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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume 4
Fall 2005
The Clockwork of Attention Deficit Disorder: Mechanisms in Illusion - Page 5
By Xiaolei Shi
The child can give up all hope of ever being good or normal when his parents think everything [he does is] bad or aberrant" (5) regardless of whether ADD is present or not. John J. Ratey, author of Driven to Distraction, also asserts that the labels of "ADD are misleading and shame producing," and suggests that "the syndrome is not one of attention deficit but of attention inconsistency. [Additionally] the word 'disorder' puts the syndrome entirely in the domain of pathology where it should not be" ( 23). Ratey's characterization of the misleading labels as pathology account for both the criticism and the over-diagnosis of ADD. Worried parents may deny the presence of ADD simply by ignoring the symptoms because the label of ADD conjures up connotations of disability and mental illness. Conversely, Ratey's assertion also explains why many parents are driven to find an immediate treatment or cure for the disorder. This scenario would explain the "rising sales of Ritalin by 122 percent" (Lawis 121). Thus, it is the social stigma attached to ADD that hinders a legitimate diagnosis.
To further understand the character of ADD, other current cultural expectations should be factored into perspective. Laurie Parson, co-author of Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World, contends that the overall competitive nature of society induces ADD: "parents are snapping up educational toys, Mozart CDs, and flash cards, with the goal of giving Junior an edge on his less fortunate peers. There are even tapes being marketed to give babies a head start while they are still in the womb" (46). Parson asserts that "we may think that we are stimulating our children to be geniuses but in fact we are over-stimulating them to exhibit characteristics of ADD." Coupled with "the fast pace of everyday life, the search for the sound bite, and the love of fast food" (27), we inundate children with an endless barrage of sensations. Thus, according to Parson, it is this odd societal trend of the "power parent" and the fast-paced society that is driving symptoms of "impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity" indicative of ADD. Moreover, Lucy Jo Palladino, author of Dreamers Discoverers & Dynamos, contends that it is the changing nature of attention that is responsible for the increasing numbers of cases of ADD. Palladino cites the famous Gettysburg Address as an example of changing attention spans; the speech itself lasted only two minutes, and in "1863, [this] was unheard of" (40). This shift in attention span is only one of the changing societal standards that define ADD. Further, Palladino suggests that "the norms for divergent thinking appear to have changed over the course of the last hundred years or so. The degree of divergent thinking in the general population has increased dramatically." Early on, Palladino uses the term "divergent thinking" to avoid misplaced biases and premature association with ADD; later, however, however, Palladino equates "divergent thinking" with ADD.
Another major factor in the development and diagnosis of ADD is the educational system. Lawis stresses that teachers play an instrumental role in the determination of ADD. Yet Lawis claims that "when a teacher is trying to educate thirty-five students and one of them is working against her by acting out, the understandable temptation is to apply a label, to solve the problem by categorizing the offending student's behavior" (10). When "asked why a child's energy level was considered a 'disease,' educator John Hold testified 'we consider it a disease because it makes it difficult to run our schools as we do . . . for the comfort and convenience of the teacher and the administrators who work for them" (Koch). This subjective labeling leads to a flood of criticism, most notably from Armstrong who contends that "many parents and teachers actually embrace the label of ADD with a relief as it offers a name ¾ an explanation for the inexplicable" (20). Further, Armstrong argues that culture is solely responsible for the rise of ADD, noting that "[ADD] is a popular diagnosis in the 1990's because it serves as a neat way to explain away the complexities of turn-of-the-millennium life in America ," and that the increase in ADD cases is due to "failure of the educational system" (20).