Write your search in the input below and press enter.
Esc to close.

The Sports Doc Chalk Talk with Dr. Chris Stankovich

Peak Performance:
Not Just for Sports, for Life

  • Products
    • Toolkits
    • Audio
    • Videos
    • Books
    • Apps
  • Services
  • Chalk Talk
    • Recent
    • Athletes
    • Coaching
    • Sports Parenting
    • Sports Administrators
    • Life
    • Administrators
  • About Dr. Stankovich
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Products
    • Toolkits
    • Audio
    • Books
    • Videos
    • Apps
  • Services
  • Chalk Talk
  • About Dr. Stankovich
  • Testimonials
  • Contact

Hello. Sign In

My Account
  • Login
  • Register
0
The Sports Doc Chalk Talk
Subscribe
The Sports Doc Chalk Talk with Dr. Chris Stankovich
  • Recent
  • Athletes
  • Coaching
  • Sports Parenting
  • Life
  • Administrators
Home / Blog / Will Sneezing Become the Next New “Mental Illness?”

Will Sneezing Become the Next New “Mental Illness?”

By: Dr. Chris Stankovich | @DrStankovich | Jan 23, 2017

No Comments

You sometimes forget things. Shift around in your seat from time-to-time.  Lose interest in things you don’t find interesting.  If you do these things, do you have a mental illness?  Without a doubt these kinds of behaviors can be annoying, but are they psychopathological?  Actually, people who don’t occasionally squirm around and lose their attention are in the statistical minority, but they are not mentally ill any more than individuals who are regularly challenged to stay tuned in to things in life they don’t find interesting.

ADHD is a pharmaceutically created “mental illness” developed entirely around behaviors that just a generation ago were viewed as normal, not indicators of mental illness.  Today, once diagnosed with ADHD, it’s almost guaranteed you will immediately be placed on an ongoing regimen of potentially dangerous, completely unnecessary psychostimulant drugs to help you improve upon your psychopathology.

lifesuccess2

When did normal become a mental illness?

How we define thinking and behavior prompts how we categories normal, abnormal, and psychopathological.  For this reason it is vitally important that we get it right, especially since the primary means of treating mental illness these days is through potentially dangerous drug therapies.  The question, then, is how we got to now — how have we morphed from previously accepting that we all fidget, lose interest, and forget things to the modern day psychological view that if we do any of these things regularly enough we have a mental illness??

Of course it is annoying to lose focus, especially when focus is needed.  The question isn’t around if losing focus is annoying though, it’s around whether losing focus is really a mental illness?  This question becomes especially important when looking at child behaviors, for we now live in an age were kids as young as 3-4 years old are being placed drugs like Adderall and Ritalin simply because they move around and lose their attention, just like what kids that age should be doing.

A different way to examine the ADHD epidemic…

What if we took another regularly occurring human behavior similar to the challenges humans have with focus and dropped it into the big pharma model of morphing normal into pathological — what would that look like?  For example, what if sneezing, a normally occurring human behavior, suddenly changed from being commonly accepted to a mental illness?  Before too long a major paradigm shift would occur, and the act of sneezing would soon be treated by pharmaceutical drugs.  Does this sound far-fetched to you?  On the surface it likely does, and is probably even laughable to consider — but use this line of thinking and apply it to how similarly normal human behaviors like losing attention from time-to-time morphed into the nation’s most prevalent mental illness today.  Does it still sound crazy?

lifesuccessBecause of the slow rise in the number of Americans (yes, Americans — no other country in the world even comes close when it comes to diagnosing ADHD) the collective reaction to millions of otherwise normal human beings being placed on high-powered drugs to curb normal behaviors hasn’t been dramatic.  Unfortunately, only when we take ten steps back, clear our minds of repeated advertising efforts and all the people in our community who quickly point out their shortcomings as products of “ADHD,” can we once again gain traction on this modern-day travesty.

