Read the Label

Disclaimer: This post is intended to be thought-provoking, not judgemental. Please be polite and courteous in sharing your thoughts. 

labels-vI recently read a report which claimed a new disorder (DMDD) had been discovered in children. This disorder causes kids to throw tantrums and experience dramatic changes in their mood.

It seems, more and more, doctors and psychologists are seeking to put a label on everyone. If you are extremely organized, you are OCD. If you are have too much energy, you have ADHD. If you can’t focus, you are ADD. Why is it we feel the need to label every characteristic deemed “out of the ordinary”?

Now, am I saying no disorders exist? Absolutely not! I am not a certified doctor and, honestly, couldn’t diagnose anyone and wouldn’t try. What I am saying, is that we need to be very careful about labeling our children.

Why do we feel the need to stick everyone in a neat, little box? Some of us are going to be more emotional, some more active, some less focused, and some more organized. These are not problems which need to be diagnosed and dealt with, but characteristics unique to ourselves that we should work with.

On the flip side; why do we feel the need to excuse bad behavior as a disorder? When a child throws a temper tantrum, wouldn’t discipline be the order of the day? Instead of harboring that bad behavior and making excuses for it, we should be dealing with the root of the problem and nipping it in the bud.

Again; please understand me. I am not saying that all children are using a disorder as an excuse or that all disorders should be done away with. I simply think we need to be extremely careful about slapping a label on a child (or an adult for that matter).

Let us not define a person by a medical diagnosis and fail to see the person within. A label does not a person make.

Please, share your thoughts….