when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.


Friday, June 02, 2006

Oppositional defiance

It's been a while since I've posed a question for comment, so here's one:

Should anti-social behavior be considered a disorder?

I recently learned of a psychological condition called Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The disorder is characterized by "defiance, disobedience, and hostility toward various authority figures including parents, teachers, and other adults."

Some kids are vengeful and spiteful; others become bullies and use tobacco and alcohol. Yes, that's right ... tobacco and alcohol.

As one who has lived with clinical depression for five years, I'm down with the mental health thing. It defies logic that we can grasp quantum physics, predict complex weather patterns, build rudimentary nano-structures, watch a war live on TV, create anti-matter, perform routine heart surgeries and manufacture affordable and aesthetically pleasing trailer homes. We can do all this and more -- and yet, mental illness is still viewed with suspicion and superstition.

And then psychologists create something like Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The definition includes half of the kids I went to school with.

Of course kids are oppositional and defiant. That's their job. That's what they do.

There are kids that go beyond the pale -- bullies who sadistically prey upon the weak. These kids aren't oppositional or defiant or anti-social. The bullies I knew belonged to the IN crowd. They were the enforcers who terrorized kids that didn't conform.

Also, it seems disturbing that a government official like the Surgeon General is defining certain boundaries of conformity.

I suppose by questioning the validity of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, I might in fact suffer from it. Perhaps I should talk to my psychiatrist about that.

What do you think?
posted by todd at 10:55 AM

1 Comments:

It depends where the boundary is between obnoxious (or being a teenager) and deviant. Who is defining that boundary. And has a drug company come with a magic pill to fix.

My natural inclination is to side with the silly kids/bad parenting arguement. the idea that every kid should fit the cookie cutter / stepford mold just smells like a Jerry Falwell plot.

"I suppose by questioning the validity of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, I might in fact suffer from it. Perhaps I should talk to my psychiatrist about that." Hee!

11:09 PM  

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