Too many kids are incubated in fear

In her monumental work, Beyond Fear, psychologist Dorothy Rowe argues persuasively that most mental disorders are strategies for dealing with fear, and the consequent stresses of life. In this category, she includes depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, bipolar disorder, phobias and schizophrenia.

In an article in New Scientist magazine, Rowe forcefully pointed out that the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are essentially the same as those of fear. In other words, the millions of children being treated with powerful drugs for this ‘disorder’ may simply be “very afraid.”

In similar vein, Bruce Perry of the ChildTrauma Academy claims that many of the children diagnosed with ADHD or learning difficulties are suffering from trauma. Millions of them have been “literally incubated in terror.” With their brains in a terrified hyper-vigilant state, they are jumpy and simply unable to sit still and focus on intellectual learning. In one of his many papers Perry wrote: “Terror, chaos and threat permeate the lives of too many children—millions of children across the globe each year have tiny pieces of their potential chipped away by fear. Fear inhibits exploration, fear inhibits learning, and fear inhibits opportunity.”