The first half of this article explains how France views ADHD as a psycho-social issue, rather than a biological-neurological disorder, and that France uses the CFTMEA instead of the DSM. Fine.
But then the second half seems like an advertisement for Pamela Druckerman’s book, and a general promotion of the “cry it out”/spanking approach to parenting. Also, children shouldn’t be allowed snacks, but they definitely need piano and lacrosse lessons.
I have seen this article all over facebook, with people saying “amen” to it. This bothers me for a few reasons.
- What about this article resounds with people? Do they have a bad relationship with their child and wish they could go back in time and be more controlling? Has some child with ADHD done something that directly disrupted their life? Are they ashamed that their society has a high level of children with ADHD?
- What is with the assumption that a good child= a mini adult? Children are not supposed to still for 8 hours during they day, or eat big meals with nothing in between. They’re developing. My infant son eats 10 times a day because his digestive system is too small to process big meals. There’s got to be a transition period between that and adult eating patterns.
- Just like France is rigid, there are also countries that are more relaxed and find success with co-sleeping and longer term breastfeeding. France could be correct about the problem being psycho-social without their therapy/parenting approach being the only viable way to treat ADHD.
- Kids look to their society’s perception of love as an indicator of their parent’s love. Asian kids view authoritarian parents as loving (strict rules show that their parents care about their future), while 2nd generation Asian American children view authoritarian parents as restrictive and unloving. Even if America is full of permissive parenting, a child isn’t going to understand your protest against the system.
Many campaigns aimed at reducing stigma emphasize the high prevalence of mental disorders. The assumption of these campaigns is that reduction of the perceived distinction leads to a decrease of the desire for social distance towards those afflicted. Our results indicate that this may not generally be an effective way to reduce stigma.
I was watching Generations and felt like I was in a DBT class
DATA: Sir! I no longer want these emotions! Deactivating me is the only viable solution.
PICARD: Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life, Data… learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances
DATA: No, I cannot…
PICARD: You will not be deactivated! You’re an officer on board this ship and I require you to perform your duty. That is an order, Commander!
DATA: Yes sir… I will try, sir.
PICARD: Sometimes it takes courage to try, Data. Courage can be an emotion too.
I wanted to get an opinion from Firefly fans. In-universe, is River supposed to actually be suffering from Schizophrenia because of the Academy’s experiments, or does she just appear to from Simon’s POV?
River has symptoms that fit Schizophrenia, but they are explained away:
- She has seemingly has disorganized patterns of speech, e.g. derailment, flight of ideas, illogicality, word salad. But most of the time she is actually speaking in metaphors that make sense if you have third-person perspective.
- She’s paranoid, but rightfully so. There are people coming to get her, and they are putting secret messages in the media.
- She seems to have hallucinations (voices, flashes of images), but these are a result of her psychic abilities.
Her emotional dysregulation is supposedly due to her Amygdala being “stripped” by the Academy.
- Stripped of what? Myelin? What would that do?
- On the one hand, a case study of a woman with a non-functioning Amygdala suggests that she wouldn’t experience fear.
- But then again, people with BPD and OCD have smaller (and more active) Amygdalas, resulting in strength and longevity of emotions
- Either way, while Paranoid Type Schizophrenia does not require flat affect/apathy, River’s brand of emotional dysregulation is not a common symptom of Schizophrenia.
It seems like there are three four explanations:
- The Academy messed with her brain to see what she could take and simulated random symptoms. Simon incorrectly diagnosed her because he didn’t know that she was actually psychic.
- The Academy was trying to heighten River’s Psychic abilities and a side effect was that it simulated random symptoms. Simon incorrectly diagnosed her.
- The Academy intentionally simulated Schizophrenia for whatever reason and Simon accurately diagnosed it.
- Joss Whedon picked Schizophrenia as a diagnosis and it doesn’t really matter whether the symptoms can be explained, because they serve the purpose of making River unpredictable and mysterious.
And does it bother anyone else that she’s magically better at the end of Serenity, even though they made physical changes to her brain?
And that’s the most frustrating thing about depression. It isn’t always something you can fight back against with hope. It isn’t even something — it’s nothing. And you can’t combat nothing. You can’t fill it up. You can’t cover it. It’s just there, pulling the meaning out of everything. That being the case, all the hopeful, proactive solutions start to sound completely insane in contrast to the scope of the problem.
It would be like having a bunch of dead fish, but no one around you will acknowledge that the fish are dead. Instead, they offer to help you look for the fish or try to help you figure out why they disappeared.
-Hyperbole and a Half, Depression Pt 2
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