Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Dig Deeper

I promised I would post every day. I don't have much time today, so here it is.

There was an article in the newspaper saying that more and more children are being diagnosed with bipolar syndrome.

Why do I mention this? Because I want people to look deeper at news. I want people to ask questions. The question is this:

Are more children being diagnosed as bipolar because there is more mental disease in the world today, because more children are being diagnosed correctly when in the past such symptoms might have been missed, or because more parents want an excuse for their children's behavior so they take them to psychiatrists and claim that the children are bipolar.

Too often, people read the news and just assume that the easy answer is correct. Don't do that, folks. See the story in context. Think about it. Play out the possibilities. Think for yourself and use insight.

Otherwise, you'll simply take everything - and everyone - at face value.

1 comment:

Asia said...

I think it is really a combination of all three. How could there not be increased mental illness in this day and age? Pychiatric medicine has advanced, and I KNOW some parents just want an excuse. However, these causes can also be described as a vicious cycle: Increased awareness can cause increased diagnosis (by doctors AND parents), diagnosis can lead to self-identification (some identify themselves with what they've been told they are), and this can lead to increased mental disturbance and furthered research. It's a difficult conundrum that we just can't hope to solve right now. By the way, kudos on your posting!