The Right-Wing War On Mental Health

If you've been watching The Ephrom Josine Show, or even reading the blog, you've more than likely heard of Matt Walsh. After all, I have covered him quite a bit. You may also be aware of what I've called "the war on mental health". Again I've covered that pretty often. 
However, it was only recently those two things combined, leading to the topic of today's article. Jumping on the bandwagon of people like (committer of treason) Oliver North and Candace Owens, and now believes ADD and ADHD aren't real. Maybe he's bitter that Thom Hartmann, someone who has written a lot of books about ADHD (and who came up with the hunter vs. farmer hypothesis), was a Bernie supporter.
Mind you, this isn't the first time Matt has expressed skepticism. In an article called The Four Terrible Things That Are Destroying Boys In Our Culture Mr. Walsh makes it clear that he thinks "The education system is designed for girls". 

boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. By high school, 20% of boys - 20% - are diagnosed

20%, a whole 20%. In case you don't see what Matt is saying, it's 20%. 
Yet, I still have a few questions. Mostly, if this is a plot to turn men into women (at least, that's what I think Matt is saying), why isn't it a majority? Are only 20% of boys what Matt would consider "real boys"? If so, what about the other 80%. I get it's easy to look at the 1 in 5 and assume something big is going on, but the other side of the coin is 4 in 5.
Second, he says "boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed", well if this is a plot against boys, how can you even calculate it? Shouldn't it be closer to 100 to 1 instead of 2 to 1? To give you an idea of how much that really is, that means 1/3 of people diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are girls. Yet Matt doesn't focus on those numbers. 

Yet . . . we never stop to consider that perhaps we are not . . . diagnosing boys as we are diagnosing boyhood

And girlhood in 1 out of every 3 cases. In case you're wondering, Matt also doesn't believe in transgenderism.

If the school system were not predicated on sitting still and memorizing things . . . there would be no ADHD

And if everyone had (insert illness that no one is debating exists here) no one would. That's really all Matt had to say in this article, luckily, he expanded on it. 
Now, before we actually read the article, I think we should actually look at some of the reactions to it. I know, it seems kind of odd to not start at the start, but I have a reason. You see, even Matt's own fans didn't think what Walsh said in this article wasn't completely accurate. So, he spent a few days trying to defend himself on Twitter. Here are some of my favorite defensive. At one point, someone mentioned the idea that Mr.Walsh had no medical experience. Matt responded:

This may be shocking, but I have discovered a thing called a “book.” I can use it to learn information on many topics. Try it sometime!

Well, Matt, I would like to recommend you read some books as well. Just head to Amazon, and type ADHD in the books section and you should find some good work. In fact, I'll do it for you. 
On a side note, can I address something I'm sick of? I've seen all these older people talk about how books are the only place where truth is held my entire life and it has always confused me. Karl Marx wrote books, I'm sure Matt Walsh disagrees with those. What about books that are responding to other books and authors? Going back to Karl Marx, there are tons of books about him, some like him, some don't. Are they both equally true? Sorry, just needed to vent for a second.
Mind you, it seems Matt himself doesn't believe what he just said considering he said this:  

The fact that you cite the DSM as a legitimate medical text is pretty hilarious.

But Matt, it's a book. I thought those were always right. 

I never claimed that people with an “ADHD”-type personality don’t exist. I claimed that it is not a DISORDER.

Replace ADHD with something like bipolar disorder and you'll really see how strong this argument is. A bipolar like personality does exist, but does that make it a disorder. The answer is yes?
Or what about depression. Is depression real or is it just a bunch of people being Debby downers? 

What is a regular person? Who decided that he is regular? How do we know the regular person isn’t actually the irregular person? Or is it possible that there is no such thing as a regular person?  

Matt Walsh the philosopher. 
But to answer Matt's question, regular in this case, means they are part of the majority who can function in society. 
I have a theory. I think Matt may have been diagnosed with ADHD when he was younger and his certain it's just everyone else who is wrong. You know, my father once told me Republicans think like they're 10 years old, and the more I read people like Matt, the more I know he was right.
But fine, let's look at Matt's article We Have Turned Childhood Into A Mental Disorder. And It's Ruining Our Kids.

According to a report, there has been a dramatic rise in children misusing and overdosing on ADHD medication. I happen to see that report a day after I read another study revealing an increased risk for obesity and diabetes in kids who take ADHD meds. This is not to be confused with the recent research showing that ADHD drugs could be linked to brittle bones. These must all be added . . . to the . . . already known side effects, including insomnia, irritability, decreased appetite, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

I'd actually like to point out a hypocrisy I noticed, that this paragraph helps to highlight. When I first read this article, I also checked the comments. Out of all of them, this is one I find the most interesting:

Apparently I had ADHD when I was a kid. Every time the symptoms appeared I got a dose of leather. Oddly, leather seems to be a known cure for ADHD but doctors can't prescribe it.

