Nor am I a “hostage”. Calling children who have psychiatric and neurobehavioral disorders “hostages” is insulting and offensive. Like Katherine, I have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. This ad is utterly offensive. It emphasizes all the negative, none of the positive.

My first thought was that the NYU Child Study Center had been handed off to the Scientologists. If you’re offended by the intentional exploitation of disorders like ADHD, autism, Asperger’ s Syndrome, depression and other childhood psychiatric disorders, sign the petition.

Here’s their justification for the shock-jock campaign:

“Ransom Notes” may be shocking to some, but so are the statistics: suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24, and serious emotional problems affect one out of 10 young people, most of whom do not get help. The strong response to this campaign is evidence that our approach is working. We understand the challenges faced by individuals with these disorders and their families. We hope to both generate a national dialogue that will end the stigma surrounding childhood psychiatric disorders and advance the science, giving children the help they need and deserve. We want this campaign to be a wake up call. Please join the dialogue.

Is a dialogue necessary? Sure it is. A reasoned, educated dialogue. Not making a victim of my successful kid. And you know, some could say that his success can be attributed to his treatment, and I’d agree. But there are other kids whose parents choose different approaches and their kids are successful, too. So let’s talk about what’s working and what’s not, but always, we should be celebrating the gifts that come with the disabilities.

Technorati Tags: ADHD, autism, childhood psychiatric disorders, aboutourkids.org, ransom notes, ad campaign