Rethinking human responses to adversity
As a parent and former teacher I can get behind this:
ADHD is not a disorder, the study authors argue. Rather it is an evolutionary mismatch to the modern learning environment we have constructed. Edward Hagen, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University and co-author of the study, pointed out in a press release that “there is little in our evolutionary history that accounts for children sitting at desks quietly while watching a teacher do math equations at a board.”
Alison Escalante, What If Certain Mental Disorders Are Not Disorders At All?, Psychology Today
This is a great article based on a journal article about PTSD, depression, anxiety, and ADHD. As someone who has suffered from depression in the past, and still deals with anxiety, I absolutely think it has an important situational aspect.
That is to say, instead of just medicating people, we need to be thinking about their context.
[T]he stated goal of the paper is not to suddenly change treatments, but to explore new ways of studying these problems. “Research on depression, anxiety, and PTSD, should put greater emphasis on mitigating conflict and adversity and less on manipulating brain chemistry.”
Alison Escalante, What If Certain Mental Disorders Are Not Disorders At All?, Psychology Today