I'm not a therapist. And neither are your friends, family or those who know you. But it was part of my training and the same problems that plague that field are worse today.
Over the last decade the amount of information on psychology and behavior has increased online and the arm chair psychologist are coming out of the woodwork.
To begin with, it's one of the soft sciences, based on communication and rarely on hard science. This is not to say that it's not extremely useful and helpful. Addressing and openly talking about behaviors that are a little different so that we as a society can support and accept is a giant leap forward.
One of the most innocuous examples is the trend that teens are taking their plush toys public as their comfort animal. Well, why not?
Not so innocuous is the mass diagnosis because the public has read or heard some talk show/media/journalist describe someone as having a neurodivergent disorder. About a decade ago it was Aspergers the example given was Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang. No. The character is a stereotypical highly intelligent socially awkward physics student. Then it was Bill Gates. Also no. It's also no longer called that but ASD, since it's a spectrum. The term came up again in recent years because of Hans Asperger and I'll leave it up to readers to look him up (ugh) and come to their own conclusions.
Someone quite interesting is Temple Grandin who is on the Autism spectrum.
Then came everyone is a narcissist, when they are in fact describing psychopathology and the currently very cool and trendy ADHD. Currently trending in Hollyweird. An astronomer who I enjoy reading, diagnosed himself with it because he needs coffee shops and background music to write his books. As do I, helps me focus, doesn't mean it's ADHD.
It takes away from the people who do suffer from it. Overdiagnosis and too much self analysis also minimizes what actual victims and survivors go through.
Please share your thoughts.
If there's any further interest please let me know and I'll provide more info in future posts.
My cousin in on the spectrum and he is nothing like Sheldon or Gates. Diagnosed back when autism was barely recognised and his parents refused to accept or believe there was anything wrong with their only child so he got no help or therapy. As a young child he didn't converse, only parroted. He did finally get language skills, wouldn't look you in the face, hummed a lot, freaked out if anything was moved even an inch in his environment. For all that, he is very intelligent, a historian who works at Texas Tech (or did, I guess he's retired now, very active in his evangelical church) and has written a couple of books.
ReplyDeleteAs for ADHD, I agree it is overdiagnosed. Some teachers , even parents, seemed to diagnose it, wanted the student/child on medication because they didn't want to deal with a regular active child. That's my unprofessional opinion. Too many 'syndromes' has narrowed normal down to an almost impossible state. Also my unprofessional opinion.
Codex: Not unprofessional but common sense. I'm surprised that he made it as a history prof. considering how severe it seemed as a child. It poses the question what is normal?
DeleteWhat you describe is classes get bigger teachers don't have the patience to support the class clown. Pharmaceutical industry is a big driver. Highly intelligent is now autistic? I'd highly recommend Temple Grandin because she's also become an advocate and the movie does a great job of visualizing it.
Adults are self diagnosing. I agree with you. People have quirks, so what?
My cousin was not a professor, did not teach, worked in the historical archives section of the college. I find it impossible to have a conversation with him to this day.
DeleteCodex: Archivist? Thank you for clarifying. Amazing that he managed despite not having a good start.
DeleteIn my little corner of the world I work with people who live with some of the diagnosis you have mentioned above. Since people who come under my care are significantly impacted by their conditions, I tend to see people who function without ongoing supports as pretty much “normal”. We all have quirks that bring challenges. Your line about “What is normal?” Is how I view a lot of things. There is such a wide range of “normal” and a fine line (or perhaps a grey area) of when a quirk becomes a disability. If you expect others to pick up your slack when you’re perfectly capable? I’ve no patience. I don’t care if you take 30 minutes to make your bed. You can still make your bed. I‘ve seen every avoidance behaviour and every attention seeking behaviour in the books. We all have responsibilities, it’s life. That being said, If medication or some well thought out strategies help people, I’m all for it. I’m not minimizing people’s struggles, but I worry about trendy diagnoses limiting people’s potential. Limited by others or limited by themselves.
ReplyDeleteMarly
Codex: @Marly, I'll respond in more detail later, but here's an anecdote I can share only because you mentioned it.
DeleteI never made my bed, nor was I asked to. The magic fairy (called mom) did that while I was at school. Then came Uni. My parents had bought me bedding with nice patterns and suddenly I just made it because I liked to.
May I ask what field you're in?
I never made my bed when I was young either;) But like you, I started appreciating a well made bed in my early 20s. Of course I used bed making in my comment as an overly simplified example for any task or responsibility. I work in the group home world.
DeleteCodex: Ah. Your comment makes more sense. Young adults? Can't be easy.
DeleteI was referring to adults in my post. Was going to give examples then didn't think there was an interest. My post doesn't really apply to your setting.Misdiagnosis can be harmful and people with no training of any kind read something then use terms meant for disorders to describe someone they know. If I correct them they don't even understand the difference of a personality trait.
I agree in general that there's a tendency to "over-medicalize" in our society. But I hesitate to comment on any individual or group's behavior. What do I know?!
ReplyDeleteCodex: Yes. That's an issue, but laymen diagnosing is the main concern.
DeleteI'm interested and encourage you to continue exploring this.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE psychology and concur that it's a valuable soft science, and currently overly trendy. Temple Grandin's story? POWERFUL. Enjoyed hearing her speak in person, once. As someone who's done therapy, and whose Master's work connected dots with psychology, I suggest that one has to factor LANGUAGE into giant leaps forward. Once we have the words...there's a relief we experience once we can name it...yet this is also problematic (your narcissist example) as even with the words, we default to those human classics: reductivism and determinism and lose the nuance.
Codex: Your comment summarizes it perfectly. The label is a relief, but mislabeled can be dangerous and destructive. There are great research studies I "love" them too. (You know what I mean), but there are also extremely unethical ones.
DeleteThinking about it, not sure there's interest and I've already worked it out for myself.
What was Grandin actually like?
Codex: @db More to say about this, but you were lucky and therapy and treatment shouldn't be up to luck but measurable science.
ReplyDelete