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Adoptee
Crazymakers
by Lori Carangelo
In the 1980's, Dr.
David Kirschner first broached the concept of "Adopted Child
Syndrome" as underlying "Dissociative Disorder" in
adoptees. In the 1990's, he is quoted in the press as citing
HMO's tendency for both misdiagnosing ACS/DD as Attention
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and for limiting
"treatment" of even very young adoptees to drugging
them with Dexedrine, Cylert and the most widely prescribed
Ritalin.
Why would HMO's approve central nervous system stimulants (CNS)
for adolescents and teenagers--drugs believed to have played a
role adoptee Jeremy Strohmeyer's rape-murder of a young girl in a
Nevada casino? According to Dr. Kirschner who did a forensic
evaluation on Strohmeyer, it's because the for-profit managed
care corporations prefer treating mental health problems with
drugs instead of more expensive
psychotherapy. The drug industry is certainly not complaining.
In "BORN LOSERS: Billion Dollar Babies in America's Foster Care, Adoption and Prison Systems," (2001 publication by Schenkman Books Inc.), I "follow the dollar" and the symbiosis of these three systems which fuel one another. In "CHOSEN CHILDREN" (2000, Access Press), I document, via narratives by incarcerated adoptees and foster kids, in their own words, that many began their lifelong addictions to street drugs, crime and even violence as result of being administered Mellaril, Ritalin and other powerful drugs in early childhood. The long-term effects of such drugs is only beginning to be known. And these are adoptees who were denied sufficient background information or contact with their "birth" families, even as adults.
Adoptee Noah Stone, now age 40 and a lifelong drug addict, describes the easy transition from what he called "good drugs" to "bad drugs" from age 7, in his efforts to numb his pain from being placed with adopters who were too old to adequately care for a child misdiagnosed as "hyperactive" and "emotionally handicapped" when his problem was his longing for his "birth" family. His adopters also taunted him with promises to help him find his "birth" family "if he was good." When last interviewed, Noah was moved to a higher security prison to protect him from death threats from his drug dealer who he owed huge sums of money and who supplied him with heroin--a drug he had never used on the street but acquired easily behind prison walls. His arrest records begin with his first attempt to "run away to find his 'birth' mother." But he did not find her until he contacted me from a prison when he was in his 30's. His newfound "birth" mother and "birth" sister accompanied me to the prison in the middle of the Arizona desert to address the Parole Board about his adoption, "Adopted Child Syndrome," reunion and desire to try to change his life. He was paroled, but after 30+ years of drug abuse and no skills training offered while in prison for surviving on the outside, within a year, he was incarcerated in notorious Corcoran Prison in California, a "three strikes" state which imprisons even non-violent repeat offenders for 25-years-to-life.
In "CHOSEN CHILDREN," incarcerated adoptees, such as Kevin Smith, Tom McGee and others, who were able to complete their searches for "birth" parents with my help despite intentional roadblocks by adoption agencies and courts, found their "birth" parents to be supportive of their adult children. Some of the "birth" parents would have been able to raise their children had they been given the chance; others have matured and gained financial stability over time and now want to do what they can for their adult children. Some of these adoptees have been able to turn their lives around as result of finally "connecting" and/or resolving lifelong issues and getting answers to "Who am I?" and "Why was I given up or taken for adoption?" But others cannot change lifelong abuse, DD/ACS behaviors of "dual identity," and drug addiction that are byproducts of a corrupt adoption system of secrecy, lies, manipulation and control. Why deny these, or any adoptees, the opportunity to be free of adoption's burdens?
In his alt.adoption post that he addressed to my attention, Dr. Kirschner commented that early diagnosis and "treatment" of adoptees with ACS/DD (which I assume means via psychotherapy) would "strengthen adoption." In his cover-letter giving me permission to excerpt from the public domain articles that he sent me and in which he is quoted, Dr. Kirschner expresses his frustration with being misquoted by media. Assuming Dr. Kirschner would not have sent me articles yellow-highlighting portions to excerpt if these had misquoted him, his concern also seems to be centered on the political incorrectness of appearing "anti-adoption." Conversely, I, as well as those who have been signing and commenting on our petition to "abolish adoption," take the position that joining Australia and other countries in the phasing out of adoption, and the building on more humane forms of custody, will greatly reduce the incidence of drug addicted adoptees and DD/ACS behaviors identified in most adoptees but especially in adopted children who kill and in adult serial killers (most of whom are adoptees as identifed in "CHOSEN CHILDREN" and "8 BALL CAFE").
Visit the author's website at:
Access Press - http://www.accesspressbooks.com
To write to Ms. Carangelo please address your Email correspondence to: accesspress@earthlink.net
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