Where did all these disorders come from?

Question

When I was a kid there were 2 disorders 1) little brats who got spanked a lot and 2) arrogant know-it-alls who everyone wanted to spank!

But now, over a period of 40 years we have ADHD, ACD, CDM, Bipolar, Autistic, etc etc etc. Where did all these disorders come from??? and why aren't we by law allowed to do anything about them without being interferred with by social workers, the courts and paying huge bucks to the psychs?

I love this! Wonderful responses so far. I do believe that there is a lot of over diagnosis and over medication and people making money who don't really know or care. I believe a lot of the old fashioned rights of parents to simply teach their children how to behave has been taken away. However, I totally agree that we now understand more than we did back in "the old days" ... and I support that assistance whole heartedly.

Answer 1

Being a brat or being arrogant isn't a disorder. 40 years ago these disorders did exist, but not all of them had labels. The people who were severely autistic, schizophrenic, or other serious disorders were just put away in an institution or hid away by their family. I'm not saying that sometimes psychiatrists don't over prescribe Ritalin or other drugs sometimes, but come on, have you ever met an autistic child, or dealt with someone who is bipolar. These are real disorders that people need help with. They aren't new, it is just better know now and people are actually willing to discuss it. Spanking can't cure autism or bipolar disorder, or OCD. Please look into this and try to not be so narrow minded in your view. Thank you.

Answer 2

They have always been there, the little brats who got spanked a lot wound up becoming angry teens and beat the crap out of those who smacked them around. They started looking into the problems and found there were actual reasons for children behaving as they do. Just like back in the "olden days" when the legends of vampires and werewolves began, what would happen was people who came down with the plague would go into comas...science being what it was in those days people assumed they were dead so they would bury the dead. Some of those "dead" would come to find themselves buried go mad and claw their way out of the coffins and looking as they did passers by would freak out. Those who were born to nobility weren't buried, their bodies were simply placed in the family tombs, imagine waking up, not really knowing who you are but lying on a stack of skeltal remains and rotting bodies...Hence "the living dead". As science becomes more knowledgable we find disorders. And I have to correct you as far as Bipolar disease...it was around more than 40 years ago. I know because my mother was diagnosed when I was three years old and I was born in 1953...that's a little bit longer than 40 years.

Answer 3

Well, too bad we've come a long way from beating kids with biological illnesses that are not their fault. So in this modern age, what would you do without the law and the psychiatrists? Exactly what would you do to these kids? What about the ones in wheelchairs? The ones with diabetes? The ones with cancer? The ones who were molested? The ones that have parents addicted to crack? What category would they fall in? Have them beaten or just wanting to beat them? Nowadays we talk about our problems and try to make lives better instead of a childhood of abuse. Biological problems can't be beaten out.

Answer 4

I think it is an attempt to create order out of disorder as man has always done. Also to have diagnostic techniques and tests to get people into groups where they can be treated with therapy, special ed and/or medications.

Like science, it will always be under criticism and will have to change as we lowly humans forge our way forward.

Some of it works and some of it don't. It is in an area known as "No easy answers".

Answer 5

I think I know where you are coming from.
40 years ago there were no "special classes" in our school. One of the boys, after 5 years in Kindergarten, finally got passed up to the first grade. There were teachers, a principal, a lunch lady, a nurse, and 3 bus drivers. No aides. No therapists, no PE teachers, or any other extra adults. There was a code of behavior and respect in the classroom. AND there were 3 RECESSES to assist the kids in their behavior.

Kids in our school had to LEARN to control their behavior.
And they DID LEARN to. Only one girl on the schoolbus claimed to have never been spanked. Yes we used a dirty word to describe her. She was a BRAT. When she'd get off the bus, the remaining kids would express they felt sorry for her - that she was unloved - her parents didn't care about her or her behavior..........not like our parents. We acknowledged our parents love for us for making us behave, and for spanking us to reinforce that good behavior. They cared enough to "get our attention and change our attitude"'
Now the other girl - she was a mess- from childhood into adulthood. No one wanted to be like her, or to raise their kids as she had been raised.

Two of my kids had ADHD. Drove us all nuts. Our family Dr. didn't believe it should be addressed medically. He told us they needed to learn to live by the same rules as everybody else, and they were going to need to learn self-control. As we all live in the same world. Doc felt it was unfair to the child to medicate them for the "convenience" of the adults in their life. Behavior is learned. Parents, he said, need to learn to DEAL WITH IT, staying in control of the situation - as exhausting as that may be.
Doc taught us to use exercise to help the kids learn to control their behavior, running them before expecting them to actually keep their bottom on their chairs all the way through a meal.

Answer 6

I thought the same as you. I work as a psych nurse now and realize that disorders such as bipolar, mania, depression and schizophrenia are real. Probably just missed diagnosed years ago. As for ADD & ADHD, these are real too, but often lables given to kids who just need their a$$es beat. That's what my parents did. There's far too much money to be made. You can't charge someone to let you whip them. Unless you're a dominatrix! ;-)