Friday, January 23, 2004
My milkshake is better than yours.
And I have no idea what that means.
I saw a piece on ABC news about bipolar disorder. It featured an interview of two mothers whose children allegedly suffered from it. They have written a book on the subject that I cannot remember the title of. That is, of course, irrelevant, because these two women were nutcases.
First off, they mentioned that you can tell bipolar disorder apart from normal childish behavior "by its extremes". If a child is always either extremely happy, extremely sad, or extremely angry, then they are likely bipolar.
Personally, I think it's more likely that the children in question are merely typical hyper kids, but that's an opinion.
Then, they mentioned that the children's teachers saw no sign of the disorder (which boggles my mind, because teachers will usually fall all over themselves to get your child on medication.) But that was irrelevant, because these mothers saw the behavior with their own eyes, and even though they were fine at school, they acted up the second they got home.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a perfect example of "denial". A child is able to control their disorder at school, but is somehow not able to control it at home?! That makes absolutely no sense! In the case of these two children, the reasonable conclusion is that the mothers in question simply lack the patience or the assertiveness to be effective mothers. That doesn't mean that they're bad people. It just means that they have flaws in their characters that inhibit their effectiveness as parents.
But of course, deflection of accountability has been fine tuned to an art form by the current society. So we get to blame our ineffectiveness as parents on disorders that simply don't exist in our children. Instead of bettering our parental skills, we drug up our children.
The telling statement one of the mothers made was this (and I'm quoting from memory).
Interviewer: What's something that you wished you would've been told as the parent of a bipolar?
Mother: To find a good doctor. The most important thing a parent can do is to find a doctor who can give your child the diagnosis he or she needs to overcome their disorder.
I think that statement just about speaks for itself. I'll only ask a hypothetical question in response....
What do you think this mother was really after? The diagnosis her child needed in order to live a healthy life? Or the diagnosis she needed in order to assure herself that she isn't a bad parent and that her child's behavior was not her fault?
And I have no idea what that means.
I saw a piece on ABC news about bipolar disorder. It featured an interview of two mothers whose children allegedly suffered from it. They have written a book on the subject that I cannot remember the title of. That is, of course, irrelevant, because these two women were nutcases.
First off, they mentioned that you can tell bipolar disorder apart from normal childish behavior "by its extremes". If a child is always either extremely happy, extremely sad, or extremely angry, then they are likely bipolar.
Personally, I think it's more likely that the children in question are merely typical hyper kids, but that's an opinion.
Then, they mentioned that the children's teachers saw no sign of the disorder (which boggles my mind, because teachers will usually fall all over themselves to get your child on medication.) But that was irrelevant, because these mothers saw the behavior with their own eyes, and even though they were fine at school, they acted up the second they got home.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a perfect example of "denial". A child is able to control their disorder at school, but is somehow not able to control it at home?! That makes absolutely no sense! In the case of these two children, the reasonable conclusion is that the mothers in question simply lack the patience or the assertiveness to be effective mothers. That doesn't mean that they're bad people. It just means that they have flaws in their characters that inhibit their effectiveness as parents.
But of course, deflection of accountability has been fine tuned to an art form by the current society. So we get to blame our ineffectiveness as parents on disorders that simply don't exist in our children. Instead of bettering our parental skills, we drug up our children.
The telling statement one of the mothers made was this (and I'm quoting from memory).
Interviewer: What's something that you wished you would've been told as the parent of a bipolar?
Mother: To find a good doctor. The most important thing a parent can do is to find a doctor who can give your child the diagnosis he or she needs to overcome their disorder.
I think that statement just about speaks for itself. I'll only ask a hypothetical question in response....
What do you think this mother was really after? The diagnosis her child needed in order to live a healthy life? Or the diagnosis she needed in order to assure herself that she isn't a bad parent and that her child's behavior was not her fault?
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