Louis Theroux: America's Medicated Kids

Watched this the same night as Theroux's Most Hated Family in America doc. Had the same problems with these kids as I did with those women.

I couldn't help but shake the comparison between Hugh's segments and 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. Nothing else really to speak of outside that.

Theroux approaches complex and difficult problems here, and even if he seems a little unsure how to penetrate very far into them, he nevertheless offers a glimpse into issues that are frequently reduced to statistics or sensationalism. It is certainly hard not to believe that this growth in diagnosis and pharmaceutical treatment reflects some kind of intergenerational problem in contemporary society: if so, blaming parents is merely a way of avoiding the true questions of responsibility.

Hue(?)'s dad was fucking annoyingly smug

So Marilyn Manson was wrong; you 'can' sedate all the things you hate. Frightening.

It's awful how avidly these parents and their kids subscribe to this mental health gobbledygook. Even if a child does meet the criteria for ADHD or asperger's, maybe it's not in their best interest to have their well being put in the hands of doctors who only see them when it's convenient and profitable - maybe it's the parents' responsibility to guide their children towards a lifestyle that is well-rounded and focused on achievement, not one that encourages the easy way out (i.e. meds).

Drugs are given so easily to children these days, without really looking at long term consequences. That kind of unsettles me in a way, especially with heavy medication these kids take. I liked the final interview with Hugh (who was sometimes a bit scary) and Louis, and feel that his parents kind of misunderstand him sometimes. Meh, sad

Not enough insight. It's just too hard of a subject for a merely one hour-long document, which is the case of many Thereoux's films.

I cannot imagine a child taking 200 mgs of Seroquil each morning.

Starts off as a pretty humdrum look at doped-up kids with behavioural problems but turns into one of Louis' most balanced investigations, as he tries to offset the understandable reasons parents decide to choose this option with speaking to a now-clean adult describe the experience as being "out of it" and watching a teenage girl restlessly waiting for her tablet like a cokehead waiting for his fix. Nothing spectacular, provides no easy answers, but thought-provoking.