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I have worked with adults who have been diagnosed with thought, mood, and personality disorders.  The majority of these people have childhood origins where physical, sexual, or emotional abuse has been present.  There is evidence through statistics on reported rape, molestation, and other forms of abuse for children to suggest that there is a substantial problem involving children being hurt.  The unreported cases and subtle forms of hurt bring this number to a very significant amount.  To this day, I have not read any book that has addressed this growing problem in a systematic way.  There are many reports on how dysfunction in families produces a generation effect where children grow up to demonstrate similar patterns of problematic behavior as their parents.  The rules of a dysfunctional family begin to be the moral code for children and their children to come.
There are many families that go unaccounted and unnoticed until their child behaves in ways that demonstrates a noncompliance to the rules of society.  The fact that the hurt goes unnoticed contributes to the child’s insecurities and negative feelings associated with confusion, self-doubt, and insecurity.  The child who experiences the more obvious hurts such as physical and sexual abuse has the better chance of being recognized by sources outside the family than those more subtle negative messages.

I believe that a system can be created that encourages accountability and atonement, which is grounded in morality and virtuous behavior.  I believe this is possible if these concepts can be addressed in the various systems our children come in contact.  Can psychiatric illness be prevented?  There is enough biological evidence to suggest that there are some psychiatric illnesses that cannot be prevented.  I do believe that how parents and other professionals react to and teach children can promote positive behavior in children and adolescents, especially those who present out of the norms of society.  I do not believe that medication be used as a first step to managing children who exhibit behaviors that go against the expectations of families and schools.  Many times their behaviors are a result of their home or school environments.  Inconsistent rules and unrealistic expectations of teachers and parents can result in behavioral problems by children.  Teachers and parents should hold the bar to achievement high for children but not make the environment impossible to achieve expectations and goals.  I believe it is unrealistic to expect some children to sit in a big classroom and remain still all day when the activities are not presented in a fun or interesting manner.  Maybe our children labeled as ADHD are really the healthy children who are responding normally to a boring and stagnant environment.  Having rules alone in school and home environments are not the best ways to promote positive norms.  Many times, rules tell kids what they cannot do.  Children need to know what they can do to show positive behaviors and will need to be recognized for their ability to demonstrate these behaviors.  Children will not learn new behaviors without someone teaching them how to perform the behavior and how the behavior is relevant to their needs.