by everending

Created on: January 09, 2009

When I was entering the first grade, my teachers attempted to bar me from the classroom until I was tested for ADHD due to a tip from a babysitter. My parents refused to have me tested for any disorders; instead, they requested an IQ test. Their assumptions proved true, and when they confronted my teachers with the test scores, they quietly let me work at my own pace in a corner of the room. Isolated from my classmates, unable to participate in normal classes, I dragged through the school days wondering why I was being punished.

Freshman year of high school, I began writing. I analyzed Shakespeare to no end, and I explored the darker side of the mind in my art class. Once again, my teachers forced me to see a psychologist. This time my parents could not intervene, and I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder, at least until I proved my own sanity. They drew on my original files, claiming that my high IQ could be derived from the illness, and that maybe my so-called ADHD behavior in kindergarten was in fact the root of manic-depression.

In this country, the fight for the rights of mentally handicapped children has come full circle. Now, we are so quick to label children so we can medicate them. Pills have replaced the need for teachers; drugged children do not require instruction or interaction. Yet we ignore the highly intelligent; we no longer consider the gifted to be special. We provide extra teachers and extra opportunities to children with learning disabilities, but rarely do we allow those children with advanced learning capabilities to earn any one-on-one time. They are equally deserving, but we have all but forgotten that children can be anything other than deficient, and we simply assume that acting out is caused by something problematic, rather than something beautiful.

I graduated valedictorian from college with a 3.98 GPA, yet I still carry with me a medical record that claims I am Bipolar. This record is like a ball and chain, shackles left over from countless teachers and counselors who refused to see the truth, only the simple solution. I don't believe it's worth asking if children are overdiagnosed with Bipolar Disorder: that answer is obvious. Instead, I think we need to explore why instances of manic-depression and ADHD are increasing exponentially. Our children haven't changed, but we have. And in a fast-paced world of fast-food restaurants, why spend extra time with a special child, whether handicapped or gifted, when a few pills can fix the problem instantly?

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