I like this comment because it shows a double standard. Notice, how in the column Walsh wrote, he blames ADHD medication for all of these and acts like none of these symptoms can be overcome. Compare that to the commenters' view that all symptoms of ADHD can be overcome with punishment. Try as I might, I couldn't find a comment that went like this:

Apparently I took ADHD medication when I was a kid. Every time a side effect appeared I got a dose of leather. Oddly, leather seems to be a known cure for side effects of ADHD medication but doctors can't prescribe it.

 But let's see more of what Matt has to say:

Maybe this is why a majority of kids diagnosed with ADHD wind up developing other mental illness as they grow older

Or because some things take longer to develop than others. 

Drug companies and the psychiatric industry have so far gotten almost 20 percent of the country onto psychiatric drugs

Or, maybe that's because 20% of the country have ADHD. Why does the amount of people who are diagnosed with it matter anyway? If 100% of people had HIV, would that make HIV fine?

Many of these drugs cause suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. Meanwhile, a lot of Americans are having suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. One need not be a detective to notice a potential causal relationship here.

And we have no way to deal with depression. It's not like there's a form of medicine known as anti-depressants. Oh wait, are those a conspiracy too? 

The psychiatric industry has set out to catalog and medicalize virtually every human behavior, emotion, inclination, temptation, and personality trait.

Blogspot doesn't recognize the word "medicalize" by the way. But okay, so if psychiatrists (or "the psychiatric industry, whatever that means) are just making up illnesses, why does it matter if people on ADHD medication develop depression?
Matt goes on to this for a while. Basically pointing to a symptom of ADHD and responding with "well, kids have it".

So, how can we know when normal childhood behaviors may be a manifestation of mental illness?

Well, most people can't. That's why we have these people called psychologists. But, Matt hates those people. 

With ADHD . . . pediatricians and psychiatrists claim to have identified a malfunction of the whole human person.

Google (or read a book about, if you prefer) neuroscience.
Matt is also outraged at this quote from The Mayo Clinic. Any emphasis is his by the way:

In general, a child shouldn't receive a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder unless the core symptoms of ADHD . . . create significant problems at home and at school on an ongoing basis.

Now listen to how Matt summarizes it:

According to the medical community, a child's personality becomes diseased at the precise moment that his personality interferes with his schooling.

So, Matt can't read. Because if he could he would have known the statement he just quotes said ADHD "create[s] significant problems at home and at school". Of course, the other option is that Matt is directly lying, but why would he do that? 
Now Matt tries to argue that psychiatrists actually just don't understand god. 

Of course, if you take an entirely materialistic view of the human person . . . then you must believe that everything he fells, everything he thinks, all of his traits . . . are all just material phenomena. The mind is an illusion in that case. You are just your brain and nothing more. If . . . you factor in the soul, and free will, and the uniqueness of each person who is created by a Divine Force, it becomes clear that the mind exist, and it drives the brain much more than the brain drives it.

For the record, Matt believes "the uniqueness . . . [that] is created by a Divine Force" will send most of us to hell, just saying. And I have no idea where he got the "The mind is an illusion in that case" point from. As for the soul point, of course no doctor takes it seriously, they only deal with the psychical world. Even if you believe in a soul, you can't interact with it on a psychical level. 

But even if we put all of that aside . . . and even if you accept . . . that brain chemistry determines everything about a person, that still wouldn't prove . . . the ADHD personality, is disordered. It doesn't prove . . . that a person isn't supposed to be that way.

Reminder: Matt Walsh is the man who believes people aren't born gay. Even though they are supposed to have ADHD. But Matt, I have a question for you. And for that, we must look a little earlier in your article. 

If you go to the doctor because you think you have diabetes, he won't ask: "Well, is the diabetes causing problems at home or school?" Diabetes is diabetes no matter how convenient or inconvenient it may be to you or inconvenient it may be to you or those around you.

His mention of diabetes struck me at first. Because, what Matt doesn't seem to know is, type one diabetes is 100% genetic. Were those kids supposed to have diabetes? And that's not going into the many birth defects that I could go into. 
That's every point he made in the article. He goes on to talk about how a child should act like a child and how ADHD drugs are stopping kids from being kids, and none of it makes any sense. So in conclusion, take your meds.