Welcome to The New World DisOrders -- They Are Legion.

 

 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-maric/welcome-to-the-new-world_b_101224.html

This piece might be restored. Please feel free to read all the reviews below. Thank You All !

Reviews

[Gareth Hopkins]

Wow! So this is coming from the heart, huh? I have to admit, this made me laugh, not because I was genuinely amused, but because I've kind of been saying exactly the same thing for absolutely years. To be quite honest, I thought I was the only one...
That said, I have to agree wth some of the other reviewers, and whilst I agree whole-heartedly with what you're saying, you do kind of take a shovel to this one and beat the reader round the head with it, you know? From my point of view, I didn't mind (did I mention I agree with you?) but some of the 'sheep' are obviously going to have problems. Thanks for making me smile, though.

[Kevin Connolly]

Brilliant rant, Carol. I agree with every word.
Einstein autistic? Next they'll be sayng Stephen Hawking has something wrong with him.
What is it with these people? They're the do-gooders who fawn at the feet of murderers, rapists and their ilk, claiming they're not intrinsically evil, just misunderstood. They're the reason why society has gone to the dogs - perfect specimens of humanity are frowned upon for being "show-offs", "bigheads" and "not good role models for the kids". So who is a good role model? certainly not the politicians. Certainly not the overpaid sports people...
Why are nurses paid a pittance while David Beckham has 100 million in his bank account?
Don't get me started. Great stuff, Carol.

[Cheddarhead]

Bravo! You've taken my thoughts and put them into words for me. As I was reading this I thought perhaps the Rolling Stones were ahead of their time...you know, "mother's little helper." Or is it just my that memory does not go back far enough???

[Made In Dna]

Thought provoking to be sure. Have we become a society that depends on the crutches of "seeking help" and "medication" to validate us as "well"? That's a very scary thought. I do believe there are persons out there with legitimate concerns and health (mental and physical) disabilities, but are their very real afflictions somehow made contrite when every John, Dick and Harry claim to be just as invalid? Thank you much for this piece. It has given me a lot to think about.

Made in DNA

[Amy Robbins]

Thank you for that, I say as one of those who could be considered "abnormal" and, dare I say, "psychologically imbalanced." The consensus these days seems to be conformity, and those that don't, are labelled as "ill."

I suppose it's better than being burned at the stake...

[Ravi Bedi]

I doubt.

[James S Matthews]

I think the reason for the Labels (sadly the capital is is indeed intended as I fear it has become a thing in it's won right) is because of fear. And self-esteem. People fear that which they do not understand. By labeling Einstein as Autistic they reduce the man and his genius to being a mere mortal in stature. If he wasn't autistic, if he were truly a genius, then people would have to measure up to that standard. The same with the "quick fix" medications. Says you have a "condition" doesn't hurt your self image, after all, it's not your fault your this way, its biology. Most people are too afraid to face the facts, they simply don't have it in them to either change their lives or (in my case) simply accept that they are the way they are by choice and deal with it accordingly. Oddly enough, I was talking about something like this with my Father the other day and I think it stems from the fact that people don't have anything to believe in anymore. Not enough positive role models. Hmm, I feel a piece coming on. I've rambled on enough here. I'll post something myself so as not to take up too much room here.

[History Sleuth]

Like you state, what worries me is what is considered �normal�. I know too many children who are on some sort of medication or other, or ADD or ADHD, not that some of them aren�t without issues, but I don�t believe as many as we see today. Children do have short attention spans, are excitable, they�re kids after all, not adults. How much of this is just parents inability to be able to (or take the time to) teach their children life skills? I know they say �the children are our future� but actually that worries me too. If they don�t learn other means to control anger, sadness, anxiety, patience, focus then how will they be when they become the leaders of our country? Kind of scary.

[Belly Dancer]

Your essay raises for me an interesting question that I have often struggled with. I do believe that modern society is promoting a certain extinction of talent in the sense that all our individual anomalies that make us unique are being treated and stabilized with medication. In a certain Orwellian or utopian sense, your piece seems to imply that society tries to 'normalize' its deviant members. It is these deviant members, however, who often produce these great works, simply because they possess a certain frame of mind unique to the status quo. I absolutely do agree with your argument, in fact, there was a more "economical" (as much as you hate to associate with that term) assessment of the matter in a recent issue of "The Economist" magazine. At the same time, I am still personally unsure as to what stance I maintain in this whole drug treatment issue. While I do believe that certain extreme situations do merit such treatment, the costs being considered when it comes to individuality are quite substantial. In fact, I think you are probing at a larger issue, one that questions the nature of scientific advancement on the whole, and whether mankind is trully in control of his environment. Perhaps maybe this was the point you were hinting at? As always, your work seems to graze on these issues that I have been pondering in the back of my mind for as long as I can remember.

[Barbara G, Emerging Sou..]

Hmmm, well. I found this an interesting point of view, even though I don't agree with a lot of it.

