PSY-1100-SP14-Fields Signature 5 Assignment
I just swallowed my 20 mg Adderall pill. I
washed it down with a sip of Diet Coke. The idea is that it will gradually
release the amphetamine dosage needed
to help slow down my brain enough to hear myself think, plan ahead and remain
calm when I feel completely overwhelmed. It is one part of a comprehensive
approach to dealing with ADHD. It is not the only part, but it is an important
one in my opinion.
So my paper begins with a personal and now very public confession. Sixteen years ago I was diagnosed with a mental disorder and it is known as ADHD. Whether I admit it or not simply by taking the pill I am reminded of the over a decade long struggle to overcome what used to be a very limiting and sometimes exhausting disease.
Imagine there is a room full of people and you are told that all these people have some important information to give you, in order to accomplish something you need to do. You're also told that some of that information is critical and that you must remember it along with the name of each person. In addition, you're told that you must track and record the movements of each person as they move about the room. As each person delivers their information, you attempt to store it in memory and track their movements as they walk away. As you're attempting to memorize the information and track the person's movements, more and more people keep approaching you to provide their information.
While you are still trying to focus on the first group of people, the new information coming in begins to cause a low hum in your head. The hum gets progressively louder to the point where it prevents you from being able to distinguish what people are saying. Soon you realize that you are probably missing some important information and you attempt to break through the hum in order to try and retrieve it. Now you've lost track of the first person and start to feel a state of panic. You start looking for the first people in order to recollect their information, but you can't because you're still collecting information from the others. Now you reach a point where every bit of information that breaks through the hum in your head carries the same weight. There is no way to tell the difference between what is the most important information. You try to start over again, but you've already forgotten too much of the first information you collected. It becomes a losing battle and eventually you give up on the task and become angry and frustrated with yourself for failing.
Take this scenario and apply it to virtually everything you have to do to function in life. It's impossible
Now you desire to prove to yourself and others that you are not an idiot, so you decide to move on to the next task you think you can do. If that thing is in accordance with something that highly interests you, you may be able to focus and be successful. However, life is challenging enough even for someone who doesn't have ADHD and that brings a whole new set of problems. Add in to the mix the responsibilities you have to you friends and family, and their expectations of you as a normal person and there you have the perfect picture of potential failure.
Once you have completed the cycle a few hundred thousand times or more, you begin to become defensive every time someone asks "What's wrong with you?" or "I just told you that, don't you remember?" or "You need to try harder" or "You only care about yourself" or "You're just making excuses". What’s worse is that these comments are only some of the nice things people say. Before long people begin to ignore, or call you names and some even laugh at you. They try to make you do what they can do. They are struggling to manage their lives and yours and they learn that you will step up your efforts if you feel bad enough. After all you have proven this time and time again.
Over time you begin to avoid interactions with people and even start to isolate yourself, just so that you can feel a reprieve from the onslaught. However, this too is perceived as you being selfish and uncaring. You may even begin to defend and retaliate in order to protect any self-worth you may have left. This causes severe mistrust and conflict. All the while depression has begun creeping into the picture and you don’t notice until it becomes too late. You begin to play the victim, because you believe they must be right and because you feel like a victim of what you are not quite sure yet. The psychological impact of this is incredibly damaging to self-esteem and personal growth. The impact of this on careers and relationships is not hard to see. You are in the throes of ADHD and the same scenario will play out over and over again a million times or more in your lifetime.
A perfect world is one where people can freely open up to the world and say “This is me… This is what I have but it doesn’t have to define me.” It would be a world where people have access to the mental health support and services they need. The “shh...Don’t tell” mentality needs to change. People should be able to ask someone to sign a petition, take part in a walk, tell someone that they have a diagnosed metal condition, or like a FB page dealing with mental illness without feeling embarrassment or shame. People should not have to worry about losing a friendship or losing a job because they share that they have a mental illness. And People certainly should not have to second guess themselves anytime they try to get others to help them with a cause or share their life story. People need to open up to be able to learn from one another, to share experiences regardless of their culture so we can all help one another figure it out.
People need to know and accept ADHD is a disease that affects people from every walk of life. It is not a problem that is just found in certain parts of the world for example in the United States or as far south as Australia. Believe it or not it affects thousands of people in every country and city in between. While every culture perceives the disorder differently what does not change is the stigmas and questions surrounding treatment.