You might have laughed when I used sneezing as an example to compare to how we got to now with ADHD, but the truth is that just about any behavior we see as normal today can eventually turn into a new mental health disorder tomorrow.  How do I know this?  Simple — without any physiological tests or markers needed for a problem to become a mental disorder, there really is nothing standing in the way other than our own conscience of what we feel is right, versus those who look to capitalize in profitable ways by selling drugs to fix problems that really don’t exist.

One final thought to add here — quite often clients of mine on an ADHD drug claim that they like taking the drug, and that they feel better while using.  Be warned here, simply because you like using a drug it doesn’t make the drug effective or safe! Most substance abusers will admit they like using, and in some instances will even claim the drug helps them deal with stress.  Use critical thinking skills and weigh evidence objectively when it comes to mental disorders and the efficacy and safety of the drugs being used.

Bottom line: Lets get kids off drugs they don’t need to be on for “mental illness” issues that are really just normal child behaviors.

www.drstankovich.com

 

ADHD, disorder, drugs, health, mental, psychology, Stress

  • Author
  • Comments
  • Details
Get to Know the Author

Dr. Chris Stankovich

Dr. Stankovich has written/co-written five books, including Positive Transitions for Student Athletes, The ParentsPlaybook, Mind of Steel.

Latest Blog Posts

  • June 5, 2023 What is Happening to Recreation Youth Sports in America?
  • May 23, 2023 Breaking Down the Stages of Youth Sports
  • May 16, 2023 Mental Health Tips to Help Kids Avoid Sport Burnout
  • May 10, 2023 Watch for these Issues with Kids Playing Multiple Sports During Same Season
  • May 4, 2023 Understanding the Importance of a Balanced Athletic Identity for Kids

Comments are closed.

PREVIOUS POST

Professional Training to Assist Student Athletes

NEXT POST

Learn 5 Ways to Quickly Break Sport Slumps

Category

Emotional Intelligence , Habit Change , health psychology , Life , Mental Disorders , Stress , Uncategorized

Tags

ADHD, disorder, drugs, health, mental, psychology, Stress

  • Recent Posts
  • Most Read
  • What is Happening to Recreation Youth Sports in America?
  • Breaking Down the Stages of Youth Sports
  • Mental Health Tips to Help Kids Avoid Sport Burnout
  • Watch for these Issues with Kids Playing Multiple Sports During Same Season
  • Understanding the Importance of a Balanced Athletic Identity for Kids
  • Morning Sports Practice Before School is Becoming the Norm, but is this Healthy for Kids?
  • Nature or Nurture? Exploring the Psychology of Sport Success
  • Breaking Down the Stages of Youth Sports
  • 3 Important Tips for Today's Multi-Sport, Youth Sport Athlete
  • Understanding Intelligence: Putting Knowledge into ACTION!
  • The Sports Doc on TV

    Catch Dr. Stankovich’s tv, radio, and print interviews and columns here!

    Dr. Chris Stankovich Watch Videos
  • Sport Performance Assessment

    Dr. Chris Stankovich Quickly and accurately test your level of mental toughness in just a few minutes using the Sport Performance Assessment.

    (SPA), an easy-to-use sport psychology system specially designed to help you REACH YOUR FULL ATHLETIC POTENTIAL.

    learn more
  • SportsSuccess360

    Life strategies for performance and character development for coaches, parents, and student athletes competing in youth and interscholastic sports.

    Life Strategies learn more
  • Contact Dr. Stankovich

    1395 Grandview Avenue Suite 6, Columbus OH 43212

    (614) 561-4482
    Media & General Inquiries
    information@drstankovich.com
    Sales & Product Support
    sales@drstankovich.com
  • About Dr. Stankovich

    • Media
    • Blog
    • Testimonials
  • Products

    • Toolkits
    • Videos
    • Books
    • Audio
    • iPhone Apps
  • Services

    • Athlete Performance Training
    • Parent Community Forum
    • Coach Education & Development
    • Athletic Crisis Response and Intervention
    • Drug & Alcohol Assessment
    • Life Success Programs
    • Counseling & Consulting Services
  • Blog
  • YouTube
  • twitter
  • facebook

All rights reserved © 2023 Advanced Human Performance Systems™

↓ ↓