First of all...I find a significant amount of television programming entertaining and sometimes educational...and I rarely, if EVER watch news of any kind. Two hours of CNN listening to them recant the same "top stories" every 20 minutes (or every 5 if you're reading the ticker-line dancing across the bottom of the screen) gets boring. The occassional game-show (entertaining mostly to people-watch) and Prime Time Crime Drama (yes, I am a CSI fan) and Reality TV Show (I enjoy, and am not embarrassed to say so, Big Brother and Survivor and Flavor-of-Love) are fluff, intellectually, but enjoyable all the same. I don't aspire to everything in my life having to enlighten my mind. Aside from that, Discovery Health and Court TV (particularly Forensic Files), National Geographic and Discovery Science channels are a nice way to fall asleep to some informative TV at night.

Ah, but to the REAL part of your piece here, about the therapy and medication issues. You make an interesting point that historical genious are being epitaphed with labels of various psychological disorders...but I don't know that I have heard much about anyone saying that they should have been helped or cured. Then again, I don't hang around with the Philosophy Crowd, so I have no idea what arguments are being bandied about over extra-tall glasses of Chai or whatever Intellectuals are drinking these days. You do present a viable thought here, and I won't argue it in my ignorance. I'm merely making a comment of my own personal observation. (I often make comments to people here and am then bashed for how WRONG I am based upon this or that reason because people simply don't understand that I am merely stating a personal OPINION...)

It in when you begin talking about therapy and medication, you begin to contradict yourself in this, in my opinion. You begin by saying, "...Everyone, and ones grandmother, is encouraged to obtain the help of a therapist..." and then after you spout off a bit about the intent of (all?) medication seeming to be only to numb and supress and keep people quiet say, "...No one is actually supposed to have a reaction to disturbing circumstances, feel what one is really feeling, and perhaps make decisions based upon these thoughts and emotions anymore, because it might be too inconvenient for immediate family, and the economic society as a whole."

Hmmm. Well.

My personal experience with therapy is that one explores, quite in depth, their personal feelings and reactions and behaviors and the situation and/or reason why these things may be occurring and do a lot of self-analyzation to MAKE decisions based upon these thoughts and emotions in an attempt to improve their lives and their emotional state.

Therapy has personally brought me from the brink of divorce and suicide to a position of being a person with strength and a desire to live and pursue changes in my behaviors and those of others that will enable me to not tolerate being abused and dominated...and to have the will to actually pursue things that interest me so that I have a future and, yes, emotional stability.

When you have lived through dehabilitating depression as I have...the type where you can't do anything other than lie in bed and cry for the majority of an extremely non-productive day and can't "FUNCTION NORMALLY" because you can't function at ALL, your line which states, "...Just get help and take the pills needed to continue to work and function "normally."..." actually serves to grate on my nerves and want to label you as someone who gets herself caught up in the sweet-sound of her own philosophy while not knowing jack-s**t about that which she speaks.

Yes, medication has a lot of horrific side-affects. For that very reason, I am currently not taking any for the first time in the last five years. I am no longer in the same state of mind and in the midst of behaviors of various disorders as I was when I was put ON the medication (thanks TO the medication and particularly thanks to the therapy that I have received during that time which has brought me to a place within myself that I am strong enough to attempt to deal with things sans meds) and am hoping that I will be able to tolerate the mood swings that come with my very real chemical disorder in my brain. I personally made every choice when it came to medication and have made informed decisions, and at this point I did not believe that the benefit of the meds that I was taking was equal to the negative side-affects.

At no time did these meds silence me, or numb me, or prevent me from feeling and discussing emotions. They helped me avoid the irrational extreme and dehabilitating affects of my condition so that I could go on with, yes, a NORMAL life versus being non-functional.

Many of the geniouses of which you speak seem to have suffered from actual psychological illnesses and/or disorders and I'll bet their lives and those of everyone around them were living hell at times. For, along with the genious probably came extreme delusion, panic, self-endangering behaviors, violence, destroyed relationships and abuse of many forms of drugs and alcohol to attempt to kill the demons. When physician-described meds are not available, the person with psychological problems seeks any way possible to self-medicate to numb the pain. Does that destroy the genious? I doubt it. It may have made them pass out in a non-functional and potentially-deadly heap and fry a few brain cells, perhaps, but in the midst of their "high" they were probably quite creative.

So, to end this quite lengthy comment, as I said, I find your point-of-view to be interesting, although I don't agree with a lot of it.

Barbara

[Tom Rose]

Hi Carol,

I really liked this essay because of your thought provoking insight into the potential world of tomorrow. One bereft of a youthful generation lacking awareness to the galvanizing reality that steel be tempered by brightly burning flame.

Since I plan to robustly participate in all the rest of the days of my life (a proclivity I garnered as a scrappy, willful, unmedicated child) your essay has made me realize that it disturbs me to contemplate a society in which the razor's edge is dulled by turning down the heat.

Here's to the fire...

Cheers