“When you stand still, you are going backwards.”

Swiss proverb

We live in such uncompromising times and the consequences for making wrong calls are swift.

We are keenly aware that the most talented professional sports stars use services of coaches to keep them at the finely honed level required to deliver superlative performances time after time.

There is not a single aspect of life that is immune from pressure on performance, and stress is probably the number one human reaction to pressure, triggering a host of well-documented disease conditions.

Statistics published on the prescription of psychotropic drugs are truly staggering, and sadly the application of these drugs in children shows alarming growth.

The following data has been published by a monitoring organisation 

• In 2000, international sales of antipsychotic drugs reached $6 billion. In 2001, antidepressant sales climbed to $12.5 billion. Today, that figure is near $20 billion.

• In the United States today, more than 6 million children are taking mind-altering psychiatric drugs for the learning and behavioural disorder, ADHD. Two million children take antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.

• In Australia, the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 34-fold in the past two decades.

• In Britain the rate increased 9 200 % between 1992 and 2000; in Mexico methylphenidate sales (the generic name for the drug Ritalin) increased 800% between 1993 and 2001.

Stats

Some wag once said: “There are lies, damn lies and statistics” – so I will not interpret the facts behind these figures.

The one indisputable fact is that humans, of all ages, are seemingly caving in under the pressures of 21st century life.

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