The Medicalization of Society

Sociology has a field of theory known as Medicalization. It is where certain social behaviors that are deviant of the normal social behaviors have been classified as diseases. Widely known as Disease Mongering many argue that it is what the medical industry has done to generate profit, and what people have done to normalize deviant behavior. Things such as ADHD and many other 'new' 'mental illnesses' are scrutinized for the fact that some of these are not mental disorders but social disorders/deviance. Another thing that has been heavily scrutinized and medicialized is addiction.

What is your opinion on this?

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_mongering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicalization

 

Would you consider a disorder such as Asperger's to fall under this category or am I missing the point? I've heard how this disorder is sometimes portrayed in a comical light due to a similar argument as posted above.

 

I am not sure, and I honestly haven't looked into it all that much. I just remembered this from my Sociology class a couple semesters ago and thought it would make an interesting discussion.

What is an actual disease and what is medicine's attempt to normalize social deviance?

 

I have a story on this subject. My opinion either way is strongly biased because of this, so naturally I think I'm right without any research, so deal with it.

So here's my story. I work in a videogame center/computer lab at a local YMCA (fitness center), and my job is basically to monitor kids and make sure they're not beating each other up. There's a 10 year old who comes in every day, dropped off before 1PM when I take over for my shift, and is usually still here when I close up at 8PM. This already screams bad parenting when adults leave their kids at the YMCA for over 8 hours.

This kid is exceptionally obnoxious. Parent's explanation: "advanced ADHD" as if that were even a real diagnosis, and he takes medication for it.
This kid pisses his pants almost every other day, and a few days ago he shat all over our leather couch. Parent's explanation: "hyper focus syndrome" KKKKK mom, no. Your kid doesn't want to stop playing videogames long enough to take care of himself, and you're not encouraging him to make healthy choices whatsoever. Fucking terrible ass parents. Oh, and he takes medication for it.

Reason I know about his medication and supposed "conditions" is I get pretty involved with all the kids, they like to talk about their lives if I ask (and we're supposed to ask, as we work closely with CPS). He tells me about his little army of medication he takes
Anti-depression for when he throws fits about not getting his way.
Ritalin and Methylin for ADHD and hyperfocus
Even NiQuil for those "terrible sleepless night", IT'S CALLED BED TIME! NEWS FLASH, KIDS DON'T LIKE BEDTIME.



so I'm fervently against medification.

 

Errr.

There's also been a study on how these drugs affect the kids. Actually ALOT of the school shootings that happen, the aggressor is always under some type of ADHD medicine.

 

Agree with this guy. It would be very naive to underestimate the extent to which parents shape a child's character for one. It's just another scheme for more profits really, it's your Psychiatrists, we all go through hardship in life... it's natural.
So we don't all follow the same emotional and characteristic patterns, well that's hardly a surprise, we're 7 billion and no two of share the same life experience, no two of us were nurtured and raised exactly the same.

Sure, there is mental illness, backed with evidence on abnormalities within the brain, but I don't buy these "disorders" for one minute.

 

Correlation and causation, anyone? A lot of people die in hospitals, but that doesn't mean people die when they go to hospital. You would expect someone who shoots up a school to be mentally unstable, and you'd expect someone who is mentally unstable to be medicated.

 

As someone with a brother who suffers from a very, I guess I would say "strong" ADHD, I would have not entirely disagree with Medicalization but will add that my opinion is up there with MohtasaUnique's and others. There Clearly has been an over prescribed epidemic for children ( especially males ) that is affecting the health of our youth. It was clear at a young age that my brother had severe ADHD. He literally depended on his medication in order to make it through k-12.

So there are clear cases in which medication is something necessary, but these doctors, teachers, and role models need to be less trigger happy with pills and more patient with their kids.

 

I didn't watch the story. Just asserting that there are possibly some negative outcomes to young children using these powerful drugs.

But expecting isn't the actual truth, is it.