NO ★
The question-mark in the title of Channel 4’s, ‘documentary’ is the closest you’ll get to an attempt at balance. I also put ‘documentary’ in inverted commas, because this is essentially an opinion piece by Psychiatrist Max Pemberton.
The programme smacks of the medicalised bias we’ve seen before, the show reminds me of Andrew Wakefield’s unfounded and absurd claims that vaccines cause autism, something that caused him to be struck off the medical register. Perhaps Pemberton will also become a wacky conspiracist in years to come, he’s well on his way.
His main argument is that ADHD isn’t provable by current medical diagnostic tools, and that children are being prescribed amphetamines en masse. Those two ideas form the basis for an hour of the most unhinged bullshit.
Some of the comments by medical professionals are alarmist, with Dr Chris Bagley likening using meds to the way we used chemical castration to cure homosexuality in the 20th century.
When Max Pemberton is diagnosed himself, through an online consultation, he refutes it because he doesn’t feel disabled by the world. Of course you’re not disabled by it, you’re unbelievably privileged.
There are issues with tech and Big Pharma, and Max Pemberton is correct in this, the way medication is overprescribed for lots of conditions, rather than an overstretched NHS giving tailored help and support. He also cites how our education system isn’t inclusive of difference or disability – like it’s some lightbulb moment no-one else has ever uncovered.
The idea that through behaviour modifications, ADHD symptoms will become less apparent, is the same ideal that Autism Speaks uses. You can force children to behave in an acceptable way, sometimes through Applied Behaviour Analysis, which forces children to be compliant rather than giving them autonomy (sometimes using physical abuse to achieve this). And if you needed an indication of where the thinking is going, Dr Sam Timmi argues that we’ve replaced corporal punishment with medicating children.
It’s sickening when Mason, a young boy who is used for this experiment of coming off meds, causing painful withdrawal, the parents simply say ‘he’s more fun now’, well that’s good for you! We don’t get to hear much of Mason’s inner world. The irony is that by the end of the programme Mason’s struggles at school mean they reluctantly put him back on the medication. This is explained away by the idea that the parents were somehow more concerned by him getting better grades than truly being happy.
There’s this very patronising middle-class rhetoric about how children are addicted to screens, eating too much sugar, and they just need to have protein supplements and they’ll be fine.
Sadly, Pemberton has conflated so much, identifying so many problematic things in our society; poor diagnostic tools because of long NHS waiting lists, our failing school system, tech companies addicting us to our screens, Big Pharma medicating everything, and a lack of help for neurodivergent people – but all these things don’t add up to the idea that ADHD isn’t real.
Sadly, it shows an unbelievably unempathetic and ableist approach to neurodivergence. It feels like all the worst gas-lighting, patronising Doctors you’ve interacted with were all put into one programme. It’s another example of how we are going backwards and whilst Max Pemberton has grabbed a few headlines, there will be real and lasting damage from this misinformation.
