Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Adult A.D.D.
From Sunday's NYT magazine:
" 'You can't see it, you can't touch it, there's no litmus test for it,' said Dr. John Ratey, co-author of 'Driven to Distraction,' ... 'It's a spectrum diagnosis. There is no real test for depression either, but we accept that people are depressed. There are no real tests for a lot of things.' ... In other words, doctors know it when they see it. "
I was fascinated by an article about adult A.D.D., and, since I'm losing my mind here at work today, I thought I'd shoot off a few unorganized thoughts:
Our personality makes us who we are, but do we really have any ownership of it? We'd like to think that we are in control of our actions, actions being expressions of our personality. But if you can easily change a person's personality and actions by giving them drugs, what does that say about the power of human agency -- or free will. If our actions are so determined by forces outside our control: our genes, our family environment, current events, chance, what drugs we're on, where does personal responsibilty fit in?
No reasonable person holds the severely mentally ill responsible for their actions; we give them drugs, counseling, or put them in homes. Depressed people cannot function normally, but nowadays most people would not simply tell a depressed person to suck it up -- we give them drugs and cut them a certain amount of slack. They also are not fully in control of their emotions or actions.
Where is the line drawn? I'm unorganized, scatterbrained, easily distracted, unproductive ... in other words, lazy. BUT WAIT, a brain scan shows that this area goes nuts when you ask me to add prime numbers and I have the XJ-47 gene mutation -- so there, I was predisposed, determined, to act this way. I'm off the hook, give me more time to take tests and you can't fire me now either.
Yeah, I'm more than a little skeptical of people who claim to have every mental disorder they need to claim to have whenever it suits them to have it. We've all got shit going on in our heads. But I also believe that mental illness is real and that some people need to be cut extra slack and treated properly.
It all comes down human judgment, that indefinable power of reason that goes beyond logic and applies vague ideas to real circumstances. Sometimes it's wrong but there is no other way.
And therein lies the game.
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" 'You can't see it, you can't touch it, there's no litmus test for it,' said Dr. John Ratey, co-author of 'Driven to Distraction,' ... 'It's a spectrum diagnosis. There is no real test for depression either, but we accept that people are depressed. There are no real tests for a lot of things.' ... In other words, doctors know it when they see it. "
I was fascinated by an article about adult A.D.D., and, since I'm losing my mind here at work today, I thought I'd shoot off a few unorganized thoughts:
Our personality makes us who we are, but do we really have any ownership of it? We'd like to think that we are in control of our actions, actions being expressions of our personality. But if you can easily change a person's personality and actions by giving them drugs, what does that say about the power of human agency -- or free will. If our actions are so determined by forces outside our control: our genes, our family environment, current events, chance, what drugs we're on, where does personal responsibilty fit in?
No reasonable person holds the severely mentally ill responsible for their actions; we give them drugs, counseling, or put them in homes. Depressed people cannot function normally, but nowadays most people would not simply tell a depressed person to suck it up -- we give them drugs and cut them a certain amount of slack. They also are not fully in control of their emotions or actions.
Where is the line drawn? I'm unorganized, scatterbrained, easily distracted, unproductive ... in other words, lazy. BUT WAIT, a brain scan shows that this area goes nuts when you ask me to add prime numbers and I have the XJ-47 gene mutation -- so there, I was predisposed, determined, to act this way. I'm off the hook, give me more time to take tests and you can't fire me now either.
Yeah, I'm more than a little skeptical of people who claim to have every mental disorder they need to claim to have whenever it suits them to have it. We've all got shit going on in our heads. But I also believe that mental illness is real and that some people need to be cut extra slack and treated properly.
It all comes down human judgment, that indefinable power of reason that goes beyond logic and applies vague ideas to real circumstances. Sometimes it's wrong but there is no other way.
And therein lies the game.
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