LETTER: Paradigm Shift in Mental Health Care

To the editor:

Say your daughter of age 18 is diagnosed with autism.

She will not go to college, she will not go to work. You, as her parent, will claim a disability benefit for her. You make money off of her mental illness.

Now, you need her to be mentally ill, as you make money off of it.

She stays home all day everyday. She, your own daughter, is taken hostage. By you.

The psychiatrist needs her to be mentally ill too. Why? Her mental illness is what pays him, the doctor. What good is a doctor if he has no patients?

This is a conspiracy. The parent, the psychiatrist, and the big pharma. They all make money.

But at whose expense?

Taxpayers. The government side with the big pharma, the parent, the psychiatrist. The government tax the people in order to send disability check to the parent. And the check gets divided into the hands of the parent, the psychiatrist, and the big pharma.

Who is the ultimate victim? The child.

"You are autistic. You can't get better. You can't study. Just stay home and take the pills. All your life. And don't worry. The government is paying for us."

The child has now a government sponsored excuse. She will say to herself,

"I am autistic. So I don't have to try. I will not get better no matter how I try. I autistic. I cannot work, I cannot study. Nobody expects me to. So yeah. I will just stay home and collect disability paychecks."

As you can see, the current approach of psychiatry fails. It worsens, perpetuates the problem.

We need a paradigm shift in mental health care.

What we need is this: don't think your kid is autistic. Think she is normal. And never expect her anything less than normal.

When she does wrong, correct her. Never lower your expectation. Push the child. Rebuke her.

If you think about it, what armchair psychologists call autism isn't a disease at all. It's nothing but extreme shyness, social ineptitude. All the child needs is learn how to be social.

How? Get the kid physical. Exercise. Outdoors. Dance. Martial arts.

Don't imprison your kid to your house. Get her out there. Treat her like normal. Then, only then, you will raise your child up to the normalcy.

Believe in your child.

That is the only way.

— Huhnkie Lee

Wasilla