Men's Health Forum: Labels such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are "sins against children", a conference on men's health has been told.
Dr Tony Humphreys, a consultant clinical psychologist who has written several books and papers, said he did not believe in children having disorders.
Dr Humphreys made the comments during his keynote speech at the Mind Your Self conference, held by the Men's Health Forum in Ireland at Wynne's Hotel in Dublin. ADD and ADHD were just two of the disorders that he highlighted as having a high prevalence in male children. He said children gave very intelligent responses to emotional turmoil.
"Once we put a label on somebody, whether a child or adolescent adult, we stop looking for answers, we stop exploring what has brought about this intelligent response," he said. These syndromes were more prevalent in male children, he said, because they acted out their distress.
"When a child acts out it makes the lives of adults very difficult and when the lives of adults become very difficult they need some way to contain the situation," said Dr Humphreys. "But labelling is not helpful," he said.
He told the conference that female children tended to act in (ie internalise their emotional turmoil), and there were no syndromes for this because it did not disturb the lives of others. Labelling was described as a defensive behaviour on the part of adults who were struggling to cope themselves.
"No child actually sits down deliberately every morning and says I am going to make the lives of these adults difficult. The behaviour is not conscious, it is unconsciously created. The language of the unconscious is metaphorical, it is symbolic. When we look at those behaviours symbolically, suddenly they now have meaning."
Earlier, the conference heard details of a study into men's attitudes to seeking help. Noel Richardson, a men's health researcher with the HSE's health promotion department, found that men tended to present late with medical problems.
Mr Richardson said better community support networks were needed alongside working with young boys to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health.
The conference was held as part of National Men's Health week. It aimed to encourage men to be more active in taking care of themselves. Parallel sessions on suicide and gay men's health were held during the day.
The Department of Health will publish a strategy on men's health later in the year. Details about men's health can be found at www.mhfi.org.