Seems like nowadays, everyone in this country has an ailment. It’s part of life now. You must have something you have been diagnosed with. It helps with all sorts of things–keeps you from getting fired, perhaps gets you disability, gives you an excuse to act like an ass….etc, etc.
The most annoying ones to me, having survived 20 years being married to a substance abuser, are alcoholism and drug addiction. Oh, but surely I believe it is a disease. No, surely I don’t. It is a choice. I have attended so many AA meetings in support of said spouse. The ones that were serious about getting better…..got better. The ones just playing around and pretending continued to indulge. But they got great ideas at the meetings!!! Drug addiction is costing this country billions–between healthcare, lost productivity, abuse of spouses and children and crimes committed to obtain drugs, it’s out of control. People wail and moan, they shouldn’t be sent to jail, they need treatment, they need help. Of course the relapse rate is almost as high as the recidivism rate. I think more addicts get fixed in prison than in treatment. Treatment is not reality. I have been there as well. My ex spouse was also put in treatment for drug addiction. I went to a couple of months worth of post inpatient treatment counselling sessions. All we talked about was what he needed and how I should support him. Wait-What? Isn’t that what I spent the last 20 years doing? No, I left and he continued with his drug and alcohol abuse, as if there was ever a question that he would. Drug addicts and alcoholics are just selfish people. They value their wants and needs above everyone else.
And now lets talk about all the diagnoses for regular everyday emotions today. How about depression? Really? Isn’t depression a normal part of life? Oh, I have been told that I just don’t understand…..so and so has clinical depression. This simply means they have good insurance and can afford one of the multitude of mood altering prescription medications available from your friendly college educated drug pusher. I know a person who is on 3 antidepressants…..3!!!! She is a former drug addict and alcoholic and likes to remind everyone of this, proudly. She kicked me off FaceBook for reminding her that she is still a drug addict. She just gets her drugs legally today. I think there are so many people in this country now that just can’t stand to feel normal emotions. How do you know when you feel really good if you never feel really bad? How bout telling people how to cope without drugs.
Kids with ADHD. Ummmm, I vaguely remember my childhood. By today’s definition, we all had ADHD. It was called childhood when I was growing up. We had limited attention spans, engaged in sometimes boisterous inappropriate behavior, got antsy a lot and were disruptive whenever we thought we could get away with it. Were we pumped full of amphetamines? Nooooo…..we either listened and shut up when we were told or suffered the consequences. Here’s a clue people–kids can be annoying. That’s part of it. They have 10 times our energy and constantly are jumping from on subject to another. It’s completely normal, yet inconvenient behavior. If you don’t want to deal with it, don’t have kids. We have now raised a whole crop of kids addicted to legal amphetamines….think about that for a second.
Anxiety. Now it’s a diagnosis. How do I know that? Because the last employee that couldn’t hack it at my business announced on day one that she had anxiety. Well, honey, don’t we all? I don’t really know what she meant. Am I supposed to treat you differently when you come in and announce that you can’t handle pressure? That used to mean you were not a good fit for a high pressure job. Now, it’s supposed to mean that employers are more tolerant of little things like taking 110 smoke breaks in a day. Call me crazy, but doesn’t nicotine increase anxiety levels? Isn’t it a stimulant? Isn’t that what someone with anxiety shouldn’t have? Oh, pshaw. Silly me. I was supposed to gush and avoid all conflict with said employee and go easy on her. Problem is, I have a really good employee with no official diagnosis that works really hard. I felt like it was more important to reward and support her behavior than it was to encourage the childish whining of someone with ‘anxiety.’
Is it any wonder people are so messed up when we have turned words like anxiety and depression, which used to be just the way we felt at times, into actual medical conditions? Life is a roller coaster of emotions for everyone. Except in very severe cases, anxiety and depression are normal parts of everyone’s lives. They are not reasons to not work or not participate in life. They are defense mechanisms to let you know it’s time to change things up. Now, instead of figuring out why we feel that way and what we need to do about it, we pop a pill that makes us not care. Meanwhile, if we get these things as official diagnoses, then insurance will pay the drug companies and someone gets incredibly rich….ain’t that a hoot? What a strange coincidence, huh?