The choir director at school and I often comment  jokingly, on our numerous disorders when we get caught up in all the details of putting together the school’s musical. The fact is, everyone has some degree of psychological and/or personality disorders. I recently read an article that claimed over 30 million Americans have some diagnosed personality disorder and more than half of our population will suffer from some disorder at one point in their lifetime.

Does a diagnosis mean someone is abnormal or unable to function in society? Does that really mean we all need to be medicated? Does a medicated society mean a better society?

The commercials for the latest, greatest medications for depression and other ailments run continually, 24 hours a day. “Depressed? Take this! It might make you commit suicide but otherwise you’ll feel better.” This scares the begeezus out of me. Our society over medicates way to frequently. If you need one medication, chances are you’ll need four more to counter the side affects.

I’ve never been diagnosed with any disorder but I assume we all would fall into some category, even if only marginally. Today, we are no longer simply individuals… we are a subgroup of some disorder. We are no longer quirky or strange, we are diseased. I understand the medical and scientific community’s desire or need to categorize everyone but whom does it benefit?

I hate labels! Labels tend to make people shut down, both the person that is labeled or diagnosed and the people dealing with them. At school I often hear, “Oh, don’t expect much from them… they are ADD (or insert here).” My usual response is, “So?” I’m not going to give up on someone just because they come with a label attached. That’s one of the big problems in education today. Label the kid and you don’t have to teach them. We all learn differently, respond differently and react differently. That’s what makes us unique individuals.

Some of the most brilliant students I’ve encountered have labels. What’s yours?

Today’s Pic of the Day: Thinking about this subject, I noticed how from a side view, my demure “Bird Girl” statue has a really evil quality when you look at her profile. I took this photo yesterday afternoon and enhanced it.