Is Teen Rebellion being re-labled as Mental Illness?

[heart]

How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness
By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet. Posted January 28, 2008.

Big pharma has some new customers. Not complying with authority is now, in many cases, labeled a disease.

Thoughts?

 

[Vortex]

This is just a short reply, nothing very well thought out or argued or anything - just an emotional response.

The information in that article really scared me, as well as made me really angry. The whole idea of pathologizing any "abnormality" to such an extent terrifies me. I'm seeing nightmare-ish visions of a drugged out population. So many people with potentially brilliant minds that might be dulled or even ruined by drugs. Medicating for a "perfect" society. The whole idea that doctors would routinely steal someone's identity away from them as a matter of course. It's really frightening that it may come to that. That it has come to that. It really makes me angry - the idealizing of that level of conformity.

 

[owarinoTenshi]

As a semi-rebellious and very anti-authoritarian teenager, these people trying to compel others into complete submission really piss me off. It is especially irritating that they're specifically talking about teenagers who haven't done anything wrong, but simply have a rebellious nature. I was lucky to be homeschooled by parents who allowed me a lot of independence. I say semi-rebellious because I don't automatically rebel against my parents and other authority figures, but I try to critically think through things. However, if I had gone to public school, I imagine I would have gone crazy from it all.

 

[Nocapszy]

The question is: Has this dream become reality?

Yes. Myself and my brother are good examples.

He's was never particularly anti-authoritarian, and I'm not as much as I used to be. Reason being is, both of us have been diagnosed with two or more of the diseases mentioned in the article, and were given the appropriate drugs. When I realized that they weren't really helping me focus, only making me quiet and complacent with "knowing my place", I stopped taking them. I was a young'n at that point and didn't really suspect that it was the intention of the companies, but as the six years since I stopped passed, I couldn't help but see more and more kids taking those pills.

When I was first diagnosed, there were maybe 6 other kids in the whole school taking them. They were highly controlled, and could only be accessed at the clinic. By the time I graduated, kids were popping them in class without a second thought. Phenomena like that is hard to ignore.

Of course, before then I had researched it -- around 16 was when I first suspected that inducing complacency and reducing what was already minimal disruption was the goal, and researched it. Not very much -- I just read a few articles and asked about a dozen or so friends why they were taking them.

They all had it in their heads that it helped them concentrate, yet across the board, these kids' grades remained the same. One friend I remember in particular, I've known now for the last 5 of the six years started taking them when we were both about 15. A year later, his grades were the same, but he had less 'stamina' it seemed. He and I had plenty of arguments about whether they worked or not. I'm not sure but I think he still fills prescriptions and takes the pills.

Anyway, my point is, these kids didn't seem sick to me. I was notoriously the most "outrageous" student in most of my classes -- making lots of jokes; especially rude ones, often subjecting cancer patients and families, as well as terrorism victims. Call me crude, but I really don't have much sympathy for most people. It was right around when I discovered typology -- the end of my junior year that it really started to change. I do blame the deletion of cells on the drugs, but I also blame my behavior change on typology.

(trying to be objective here)

Well... maybe I should have made this a blog entry, but it kind of hit home for me. I normally mock every article I read, whether it supports or opposes my opinion, but this one I have to stand up for.


Also I didn't even make the points I was going to. I'll do that later. I promise.

 

[The Ü™]

Jeez, as far as I know, it is a perfectly natural for teens be rebellious.

(Although chicken pox is also a disease but one which is also to be expected, much like teenage rebellion.)

 

[Hexis]

I think there are too many people out there wanting to put labels on things and call mass quirks "mental illness". I would put this in the same category as ADHD and Bi-Polarism. Some people are just hyper and some people have mood swings, what the hell is so difficult about that. They dont need medication, its just their personality WTF!

Well thats how I feel any ways. I just hate it when I hear shit about people putting kids on drugs cause...THERE ACTING LIKE ALL THE OTHER F***EN KIDS!!!

(sorry about the small rant lol, just one of my pet peeves)

 

[swordpath]

Teens have always been rebellious...

For something to be considered a disease wouldn't there have to be symptoms that can be treated medically? How the hell do you prescribe a medication to a teenager that wants to stay out late?

 

[Maverick]

Very disturbing. Really excellent article BTW... very thoughtful...