In my own culture for example my halfblooded Italian relatives speak to each other in very fast sentences. They are loud and often speak with their hands. They use exaggerated movements and often draw a lot of attention to themselves when telling a story they feel very emotional or passionate about. For the longest time it was easy for me to fit in as an Italian with ADHD. Loud, obnoxious behavior was easy to disguise. Most countries view ADHD as an American problem. Because most of the research concludes that 1 in 20 children in the U.S are done in the U.S it is hard for countries to see beyond what they view as an American problem. This impression was reinforced by the perception that ADHD may stem from social and cultural factors that are most common in American society, compounded by the fact that in other countries children are often misdiagnosed or not recognized by the medical community. As a result these children often go without medical treatment and access to beneficial mental health benefits.
In my own culture literature on the topic of ADHD in Italy is very sparse and much of Italian psychiatry seems to view the topic with much skepticism. There is little to no access to the drugs used to treat ADHD.” In Italy the use of psych stimulants is virtually nonexistent because they are not available on the market. Both methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine were available in Italy until the late 1980s but rarely were used for the treatment of attentional deficits in children. They were used mostly in the intravenous form and generally for intractable post operatory hiccups. There was a problem with abuse, and often they were prescribed inappropriately for geriatric cases or misused by students and others as un-prescribed stimulants. As a consequence, the ministry of health suspended their availability in Italian pharmacies. This coincided with CIBA-GEIGY's withdrawal of the intravenous psycho-stimulants from the market.”
It has long been known that culture influences the same areas that are central to mental health such as behavioral expectations, language, emotion, tolerance, emotion, attention, attachment, conduct, traumatic experiences, personality, motivation, certain aspects of child rearing and setting limits. When it comes to ADHD cultural context plays a vital role in not only helping develop the environment in which a person with ADHD lives but also the ways in which this individual is treated and understood.
In many cultures children that exhibit the signs and symptoms of ADHD are labeled as deviant. They can’t sit still, they can’t wait their turn, and they have weird thoughts and sometimes even weirder funny behaviors. In many cultures talking about mental illness is taboo. This needs to change if we are to share understanding and tolerance for all people of the world.
Information Cited:
New York Times, the Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder (May 2010)
Commonhealth.com ADHD and America’s Children By Karen Weintraub
Guest Contributor
Redbook Magazine, What Does ADHD Look Like (August 2008)
So my paper begins with a personal and now very public confession. Sixteen years ago I was diagnosed with a mental disorder and it is known as ADHD. Whether I admit it or not simply by taking the pill I am reminded of the over a decade long struggle to overcome what used to be a very limiting and sometimes exhausting disease.
Imagine there is a room full of people and you are told that all these people have some important information to give you, in order to accomplish something you need to do. You're also told that some of that information is critical and that you must remember it along with the name of each person. In addition, you're told that you must track and record the movements of each person as they move about the room. As each person delivers their information, you attempt to store it in memory and track their movements as they walk away. As you're attempting to memorize the information and track the person's movements, more and more people keep approaching you to provide their information.
While you are still trying to focus on the first group of people, the new information coming in begins to cause a low hum in your head. The hum gets progressively louder to the point where it prevents you from being able to distinguish what people are saying. Soon you realize that you are probably missing some important information and you attempt to break through the hum in order to try and retrieve it. Now you've lost track of the first person and start to feel a state of panic. You start looking for the first people in order to recollect their information, but you can't because you're still collecting information from the others. Now you reach a point where every bit of information that breaks through the hum in your head carries the same weight. There is no way to tell the difference between what is the most important information. You try to start over again, but you've already forgotten too much of the first information you collected. It becomes a losing battle and eventually you give up on the task and become angry and frustrated with yourself for failing.
Take this scenario and apply it to virtually everything you have to do to function in life. It's impossible
Now you desire to prove to yourself and others that you are not an idiot, so you decide to move on to the next task you think you can do. If that thing is in accordance with something that highly interests you, you may be able to focus and be successful. However, life is challenging enough even for someone who doesn't have ADHD and that brings a whole new set of problems. Add in to the mix the responsibilities you have to you friends and family, and their expectations of you as a normal person and there you have the perfect picture of potential failure.
