I don't think anyone's more disabled or less mentally healthy than ever, but the explosion in diagnoses is to be expected given the rewards and incentive structures. It's actively helpful to be "disabled" in college, as you get extra time on exams and other accommodations that make success more likely. If four in ten of your fellow students are getting such advantages, why wouldn't you want to compete on more even terms?
All of this made sense in a world in which we took pride in being healthy, competent, and capable. There's no shame in having a real disability, which is nobody's fault after all; and so there should be no shame associated with the receipt of these benefits, provided that the disability is real.
One way not to be ashamed of claiming such a benefit falsely is to actually believe that you deserve it. The same generation that has managed to 'identify' with many fake genders seems very capable of 'identifying' with various mental health challenges, too. Who's to tell them that they're wrong about what's going on inside their heads?
The system we set up for a different time won't be able to survive this change, but for the most part the systems seem to be failing anyway. What's one more, I suppose?
8 comments:
Grim said " I don't think anyone's more disabled or less mentally healthy than ever,"
Not sure I would agree on that- a lot of people seem half crazed by social media. And a significant number seem disabled by weight.
When “anxiety” is considered a disability for academic considerations, something is broken with the system. Now, why students have that level of anxiety, social media (in some cases their parents’ social-media inspired demands) should get some of the blame. Crazy college admissions requirements deserve some credit as well (academics AND lots of volunteer hours/community service AND athletics AND hobbies AND …)
LittleRed1
When “anxiety” is considered a disability....
I go back to what I grew up with in the last century: "Cut out your whining, or I'll give you something to whine about."
Time to revive that.
Eric Hines
I have two that might qualify - OCD and Asperger's or some hybrid of the two. I have had them since childhood. I am glad no one ever made anything of it or thought that the accommodating should be done by them. Everyone has something to overcome - a tragedy, a family situation, injustice. A limited number of them is good for us.
Forty percent of Stanford students are classified as having a disability
Which indicates that the creme-de-la-creme have learned to game the system.
Crazy college admissions requirements deserve some credit as well(for increasing anxiety among HS students) (academics AND lots of volunteer hours/community service AND athletics AND hobbies AND …)
Teen years should be dedicated to finding out what one is good at, what one is not good at, what one likes doing and what one does not like doing. In short, exploration. They should not be dedicated to jumping through hoops to get into the "good school."
Let's see if this one gets through.
Gringo
I'd have to agree with Raven, and I'll point to what I think is one of the culprits- MUCH more powerful marijuana. The links to mental problems (schizophrenia, paranoia) have always been there, but more powerful pot more widely 'legally' distributed (giving a false sense that it's as safe as anything else you buy) has to have contributed. A little paranoia goes a long way if enough people are getting it, and amplifying it on social media.
From Chesterton:
“One thing, of course, must be said to clear the ground. Political or economic reform will not make us good and happy, but until this odd period nobody ever expected that they would. Now, I know there is a feeling that Government can do anything. But if Government could do anything, nothing would exist except Government. Men have found the need of other forces. Religion, for instance, existed in order to do what law cannot do—to track crime to its primary sin, and the man to his back bedroom. The Church endeavoured to institute a machinery of pardon; the State has only a machinery of punishment. The State can only free society from the criminal; the Church sought to free the criminal from the crime. Abolish religion if you like. Throw everything on secular government if you like. But do not be surprised if a machinery that was never meant to do anything but secure external decency and order fails to secure internal honesty and peace. If you have some philosophic objection to brooms and brushes, throw them away. But do not be surprised if the use of the County Council water-cart is an awkward way of dusting the drawing-room.
In one sense, and that the eternal sense, the thing is plain. The answer to the question “What is Wrong?” is, or should be, “I am wrong.” Until a man can give that answer his idealism is only a hobby.”
I have a small window into disability advocacy and "no shame" is about 180 degrees off the current view. A disability is an identity to be celebrated, a entry into the diversity/intersectionality Olympics, and an opportunity to demand whatever accommodations you can dream up to enable your participation in society while loudly proclaiming how much "normal" people have to learn from you. While I get some folks look at what is happening as 'gaming the system' (and that probably does happen) I don't think this is so much as case of people 'faking' as simply making something they've been told by an 'expert' the major source of their identity.
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