HD, they haven't even done enough research to understand what AD/HD is about. Lisa-Marie Presley is an expert on AD/HD? I mean, I love the King, but come on. Even their "doctor" isn't a doctor. Mary Ann Block, CCHR's "medical consultant", is an osteopath who sells an "all natural"

cure for the disorder that she claims doesn't exist.

Who is Congress Hearing?

Congressional Hearings on AD/HD

Neil Bush's Strange Bedfellows By Ellen Kingsley

FULL TESTIMONY OF E. CLARKE ROSS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CHADD

Statement of Richard K. Nakamura, Ph.D. Acting Director National Institute of Mental Health Testimony Before the Committee on Government Reform United States House of Representatives

Watch additudemag.com for transcripts and more testimony as it is made available.

Say it with me: If Congress wants to know about AD/HD, then they need to stop talking about us and start talking to us.

It's like having a Congressional hearing on Women's Health and not having a single woman on the panel. Women's groups would be outraged, and rightfully so.

Yet, this is exactly how we who have AD/HD have been treated by Congress. Not once, but three times now.

It makes you wonder if these hearings are to gain information or to provide a platform for antipsychiatry groups, anti-public school politicians and those with other agendas.

As the anti-psychiatry arm of the Church of Scientology, CCHR is very open about what it hopes to accomplish. Their mission statement is available on the front page of their Web site for all to see: "The mission of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is to expose and eradicate violations of human rights by the field of psychiatry."

Burton's staff was concerned that I might try to connect Burton with the Church of Scientology, so let me say this: Dan Burton is not connected to the Church of Scientology. He hears testimony from their organization, he gives them the same or even greater credence than he gives to medical doctors and research scientists, and he agrees with their position that AD/HD medications are over-prescribed. But he is not connected to or influenced by the Church of Scientology.

Congressman Burton - these are the people with whom you have aligned yourself.

Take a look at "CCHR's online exposés of Psychiatry", a collection of sensationalized and unsubstantiated pamphlets with titles like Psychiatric Rape, charges that psychiatry has destroyed morals, even books that compare Psychiatry to Hitler. This is not exactly scientfic research, although the comic book/sci-fi style artwork on the covers is kind of cool.

The repeated use of CCHR and their ilk as witnesses does not bode well for the integrity of the legislative process.

As an adult with AD/HD, I appreciate the work of CHADD. I would like to personally thank all those who testified on behalf of those of us who have AD/HD. But enough is enough.

It's time for Congress to stop talking about us and start talking to us.

Mr. Burton can be contacted at:

Dan Burton
Indiana-6th, Republican
2185 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-1406
phone: 202-225-2276
fax: 225-0016
No e-mail address available

Contact information for representatives from your own state can be obtained through the THOMAS database at: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php

This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.

You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition.

Send mail to webmaster@additudemag.com with questions or comments.

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Feisty

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