Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed As Mentally Ill

A friend of mine posted an article on Facebook about the medicalization of anti-authoritarian sentiment.  It's an important piece and well worth a read.

The author, Bruce Levine, PhD (psychology), asserts that to succeed in the medical profession or in academia one must subit to plenty of arbitrary authority.  By the time these professionals are in a position to practice in their fields, they're used to obeying, and people who don't make them nervous.  There must be something "wrong" with them, right?

And what about the anti-authoritarians?  Is it always invalid to diagnose us with mental, learning, and behavior problems?  Sadly, it's not.

When we try to make a good life for ourselves, we struggle to fit in, but our deficits are apparent -- look, it's ADD!  It's a learning disability!  But why do I have to be good at math, or for that matter any other academic subject?  Why do I have to pretend to be interested in math?  Who decides which subjects are "important" enough to be taught in school?  I come to this example again and again -- if I have LD in math, why don't other people have LD in art or music?  As for the attentional issues, isn't there something kind of coercive about deciding that any person must focus their attention in a direction not of their choosing?

This isn't fair.  It pathologizes a legitimate difference in my brain. Yet, I have to try to fit in if I want anything like a life for myself.  My choice is between medicating myself and having no life.

Levine's concern is that too many social critics are diagnosed and medicated before they come to political consciousness.  I count myself lucky that I'm not one of these people.  For that matter, there's a great discussion of social class and access to ADHD treatment going on at ADD Forums.  Check it out.  And be sure to check out Levine's article too.

Disability, Relationships, and "Glee"

Last night, I watched this week's episode of Glee.  I watch it regularly.  This is somewhat about the music.  I enjoyed being in choir as a high school and college student, and I miss singing, and the occasionally perform something that isn't a pop piece of crap.

I watch it more for the subversion.  Two teenage gay couples who are in sexually and emotionally healthy relationships.  For that matter, two teenage gay couples whose characters are more than their sexuality.  Then there was the remark one of these characters once made about his atheism and the irrationality of believing in a deity.  I suppose the religious right was already pissed off at them, so why not hang a lampshade on it?

Yesterdays plot dealt with the relationship problems of two disabled characters.  The first concerns Emma, the high school guidance counselor, who has OCD.  She's had an ongoing romance with Will, the non-disabled choir director, who was thinking of proposing ... however, when he talked about his plans with her emotionally abusive parents, they talked him into questioning their relationship.

Emma and Will then had what I think is a pretty realistic conversation about the difficulties both partners face when one of them is mentally ill.  Will was concerned about Emma's ability to handle the messiness of having a house and children: "You need to control things in order to deal with your life, and you can't control people!"  Emma responded by saying that she's taking her meds and that things are getting better: "But can I promise that I'll get better?  I can't."  She told Will that if he didn't want to live with that, he owed it to both of them to be honest with himself and with her.

Being Disabled Is Expensive

1. I'm on a lot of meds.
2. I owe my shrink a lot of money.
3. I really, REALLY need to start seeing an ADD coach so I can structure my job search.
4. But I can't quite scrape the money together.
5. I have dyscalculia, so I really, REALLY need a checkbook with carbon duplicates.
6. Unlike ALL THE OTHER CHECKBOOKS which my bank offers for free,
7. Duplicate checks checks cost $20.

No, $20 isn't ton of money ... but then, I don't have a ton of money.  And it's just frustrating that I have to pay for adaptive tech that other people don't need to worry about.

Maybe I'll just give up on the duplicates and rely on my online statements ...