We've Got Issues (Hardcover)
Description
In her provocative new book, New York Times-bestselling author Judith Warner explores the storm of debate over whether we are overdiagnosing and overmedicating our children who have "issues."
In Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, Judith Warner explained what's gone wrong with the culture of parenting, and her conclusions sparked a national debate on how women and society view motherhood. Her new book, We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication, will generate the same kind of controversy, as she tackles a subject that's just as contentious and important: Are parents and physicians too quick to prescribe medication to control our children's behavior? Are we using drugs to excuse inept parents who can't raise their children properly?
What Warner discovered from the extensive research and interviewing she did for this book is that passion on both sides of the issue "is ideological and only tangentially about real children," and she cuts through the jargon and hysteria to delve into a topic that for millions of parents involves one of the most important decisions they'll ever make for their child.
Insightful, compelling, and deeply moving, We've Got Issues is for parents, doctors, and teachers-anyone who cares about the welfare of today's children.
About the Author
Judith Warner is the author of the New York Times- bestselling Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety and Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story, as well as several other books. She writes the "Domestic Disturbances" column for the New York Times website and is a former special correspondent for Newsweek in Paris.
Praise for We've Got Issues…
"This is a groundbreaking, thoughtfully argued book. My experience with families in the consulting room supports Judith Warner's nuanced argument exactly. The myth perpetrated by a breathless news media is fals: In reality, parents don't want to medicate their children. And every one of us has family members and friends (or ourselves!) who could have led richer, less anguished lives had they been given appropriate medication during childhood for learning or emotional problems."
-Wendy Mogel, Ph.D., author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee
"This is an important book, a landmark book, a triumph of honesty over bigotry and of patient learning over the the rush to judgement. I see every day in my office the awful, preventable damage done by zealots and reductionistic 'thinking'. Judith Warner rejects the panicky sound-bites that have plagued the discussion of children's mental health for the complexity of truth. She brings to all who read her book the resoundingly good and hopeful news of how much we have learned over the past few decades, how trasforming the best help can be, and how all children can turn into responsible, joyful adults. We owe her a huge debt."
-Edward Hallowell, M.D., co-author of Super Parenting for ADD and author of The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness
"Readers love Judith Warner because she is open, honest, attuned, and curious. In We've Got Issues, Warner considers children and psychotherapeutic medicine: whether drug companies hold too much sway, whether doctors over-prescribe, but also whether troubled boys and girls might sometimes need more help than they get today. The result is a caring and informed book that will earn the trust and loyalty of a wide audience."
-Peter D. Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac
