[url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-usa-health-children-idUSBRE94F11N20130516]Up to 20 percent of children in the United States suffer from a mental disorder, and the number of kids diagnosed with one has been rising for more than a decade, according to a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.[/url]
Which leads me to this (or these) question(s).
1: Is this an actual "increase" or are we/doctors just getting better at diagnosis?
2: Was the rate of disorders the same previously, but we just labeled the kids as "difficult", "spoiled", "acting out"?
3: If the rate of "disorders" is a significant fraction, could it be that we're too narrowly defining what is "normal" or "healthy"?
It tends to remind me of an old saying that I heard when I was young. "Just because the doctor has a name for your condition, that doesn't mean that they know what is wrong with you or that they can do anything about it."
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I always feel weird when they go into explaining a mental disorder and then I realize that I fit some of the symptoms but i've never been diagnosed as mentally disordered. What are the chances that theyre labeling kids mental when theyre actually normal, but then they grow up thinking theyre mental so they actaully become mental. Honestly I don't think a child should be diagnosed with a mental disorder until he/she is the age of 7/8 or its VERY CLEAR that they have something.