Caroline Hentzen
ENLT 2555- Professor Chase
Argument Paper
In today’s society, there is a diagnosis for every minor issue, whether genuinely medical or not. As Riska argues in her paper “Gendering the Medicalization Thesis,” medicalization becomes an area of social control (Riska 63). Diagnoses of a time period determine which behaviors are socially accepted and which ones are negatively viewed. A defiant child can easily receive a diagnosis for a psychological disorder despite whether it is warranted; many parents even desire a diagnosis in order to ease their minds. However, a diagnosis does not necessarily ameliorate the problem. In fact, it can often categorize kids or simply place the blame on another factor. When placing a new condition …show more content…
Often, people refuse to work through the problem on their own once a doctor gives them a diagnosis. Although a patient often receives a specific treatment plan along with a medical label, it can cause a lack of patient responsibility, stigmatization, and even a blurring of physical and mental states. Medicine has the power to define the norms of society, for when a problem becomes medical, it is no longer considered normal. Rather than immediately labeling a problem as a medical issue, more emphasis should be placed on unearthing the root of the problem and developing a plan to fix it. Forcing all conditions onto a medical spectrum can cause far-reaching consequences when in fact a diagnosis is actually the most insignificant factor in resolving the problem.
The idea of nature versus nurture has been studied for decades, and many new diseases are actually deemed to be nurture-based. Unfortunately, if people focus on these conditions from a nature standpoint, they …show more content…
When every child seems to have some degree of inattention, it is impossible to determine whose inattention is medically caused and whose inattention is simply age-appropriate. When kids have slight social problems like inattention or tantrums, parents often look for “technical…[and] medical solution[s]” even when the issue can be changed by just adjusting behavior (Riska 61). Illnesses on a spectrum have greatly contributed to medicalization and changing the norms of child behavior in the medical field. Every day, a child may be diagnosed with ADHD unnecessarily and treated as different when in fact his or her behavior is relatively normal. The use of prescription drugs often proves to be troublesome in these cases. The stimulant drugs taken by these children can have negative side effects. People consider medicine to be a miraculous cure even if a mental condition is slight; this can cause ‘“other levels of intervention [to be] effectively closed”’ (Riska 61). ADHD medicine is thought to affect growth in some cases due to lack of appetite. Some doctors even instruct parents to give their kids medication during school hours only because of its side effects, which also include sleep disturbances; in larger quantities ADHD medicine can even be addictive. For kids who should not have been diagnosed in the first place, using these medications can be more harmful than
ENLT 2555- Professor Chase
Argument Paper
In today’s society, there is a diagnosis for every minor issue, whether genuinely medical or not. As Riska argues in her paper “Gendering the Medicalization Thesis,” medicalization becomes an area of social control (Riska 63). Diagnoses of a time period determine which behaviors are socially accepted and which ones are negatively viewed. A defiant child can easily receive a diagnosis for a psychological disorder despite whether it is warranted; many parents even desire a diagnosis in order to ease their minds. However, a diagnosis does not necessarily ameliorate the problem. In fact, it can often categorize kids or simply place the blame on another factor. When placing a new condition …show more content…
Often, people refuse to work through the problem on their own once a doctor gives them a diagnosis. Although a patient often receives a specific treatment plan along with a medical label, it can cause a lack of patient responsibility, stigmatization, and even a blurring of physical and mental states. Medicine has the power to define the norms of society, for when a problem becomes medical, it is no longer considered normal. Rather than immediately labeling a problem as a medical issue, more emphasis should be placed on unearthing the root of the problem and developing a plan to fix it. Forcing all conditions onto a medical spectrum can cause far-reaching consequences when in fact a diagnosis is actually the most insignificant factor in resolving the problem.
The idea of nature versus nurture has been studied for decades, and many new diseases are actually deemed to be nurture-based. Unfortunately, if people focus on these conditions from a nature standpoint, they …show more content…
When every child seems to have some degree of inattention, it is impossible to determine whose inattention is medically caused and whose inattention is simply age-appropriate. When kids have slight social problems like inattention or tantrums, parents often look for “technical…[and] medical solution[s]” even when the issue can be changed by just adjusting behavior (Riska 61). Illnesses on a spectrum have greatly contributed to medicalization and changing the norms of child behavior in the medical field. Every day, a child may be diagnosed with ADHD unnecessarily and treated as different when in fact his or her behavior is relatively normal. The use of prescription drugs often proves to be troublesome in these cases. The stimulant drugs taken by these children can have negative side effects. People consider medicine to be a miraculous cure even if a mental condition is slight; this can cause ‘“other levels of intervention [to be] effectively closed”’ (Riska 61). ADHD medicine is thought to affect growth in some cases due to lack of appetite. Some doctors even instruct parents to give their kids medication during school hours only because of its side effects, which also include sleep disturbances; in larger quantities ADHD medicine can even be addictive. For kids who should not have been diagnosed in the first place, using these medications can be more harmful than