From ‘A mind-field for children’, 9 Nov 2010, article by Wayne Chan, Today online
There are some 500,000 children between the ages of six and 16 here. And about one in 10 has a mild mental disorder, an expert from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) has estimated based on a national survey in 2004.
…While some might associate mental problems with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder or autism, for example, the experts said it is also important to look for mild anxiety disorders, such as refusing to go to school, separation anxiety or social anxiety.
“For example, a child who does not want to go to school may complain of abdominal pain,” KKH chairperson (division of medicine) Professor Chay Oh Moh said.
Last I checked, most people refer to a dictionary or thesaurus, and not the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders), to describe what used to be perfectly ‘normal’ children’s behavior like ‘shy’, ‘stubborn’, ‘lazy’, ‘naughty’ or ‘needy’. Now, if a child makes excuses not to get on the school bus, it’s called a ‘mild anxiety disorder’. If he withdraws from the group and sits by himself during recess doodling it’s called ‘social anxiety’. Of course I’m not in the position to doubt the experts and their extensive research in paediatric neurotransmitter imbalance, but perhaps there’s a chance that a little parental discipline and some good loving, instead of checklist counselling and unnecessary, expensive pharmacological interventions would do the trick. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse our mental health dignitaries of inventing diseases out of thin air, for there’s already a sustantial lobby of behaviourial experts to do that on my behalf. There’s a much simpler explanation for the increase in mental disorders among the kids really, rather than pointing fingers at the educational system, tuition centres, or the breakdown of the nuclear family. And that’s because more people know about them and are bringing their kids to their doctors to ask if their kids are affected. To call this phenomenon ‘awareness’ borders on the perverse. Perhaps ‘paranoia’ would be more appropriate. It’s like how suddenly so many roses become red once someone discovered the colour red. The trait ‘red’ has been there all the while, just like how children have always been troublemakers since time immemorial.
How has it come to this, that we no longer value the endearing diversity that is the human behavorial spectrum, and any deviant emotion or attitude is medicalised to the point that before they even develop the ability to reflect on their thoughts and actions through normal social discourse, children are labelled as ‘having a problem’ and ‘need assistance’? The ‘rebellious’ kid now suffers from ‘oppositional defiant disorder’, the ‘weird’ guy who mumbles to himself’ has ‘paranoid schizophrenia’, and everyone else who did nothing more than stare out of the window daydreaming during class has ADHD. In the near future no successful adult will find it fashionable to tell people how ‘naughty’ he used to be in school, instead he’ll divulge bleakly but purposefully about how he was diagnosed with ADHD and had to attend counselling twice a week, to the sheer admiration of his peers, gasping in awe like they just heard a rock star confessing about a coke-laden, threesome sex party. If it’s not a moneymaking Ponzi scheme by drug companies to turn kids onto psychotropics, it’s the more sinister motive of fine-tuning our youth to conform to a hazy prescription of ‘socially acceptable behaviour’, an easy way out for teachers and parents more than happy to blame the disorder and its triggers (exams, Facebook, video games, canteen food) than themselves for being hopeless role models. Or maybe it’s simply a conspiracy to have more kids pass their exams, through the power of drug-fuelled focusing. I never thought I’d say this, but Brands Essence of Chicken, we’re really counting on you to save our kids from Ritalin/Prozac now.
Filed under: 2010, Drugs, Kids, Parenting, Teachers Tagged: | education, Kids, Teachers
