Louis Theroux: America's Medicated Kids

Louis Theroux's exploration of the use of medication on America's children is intriguing but ultimately unenlightening; this doesn't necessarily mean that it's a failure. We see some troubled kids; what we (and he) can't tell is what exactly they would be like if they weren't on anti-depressants. What's more striking is the pervasiveness of the language of modern therapy, among doctors, parents and patients alike: there's something slightly scary about hearing an eight year old child describing their own behaviour as "inappropriate". I can appreciate that a child's behaviour can be (self-) destructive, harmful or difficult - but surely it's a curse of adulthood that certain behaviours are considered appropriate, or not. The programme left me disturbed, but not in the expected way; I have no idea if these particular children are well-served by their medical regimen, but slightly concerned at the demands the world places on both healthy and disturbed children.

I've been catching up on my Louis Theroux recently and have seen some very strong films from him in the last few weeks, so perhaps that is part of the reason that I felt disappointed in this one. Theroux's approach is usually to try and draw his subjects out and in some cases he has made great films doing this; the last one I watched being Miami Megajail which did a great job of presenting questions and information to the viewer on the subject at hand. With Medicated Kids though, I didn't think he managed to pull that off even though the researchers had done well to get him access to some good subjects here. This is only half the battle but actually in this regard the film is pretty good.

We see the kids struggling but more worryingly we see them (and everyone) using the vocabulary of diagnoses in the way that members of a cult can often all talk the same sort of way because they have been taught a common language. This is uncomfortable because of that comparison but it is also more uncomfortable to hear the kids talking about themselves in terms of being a patient rather than a person. We see the parents going through it as well with their kids and it is clear that they have "difficult" kids – whether they are 'broken' or in need of treatment I don't know but for sure they have their hands more than full every single day. The film doesn't really provide answers of course but it does pose a lot of questions and give the viewer a lot of odd feelings about the need to "do something" conflicting with the rather uncomfortable idea of a (for example) 6 year old talking in medical terms about themselves while taking anti-depressants.

The problem though is that it doesn't really manage to deliver a complete view particularly well. It certainly manages to indicate something "wrong" somewhere and it gives tastes of the challenges to all those involved but yet it falls short of being a total document with questions cleverly raised across the film. It contrasted too much in my mind with Megajail, because to me that did use interviews and characters to build a really engaging summary of the subject so that although tightly focused on individuals, the bigger picture was clear. For me this film never managed to get to that bigger picture and it is weaker as a result; not weak, but weaker than I would have liked for sure. Still interesting though and it did engage but the subject represents a challenge in terms of structure and delivery and it is a challenge that it never really rises to.

Why so many Americans object giving transgender hormone therapy to children when they don't feel comfortable in their own bodies, but have no problem with giving psychoactive therapy to children just because they are difficult to manage? The society needs to be more inclusive. It needs to be open to different people and values. It needs to allocate resources and develop plans to help people solve their root problems. It should stop seeing people who do not confine to social norms as pathological, as the others, as the lesser beings. Medicine and punishments are not the answer, or at least not the only answer. When everyone seems sick, we should consider the possibility that it's the society that's sick.

I think "America's Medicated Kids" is one of Louis Theroux's best documentaries. Instead of coming into the program with an axe to grind, Theroux seems surprisingly neutral about kids being diagnosed with mental illnesses. While he agrees that some kids do better with medications and need them, he also is concerned that too many kids are put on medications and diagnosed in order to make them easier to manage--when they really are just being jerky kids!

Through the course of the show, Louis visits with doctors and therapists but mostly he just hangs with families with kids who mostly have Oppositional-Defiant Disorder or similar problems that make them argumentative and practically impossible to live with for the typical family.

The bottom line is that Louis DOESN'T act like he has all the answers and truly seems concerned--and this make it a show to watch.

As with probably most good documentaries, we learn a great deal from "America's Medicated Kids," but everything we learn raises new questions. We are left with a shaded picture of the American habit of treated sometimes very young children with psychoactive medications (reproduced in a microcosm) without easy answers about whether it is right, whether it is helpful, and to what extend the "illnesses" being treated may just be part of the children's personalities.

A great strength of Theroux is that he is a master of drawing out his subjects on pointed subjects without withholding his opinions yet while remaining polite, friendly, and non-threatening. This works even more to his advantage here as he draws out not only parents and doctors but the children themselves, who are often surprisingly revealing and on more than one occasional seem a bit disturbingly self-conscious and removed from their own experienced, seeing themselves as patients.

The centerpiece is a much-medicated, much-diagnosed boy called Hugh and his family. He comes across as a very complex and interesting figure, and these segments are funny and touching as well as fascinated. We get the desperation or relief of the parents as well as the sometimes confused states of the kids.