Suffer the Children: The Case Against Labeling & Medicating & an Effective Alternative

It seems that many children today are easily being labeled and medicated for behavioral and emotional issues. However, what many people don't realize is that labeling and medicating a child can only make things worse. Psychotherapist and book author Dr. Marilyn Wedge talked about this in her book called, Suffer the Children: The Case Against Labeling & Medicating & an Effective Alternative. I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Dr. Wedge about what her book is about and how readers can benefit from reading it.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
"I am a family therapist with more than twenty years of experience helping children, adolescents and their families. When I first went into practice, I was a play therapist and worked with children individually. Soon I realized that I could be more effective at resolving children's problems by working with the parents as well as the child. I learned that families have a great capacity to heal themselves. Ever since then, my approach to therapy has been from a family systems point of view. Today, I have a private family therapy practice in Westlake Village, California , and also write blogs for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. I also write articles for online parenting magazines such as Mamapedia.com and ModernMom.com . On a personal note, I have been married for thirty years to my husband Gene and we have three grown children and one grandchild."

What made you decide to write Suffer the Children?
"In the early nineties, I began to see a new trend in my practice. More and more children were coming to therapy already taking psychiatric medication. Even more worrisome, children were being diagnosed by school staff, and schools were encouraging parents to medicate their children for ADHD and other disorders. As I began to research the reasons for the mental health epidemic among children, I learned that pharmaceutical companies funded the research on which diagnosing and medicating children was based. Child psychiatrists with financial ties to drug companies were prescribing powerful antipsychotic medications for children as young as three years old. By 2010, more than five million children had been diagnosed with ADHD, and were taking stimulant medications. More than a million children were diagnosed and medicated for depression. The pharmaceutical lobby had become the second largest lobby in Washington . I began writing Suffer the Children in order to give parents a safe and effective alternative to drugs for solving their children's problems. I also wanted to present my new method of "Strategic Child-Focused Family Therapy" to therapists who work with children."

What is Suffer the Children about?
"Suffer the Children contains stories from my practice that illustrate how parents can be empowered to resolve their children's problems with the help of a family therapist. Of course all names and identifying features have been changed to preserve confidentiality. In the book, the reader will meet Joey, a four-year-old boy who held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself and eight-year-old Cora, who began to fail at school for no apparent reason. They will get to know Elizabeth, who washed her hands compulsively, and Jarrod, who bullied other children. They will hear about ten-year-old Brien, who had school phobia and Iris, a teen-aged girl who was having frequent anxiety attacks. My hope is that parents will recognize aspects of their own families in the stories and gain a richer understanding of how parents and children can become happier without the use of psychiatric labels and potentially dangerous medications. I also include some history of how family therapy began and evolved, with humorous stories from family therapy sages Milton Erickson, M.D. and Jay Haley."

Who can benefit from reading Suffer the Children?
"Anyone who works with children will benefit from this book'"doctors, mental health professionals, educators and of course parents. I intentionally wrote the book in an easy-to-read style that makes it accessible to every reader. The book offers a compelling alternative for parents who are worried about giving their children medications that have dangerous side effects. Every week, I receive emails from parents who tell me how much the book has helped them see their children's problems from a fresh point of view. I also receive emails from therapists around the world who tell me that they find the book helpful in their work. This makes me feel that Suffer the Children is reaching the audience for whom it was intended."

Thank you Dr. Wedge for doing the interview on your book Suffer the Children. For more information about Suffer the Children or Dr. Wedge you can check out her website at: www.MarilynWedgephd.com .