if I had known thousands more people were going to see my tags I would probably have written them with more care... this has crossed my dash a few times with my tags added in, and every time I'm like, "fuck, I should have said that a little differently." seems like it's been useful to people, and a bunch of people have made very thoughtful additions, and it's all probably fine, at any rate, but since it's here again and got me thinking:
I want to stress I definitely wasn't just talking about ADHD! the same experiences are understood differently cross-culturally, and that also includes things like depression, mania, psychosis, &c. consider how something like, for example, hearing the voice of a dead relative can be understood differently: is it an auditory hallucination, a symptom of psychosis? or is it a spiritual visitation? if you live in a culture which understands that particular phenomenon as normal—or at least, possible, perhaps even desirable—your experience of that phenomenon will be very different than the experience of someone who lives in a culture where it's perceived as a symptom. (see also the outcomes paradox in psychiatry, the observation that patient outcomes for schizophrenia differ cross-culturally, even when those patients are receiving the same treatments.) this is also why you should always be skeptical of people who say things like "Joan of Arc was actually schizophrenic!" because like. on top of the fact that we just don't have a ton of evidence for what Joan actually experienced, even if she experienced classic symptoms of what we would consider schizophrenia, her society did not have that category, and so did not understand or pathologize or treat her that way.
I said "diagnoses" in those tags, originally, because I also experience pretty severe depression. for me, at times, this can be somewhat disabling, because there are social norms and expectations that I struggle or fail to meet when my symptoms are at their most severe, and I understand those symptoms to be a result of my particular brain chemistry and various social factors in my life and history. I take medication and I go to therapy, and those things are helpful for me. but I could live in a society that perceived me as spiritually afflicted, rather than mentally ill, and I'd be treated very differently! or, I might occupy a social role in a society where I wasn't expected to be productive and outgoing, so melancholia and lassitude wouldn't would interfere with what I was supposed to be doing, and therefore wouldn't be considered a "problem" in the same way.
this is also why we say disability more generally is socially constructed! for example, deafness is not disabling for a person who lives in a community where most or everyone signs, and social norms include accommodations for differences in hearing. in sociology there's a concept called the Thomas theorem, named for William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas, who came up with it. it says "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." what is normal, what is able, what is mentally well, &c.—all of these things are defined and structured socially, by what people collectively define as real.
all of which is to say: for thousands of years, navigators have steered by constellations. they're very useful! what they're called, and the stories told about them, will change depending on when and where you live. the stars shine on all the same.
discoholicmusic
jacobvanloon
baratheonpilled
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