I think a lot of diagnoses of social, emotional and behavioural disorders, particularly ones given to children, are self-fulfilling prophecies that end up doing more harm than good. Like ADHD - for every child who genuinely needs medical help to get their brain to be able to focus and their body to stop vibrating with energy (and I'm not denying that these children do exist), there are 10 children who get an ADHD diagnosis they don't need. And then they're not even going to TRY to concentrate or control their impulses, because the diagnosis has relieved the child of all responsibility for his/her actions. Case in point: there's a fifteen-year-old boy where I work who's on a fairly low dose of ADHD medication. Most days he sits there without a peep. The one day he didn't dose up, he was literally swinging from the ceiling tiles, screaming that he hadn't taken his medication, BECAUSE HE KNEW HE COULD.
Sigh. < / rant >.
Changing the subject, your cats are cute. And it was lovely seeing you last night <3
I have no doubt there are some (a few!) children that genuinely benefit from some kind of drug intervention. But also a lot of what we ask kids to do is unreasonable. If a five year old won't sit quietly at a desk and do sums for three hours it's probably not because they have a problem with their attention span. It's because they're five.
Oh wow, I agree so much on how labeling everything as a disorder becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It seems to me that in many cases what people are diagnosed with is just...their personality. Like, any deviation from some perceived norm can become a disorder, and then in some cases that ends up producing adults who say, "I can't be expected to function like a normal adult with a job and all because I have XYZ disorder," when really they just need to figure out how to work with their issues/quirks. Makes me crazy. If I had been born 15 years later than I was, I can only imagine the number of diagnoses I would've had by the time I graduated high school.
Of course, there's also the issue of, "My child has XYZ disorder so nobody can call him out on being a massive jerk." When really, the kid is just a jerk. ;)
"My child has XYZ disorder so nobody can call him out on being a massive jerk."
LOL.
I've been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I'm sceptical. Twenty years ago people would have said I'm a 'worrier'. Now granted, sometimes my worrying/wanting to check things can be obstructive in my life and I have learnt some useful techniques for dealing with it as a result of this diagnosis. But 'disorder'? Really? What about the upside: I'm usually well prepared for the worst case scenario! Is there any person out there who is completely 'ordered'?
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I think a lot of diagnoses of social, emotional and behavioural disorders, particularly ones given to children, are self-fulfilling prophecies that end up doing more harm than good. Like ADHD - for every child who genuinely needs medical help to get their brain to be able to focus and their body to stop vibrating with energy (and I'm not denying that these children do exist), there are 10 children who get an ADHD diagnosis they don't need. And then they're not even going to TRY to concentrate or control their impulses, because the diagnosis has relieved the child of all responsibility for his/her actions.
Case in point: there's a fifteen-year-old boy where I work who's on a fairly low dose of ADHD medication. Most days he sits there without a peep. The one day he didn't dose up, he was literally swinging from the ceiling tiles, screaming that he hadn't taken his medication, BECAUSE HE KNEW HE COULD.
Sigh. < / rant >.
Changing the subject, your cats are cute. And it was lovely seeing you last night <3
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I have no doubt there are some (a few!) children that genuinely benefit from some kind of drug intervention. But also a lot of what we ask kids to do is unreasonable. If a five year old won't sit quietly at a desk and do sums for three hours it's probably not because they have a problem with their attention span. It's because they're five.
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Of course, there's also the issue of, "My child has XYZ disorder so nobody can call him out on being a massive jerk." When really, the kid is just a jerk. ;)
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LOL.
I've been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I'm sceptical. Twenty years ago people would have said I'm a 'worrier'. Now granted, sometimes my worrying/wanting to check things can be obstructive in my life and I have learnt some useful techniques for dealing with it as a result of this diagnosis. But 'disorder'? Really? What about the upside: I'm usually well prepared for the worst case scenario! Is there any person out there who is completely 'ordered'?
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