Re: mental health in general
<I wonder about all those kids on Ritalin. What possibilities are we suppressing, just so that a kid becomes tractable?
Oh, me too, Tom. I remember reading a short article in Harper's</>, maybe 5 years ago, speculating that chronic, irrational happiness ought to be considered a mental illness too (perhaps to be called "the Pollyanna Syndrome"), except it doesn't get in society's way.
I also wonder about what that says about all the adults that self-medicate, not with alcohol for depression, but with speed for hyperactivity. Some of them may have been medicated as children instead of given behavior modification methods as children because a pill is less trouble than training.
Regards--
Mary Anne