It reminds about an interesting article from a sociologist about psychiatry as a form of social control. Whatever is outside the norm is equated to a mental disorder. Whatever is normal is considered the behavior to achieve. All this is done regardless of a concern for philosophical assumptions or cultural idiosyncracies. This thus effectively stops any social change and reinforces the system.

My opinion is that, if people display mental illnesses, alot of them are not necessarily due to *them* but due to a system they are in. Their illnesses are simply part of a bigger problem.
Take a corporation that treats people in an inhuman way. If People start falling into depression because of it, chances are that their therapist will tell them that the solution is to change the way they think about things and "adapt". When, in fact, the depression is there for a reason: it is a social alarm signal. It means that there is a bigger problem.

Very interesting part of the article:

While there are several reasons for behavioral disruptiveness and emotional difficulties, rebellion against an oppressive environment is one common reason that is routinely not even considered by many mental health professionals. Why? It is my experience that many mental health professionals are unaware of how extremely obedient they are to authorities. Acceptance into medical school and graduate school and achieving a Ph.D. or M.D. means jumping through many meaningless hoops, all of which require much behavioral, attentional and emotional compliance to authorities -- even disrespected ones. When compliant M.D.s and Ph.D.s begin seeing noncompliant patients, many of these doctors become anxious, sometimes even ashamed of their own excessive compliance, and this anxiety and shame can be fuel for diseasing normal human reactions.

This is a very insightful comment that really touches the nerve of the problem.

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

Sad and scary. While pharmaceutical drugs worry me, the companies worry me more.

 

[Nocapszy]

Teens have always been rebellious...

For something to be considered a disease wouldn't there have to be symptoms that can be treated medically? How the hell do you prescribe a medication to a teenager that wants to stay out late?

Alcohol.


After 10 lashes.

 

[Nocapszy]

This is a very insightful comment that really touches the nerve of the problem.

I'm pretty hesitant to agree, with an ISFP, but yes. Fuckin' A. Or at least partially.

I don't want to say any one thing is to blame.

Actually I don't even want to post in this thread 'cause I'd hate to look like one of those "bohemian bourgeois" a group I assault almost as vehemently as those they pretend to oppose, and now, have a new name for.

 

[miss fortune]

sounds rather Stepford Wifeish to me

My mom is an elementary school teacher and most of her class is on some sort of medication or another- some of the kids genuinely need something (preferably therapy... like the kid who found his mother dead one morning on the way to school ) but a majority of the kids are just normal children who's parents couldn't handel them, and since they couldn't drop them off at the humane society they drugged them instead

I'll admit to having been a somewhat bad child- I talked back a lot and liked to ask WHY we had to learn certain things or why math worked the way it did (not to mention my tendancy to escape on field trips and do things like visit the state capitol building instead of go to the mall like we were supposed to ). A lot of teachers pretty much begged my parents to medicate me but my parents always told them that I was just a normal curious child and that if they couldn't handle me they were in the wrong occupation!

 

[ThatsWhatHeSaid]

A lot of teachers pretty much begged my parents to medicate me but my parents always told them that I was just a normal curious child and that if they couldn't handle me they were in the wrong occupation!

MUST...

RESIST...

SNIDE...

REMARK...

*collapses onto floor*

 

[The Ü™]

I'm reminded of this line from the motion picture Uncle Buck:

Buck Russell: I don't think I want to know a six-year-old who isn't a dreamer, or a sillyheart. And I sure don't want to know one who takes their student career seriously. I don't have a college degree. I don't even have a job. But I know a good kid when I see one. Because they're ALL good kids, until dried-out, brain-dead skags like you drag them down and convince them they're no good. You so much as scowl at my niece, or any other kid in this school, and I hear about it, and I'm coming looking for you!
[of Anita's mole]
Buck Russell: Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face! Good day to you, madam.

 

[miss fortune]

MUST...

RESIST...

SNIDE...

REMARK...

*collapses onto floor*

it was too easy- responding to that with a snide remark is like making a joke about Bush's language usage!

 

[heart]

Very disturbing. Really excellent article BTW... very thoughtful...

It reminds about an interesting article from a sociologist about psychiatry as a form of social control. Whatever is outside the norm is equated to a mental disorder. Whatever is normal is considered the behavior to achieve. All this is done regardless of a concern for philosophical assumptions or cultural idiosyncracies. This thus effectively stops any social change and reinforces the system.

