When I was a kid, I was a pain in the you-know-what!

Later, I would have been called precocious!

In the 80's I certainly would have been classified as ADD, (or psyho?)

I was a high-energy child, given to flights of fancy and asked more questions than any 6 adults could comfortably answer. I loved to talk to everyone and anyone and would dance or sing (very, very badly) for anyone anywhere at the drop of a hat.

I had a girlfriend whose son got expelled from kindergarten and was not allowed for him to return until he went on meds as the teachers etc., declared him to have ADD. In desperation, she brought him to a doctor, who put him on some kind of medication (the popular one at the time) and watched her beautiful, energetic, charismatic, little boy turn into a turnip right before her eyes.

She removed him from medication, paid the money and sent him to another school.

This fine boy has grown up to be the finest young man and devoted husband and father with a wonderful career, who loves his parents, respects them totally and is a fine, upstanding citizen of the world.

Schools are too quick to 'define' what they are dealing with, instead of dealing with the individual and not assuming that everyone should be exactly the same as everyone else and there are some who are just more creative in living than others.

posted 5 months ago

Ray,

Great question!

I am certainly not an expert on the DSM-IV as mentioned below, but have some familiarity. I can think of many problematic behaviors from myself, friends, relative colleagues, as well as second hand stories.

There is a huge grey area between what is considered "normal" quirks and something in the DSM-IV. DSM-IV mental or behavioral problems are usually severe enough to at least temporarily keep one from working or functioning in a healthy family.

There are a lot of educational or career limiting behaviors, I am wondering who would have cataloged these, HR departments and researchers? The armed forces?

There is no doubt some overlap with the mental illness categories for some behaviors, especially those that might be present to a lower degree. Disthymia comes to mind. Also, I suspect that many "chronic" problems that students or employees may be having may be attributable to untreated or non-optimally manged mental health conditions, physical conditions, substance abuse or other unhealthy lifestyle issues. These are certainly important to rule out, as a non-mental or physical health action strategy may not work.

I also have acquaintances who have mostly controlled mental illnesses, but their behavior will occasionally start to diverge, and the trick becomes how to recognize when this is happening, so that they do not stay on the job or school past the point of acceptable risk to themselves or others.

School (all levels, but especially undergraduate and graduate college or university) is especially problematic, as under performance can cost money and delay completion (due to inflexibility of the educational track), as well as being an extremely stressful situation where many problems will first present themselves.

Then there are those who are definitely off, keep strange hours, are strange to talk to after 5 minutes, who are unable to perform certain required tasks (but satisfactorily or exceptionally perform others). What is normal? Who is to judge?

To turn it around, is everybody cut out for the options that society presents them, through nature, nurture, culture and calling? A behavior may be a great tool, or make one perform well in one situation but not another?

People did not evolve to sit on their buts fro 4-12 hours a day, the obesity epidemic is evidence of this. How many problems of behavior are not so much the fault of the individual, but of the society not being suited to the range of human behaviors and needs?

Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disthymia
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_disorder

posted 4 months ago

I received my M.Ed. in community counseling and am now working on certification in school counseling. I have counseled adolescents in a general practice and in an outpatient substance abuse program, and I believe the behaviors that are most destructive are:

a) a lack of assertiveness, which must be taught or modeled in the home; instead, what is taught in the home is aggression or passivity

b) anxiety, which leads to depression; this is often the result of unstable home lives, which leaves children anxious due to a lack of stability

c) ADD, which is more the result of shortened attention spans due to fast-paced television shows, video games, etc. than the result of a medical condition

4) substance abuse, which is an attempt to self-medicate to deal with the above problems and more

I wish I could share some specific stories because they would shock and sadden you, but confidentiality prohibits me from doing so.

posted 4 months ago