Re: CHAT: ADD (was Re: CHAT: "boredom" (was Words for "Boredom")

>From: J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: CHAT: ADD (was Re: CHAT: "boredom" (was Words for "Boredom")
>Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 15:30:09 EDT
>
>In a message dated 06/18/2002 08.55.29 AM, smithma@UCLA.EDU writes:
>
> >ADD isn't all that new. My uncle was diagnosed with it back in the
> >early 70s. I think its just got to be better known, or perhaps it >got to
>be a "trendy" diagnosis.
>
>     ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is a very broad diagnosis nowadays.
>When I was a young "Wild Child," a certain type of it was called
>"hyperactivity."
>     When the new ADD acronym came into being, my dad was not at all
>thrilled. Very drily, he says that it should be more accurately SOS >for
>"Sensory Overload Syndrome" based on both my mother's medical >analysis and
>my dad's intense observations of my reactions to sensory >stimuli and diet
>as well as my emotional responses and intellectual >development.
>
>     Decades before these questions were being seriously asked, my mother
>wanted to get such data like:
>         - the numbers of children with "hyperactivity" who were born
>Cesarean
>Section & how many were born and raised in lower-class socio-economic
>environments
>         - the numbers of juvenile delinquents with "hyperactivity"
>         - the numbers of people in prison who who are/were diagnosed with
>"hyperactivity."
>
>     But since my mother had or made some key enemies within "the Medical
>Establishment," she never got to pursue research on her "pet > project."
>(Back then she called me "pet" ... IIRC a very British endearment).
Yes - ADD is a highly problematic clinical category.  It is clear that in at
least a few cases, there are actual physiological reasons for the
"condition" - if you can call it that.  It is also clear that in many cases
ADD is either:

a) a result of lifestyle - too much TV, not enough parental attention, etc.

b) a convenient way for teachers and / or parents to label a child who is
acting out against changing standards of appropriate childhood behavior.

The problem is that it's extremely hard to tell the difference.  That, along
with the relative newness of the category (even 1970's is new compared to
most other disorders), and it can be transformed from a clinical diagnosis
into a buzzword.  Thus, it is easy to negatively label a kid as having ADD
when he or she acts out, and it can become a kind of self fulfilling
prophesy (either predisposing a clinical diagnosis - "Doctor, I think Jeffry
has ADD...," and/or creating a kind of self image that the child has to
grapple with).

It's also easy because now we have an easy solution that we don't have to
think about too much.  A kid acts out, and you can always just medicate him.


Andy


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