My opinion is that, if people display mental illnesses, alot of them are not necessarily due to *them* but due to a system they are in. Their illnesses are simply part of a bigger problem.

Take a corporation that treats people in an inhuman way. If People start falling into depression because of it, chances are that their therapist will tell them that the solution is to change the way they think about things and "adapt". When, in fact, the depression is there for a reason: it is a social alarm signal. It means that there is a bigger problem.

Yes, you have zeroed in on a very important point.

 

[The Ü™]

It seems that doctors, politicians, and teachers were never kids themselves.

 

[nightning]

I'm in pharmacology... and I'm cynical about drug companies... Their bottom line is to make money. So they attempt to push drugs for everything... and not just any drugs... but NEW PATENTABLE ones. So the consumers have to shell out lots of dough. So many things are being turned into diseases right now that very few people are classified as "normal". It doesn't surprise me that they try to push for giving kids sedatives to "help them".

You get the same thing with SSRIs (new antidepressants like Paxil). They're way over prescribed... More people should be give other forms of treatment like counsellings or cognitive therapy. But they don't... because it takes more time. Then you get a bunch of patients who are dependent on drugs... it sure makes the drug companies happy.

*ends rant*

 

[GZA]

I'm a not-so-rebellious-but-occasionally-rebellious teen, so this is interesting.

"all ADHD-diagnosed children will pay attention to activities that they enjoy or that they have chosen. In other words, when ADHD-labeled kids are having a good time and in control, the "disease" goes away."

Sounds like me... except I've never been diagnosed or even questioned about ADHD, the closest is the time my mom pitched the idea of therapy to me after she found out I was avoiding my school work and I tried to explain how I'm not just lazy but I have a serious aversion to some of the work. This is all a very serious problem for me, actually, in that not only do my grades suffer, but my relationship with my parents has also been taxed over the issue of schoolwork, motivation, and so forth. We can all agree that when given an assignment I enjoy and relate to and respect, I do a fantastic job.

I'm not even sure if I believe its a real disorder, but that describes my behaviour very well. My "rebellion" is indeed very passive agressive, and is mostly done in the form of not doing some of my schoolwork that I do not find interesting or see any merit in doing from an educational standpoint. This isn't concious rebellion, or concious at all, its just soemthing I tend to do that I suppose could be identified as rebellion. All my favourite teachers have been the ones that went against the grain and taught in an alternative style that delivered the same information in ways that clicked into my mind like floodwater through a maze... just rushing in through the cracks with no delays.

Speaking of which, we discussed this in Law class (with an awesome ENFP teacher!), and one case involved a 13 year old girl who murdered her parents for being strict. She obviously had serious problems (plus she wanted to date a man who was like 25 or soemthing). The teacher mentioned ODD, and said he thought it was absurd when he heard about it. His exact words were "ODD? Isn't that called being a normal teenager?". He then talked about how he thought the idea of normalcy in society is far narrower than actual psychological health would have it.

Throughout my life I have protested several things in school, upright and only in my mind. I once yelled at the teacher over math class in like grade seven because I thought it was a compelte waste of time to learn algebra (I stand by it to this day) and more recently I've been whole heartedly against my english class and especially Shakespeare.

"but I try to critically think through things. However, if I had gone to public school, I imagine I would have gone crazy from it all."-

OwarinoTenshi

Yep, you're lucky I always try to think critically and understand why I feel that way about some things. I really wish I had more freedom and independance... I'm a big fan of independant learning, and school is suffocating because it lacks that.

I'm not sure what my point is. On one hand, I think I relate and fit many of these "symptoms", but I really think there is nothing wrong with me and I just work better in specific environments, and unfourtunately I am rarely exposed to them. I don't consider myself rebellious for the most part, and I tend to get along well with adults and authority and they seem to enjoy me, but I can relate to a lot of this, except I havn't been put on medication.

This reminds me of the saying "most insane people do not believe they are insane"... because maybe they arn't.

 

[GZA]

Heres something I'd like to hear your opinions on; are these students perhaps just natural leaders who are poor at taking orders and work better at constructing their own environment?


And another thing; is this more common in men and is it perhaps responsible to soem degree for the "man-children" who continue to act like immature kids into their 20's?