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It's the time of year when excited children might, on a regular basis, demonstrate a "difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities," or they might "lose things necessary for tasks or activities," they may be "easily distracted by extraneous stimuli," they may have "difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly," or they may talk "excessively."

This sounds like normal childhood behaviour that goes hand-in-hand with the excitement, anticipation and activity of the festive season. It is normal, but to a psychiatrist, it's part of a list used to diagnose and label a child with so-called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Add some arguments and some defiance in to the festive mix, eat too much, have difficulty walking away from the internet, become obsessive about the new phone, have anxieties over whether there's enough food to feed everyone, and you have even more normality. But according to psychiatrists, you have a compendium of 'disorders.'

Translated into psychobabble, you have labels like Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Internet Use Disorder, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The common denominator however in all of this psychiatric interpretation is opinion, views, assumptions, and guesswork. Psychiatrists have redefined sets of behavioural and emotional characteristics with the expectation that we will accept their words.

John Read, a senior lecturer in psychology said, "Making lists of behaviours, applying medical-sounding labels to people who engage in them, then using the presence of those behaviours to prove they have an illness is scientifically meaningless."

With the dawn of a New Year, it's customary to make resolutions. Yes, one could give up psychiatry. Choose real medicine instead of the profit-driven psychiatric route and a world of labels and drugs.

Brian Daniels

National Spokesperson

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (United Kingdom)