Once you have completed the cycle a few hundred thousand times or more, you begin to become defensive every time someone asks "What's wrong with you?" or "I just told you that, don't you remember?" or "You need to try harder" or "You only care about yourself" or "You're just making excuses". What’s worse is that these comments are only some of the nice things people say. Before long people begin to ignore, or call you names and some even laugh at you. They try to make you do what they can do. They are struggling to manage their lives and yours and they learn that you will step up your efforts if you feel bad enough. After all you have proven this time and time again.
Over time you begin to avoid interactions with people and even start to isolate yourself, just so that you can feel a reprieve from the onslaught. However, this too is perceived as you being selfish and uncaring. You may even begin to defend and retaliate in order to protect any self-worth you may have left. This causes severe mistrust and conflict. All the while depression has begun creeping into the picture and you don’t notice until it becomes too late. You begin to play the victim, because you believe they must be right and because you feel like a victim of what you are not quite sure yet. The psychological impact of this is incredibly damaging to self-esteem and personal growth. The impact of this on careers and relationships is not hard to see. You are in the throes of ADHD and the same scenario will play out over and over again a million times or more in your lifetime.
A perfect world is one where people can freely open up to the world and say “This is me… This is what I have but it doesn’t have to define me.” It would be a world where people have access to the mental health support and services they need. The “shh...Don’t tell” mentality needs to change. People should be able to ask someone to sign a petition, take part in a walk, tell someone that they have a diagnosed metal condition, or like a FB page dealing with mental illness without feeling embarrassment or shame. People should not have to worry about losing a friendship or losing a job because they share that they have a mental illness. And People certainly should not have to second guess themselves anytime they try to get others to help them with a cause or share their life story. People need to open up to be able to learn from one another, to share experiences regardless of their culture so we can all help one another figure it out.
People need to know and accept ADHD is a disease that affects people from every walk of life. It is not a problem that is just found in certain parts of the world for example in the United States or as far south as Australia. Believe it or not it affects thousands of people in every country and city in between. While every culture perceives the disorder differently what does not change is the stigmas and questions surrounding treatment.
In my own culture for example my halfblooded Italian relatives speak to each other in very fast sentences. They are loud and often speak with their hands. They use exaggerated movements and often draw a lot of attention to themselves when telling a story they feel very emotional or passionate about. For the longest time it was easy for me to fit in as an Italian with ADHD. Loud, obnoxious behavior was easy to disguise. Most countries view ADHD as an American problem. Because most of the research concludes that 1 in 20 children in the U.S are done in the U.S it is hard for countries to see beyond what they view as an American problem. This impression was reinforced by the perception that ADHD may stem from social and cultural factors that are most common in American society, compounded by the fact that in other countries children are often misdiagnosed or not recognized by the medical community. As a result these children often go without medical treatment and access to beneficial mental health benefits.
In my own culture literature on the topic of ADHD in Italy is very sparse and much of Italian psychiatry seems to view the topic with much skepticism. There is little to no access to the drugs used to treat ADHD.” In Italy the use of psych stimulants is virtually nonexistent because they are not available on the market. Both methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine were available in Italy until the late 1980s but rarely were used for the treatment of attentional deficits in children. They were used mostly in the intravenous form and generally for intractable post operatory hiccups. There was a problem with abuse, and often they were prescribed inappropriately for geriatric cases or misused by students and others as un-prescribed stimulants. As a consequence, the ministry of health suspended their availability in Italian pharmacies. This coincided with CIBA-GEIGY's withdrawal of the intravenous psycho-stimulants from the market.”
It has long been known that culture influences the same areas that are central to mental health such as behavioral expectations, language, emotion, tolerance, emotion, attention, attachment, conduct, traumatic experiences, personality, motivation, certain aspects of child rearing and setting limits. When it comes to ADHD cultural context plays a vital role in not only helping develop the environment in which a person with ADHD lives but also the ways in which this individual is treated and understood.
In many cultures children that exhibit the signs and symptoms of ADHD are labeled as deviant. They can’t sit still, they can’t wait their turn, and they have weird thoughts and sometimes even weirder funny behaviors. In many cultures talking about mental illness is taboo. This needs to change if we are to share understanding and tolerance for all people of the world.
Information Cited:
New York Times, the Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder (May 2010)
Commonhealth.com ADHD and America’s Children By Karen Weintraub
Guest Contributor
Redbook Magazine, What Does ADHD Look Like (August 2008)