nw nj. second year student nurse. they/their.
interested in herbs, nature, plants, anarchism, feminism, diy, nursing & the intersection of all those things.
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i mean considering low-income children of color are disproportionately represented in special education programs for kids with mental disabilities and/or behavioral problems……who is surprised by this…like obviously poor brown & black kids are not genetically predisposed to these things as compared to rich white kids, so it has something to do with their living conditions.
a child living in an unstable, violent home typically has the same “level” of PTSD as a veteran returning from a warzone—no wonder they act out and struggle in school (particularly considering many of the teachers sent to teach at these places are from outside the community and thus have no cultural competency to see the situation for what it is). behavior that’s a natural response to what’s going on in their lives is pathologized as a mental disability, bc it’s easier for the educators, administrators, and health care professionals that are assigned to the child to think that there is something biologically “off” with a low-income child of color than it is for them to attempt to empathize with them and understand the social realities the child lives in.
Brown was completing her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, when she realized that many of her low-income patients had been diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These children lived in households and neighborhoods where violence and relentless stress prevailed. Their parents found them hard to manage and teachers described them as disruptive or inattentive. Brown knew these behaviors as classic symptoms of ADHD, a brain disorder characterized by impulsivity, hyperactivity, and an inability to focus. When Brown looked closely, though, she saw something else: trauma. Hyper-vigilance and dissociation, for example, could be mistaken for inattention. Impulsivity might be brought on by a stress response in overdrive.
“Despite our best efforts in referring them to behavioral therapy and starting them on stimulants, it was hard to get the symptoms under control,” she said of treating her patients according to guidelines for ADHD. “I began hypothesizing that perhaps a lot of what we were seeing was more externalizing behavior as a result of family dysfunction or other traumatic experience.”
…Though ADHD has been aggressively studied, few researchers have explored the overlap between its symptoms and the effects of chronic stress or experiencing trauma like maltreatment, abuse and violence. To test her hypothesis beyond Baltimore, Brown analyzed the results of a national survey about the health and well-being of more than 65,000 children. Brown’s findings, which she presented in May at an annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, revealed that children diagnosed with ADHD also experienced markedly higher levels of poverty, divorce, violence, and family substance abuse. Those who endured four or more adverse childhood events were three times more likely to use ADHD medication…“We need to think more carefully about screening for trauma and designing a more trauma-informed treatment plan,” Brown says.
Dr. Kate Szymanski came to the same conclusion a few years ago. An associate professor at Adelphi University’s Derner Institute and an expert in trauma, Szymanski analyzed data from a children’s psychiatric hospital in New York. A majority of the 63 patients in her sample had been physically abused and lived in foster homes. On average, they reported three traumas in their short lives. Yet, only eight percent of the children had received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder while a third had ADHD.
…Caelan Kuban, a psychologist and director of the Michigan-based National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children, knows the perils of this gap well. Four years ago she began offering a course designed to teach educators, social service workers and other professionals how to distinguish the signs of trauma from those of ADHD…In the daylong seminar, Kuban describes how traumatized children often find it difficult to control their behavior and rapidly shift from one mood to the next. They might drift into a dissociative state while reliving a horrifying memory or lose focus while anticipating the next violation of their safety. To a well-meaning teacher or clinician, this distracted and sometimes disruptive behavior can look a lot like ADHD.
…Jean West, a social worker employed by the school district in Joseph, Missouri, took Kuban’s course a few years ago. She noticed that pregnant teen mothers and homeless students participating in district programs were frequently diagnosed with ADHD. This isn’t entirely unexpected: Studies have shown that ADHD can be more prevalent among low-income youth, and that children and adolescents with the disorder are more prone to high-risk behavior. Yet, West felt the students’ experiences might also explain conduct easily mistaken for ADHD.
…Though stimulant medications help ADHD patients by increasing levels of neurotransmitters in the brain associated with pleasure, movement, and attention, some clinicians worry about how they affect a child with PTSD, or a similar anxiety disorder, who already feels hyper-vigilant or agitated. The available behavioral therapies for ADHD focus on time management and organizational skills, and aren’t designed to treat emotional and psychological turmoil.
Instead, West teaches a traumatized child how to cope with and defuse fear and anxiety. She also recommends training and therapy for parents who may be contributing to or compounding their child’s unhealthy behavior. Such programs can help parents reduce their use of harsh or abusive discipline while improving trust and communication, and have been shown to decrease disruptive child behavior.
When speaking to traumatized children inappropriately diagnosed with ADHD, Dr. Heather Forkey, a pediatrician at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, offers them a reassuring explanation of their behavior. The body’s stress system, she says, developed long ago in response to life-or-death threats like a predatory tiger. The part of the brain that controls impulses, for example, shuts off so that survival instincts can prevail. “What does that look like when you put that kid in a classroom?” Forkey asks. “When people don’t understand there’s been a tiger in your life, it looks a lot like ADHD to them.”
Gaza was bombarded with 273 airstrikes yesterday (8th July). That’s an average of 11 an hour. Gaza is about 25 miles long and 4 miles wide, with a population of 1.7 million crammed into that tiny space. It is under Israeli occupation and Israeli siege. Hospitals estimate they will run out of resources to treat the wounded in about two days. Electricity is intermittent. Gaza has no army, air force or navy. Israel is the fourth largest military power in the world. Resistance to occupation is allowed under international law. Israel’s occupation, siege and collective punishment of Gaza is not.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK (via america-wakiewakie)
In a capitalist society, it should not be surprising that we tend to measure health in terms of productivity. Self-care and workaholism are two sides of the same coin: preserve yourself so you can produce more. This would explain why self-care rhetoric is so prevalent in the non-profit sector, where the pressure to compete for funding often compels organizers to mimic corporate behavior, even if they use different terminology.
For All We Care: Reconsidering Self-Care (via antineutral)
When men imagine a female uprising, they imagine a world in which women rule men as men have ruled women.
Sally Kempton
I feel this is very important.
(via yourenotsylviaplath)
It’s been apparent to me for a while that most men can’t really imagine “equality.” All they can imagine is having the existing power structure inverted.
I cannot decide whether this shows how unimaginative they are, or shows how aware they must be of what they do in order to so deeply fear having it turned on them.
(via lepetitmortpourmoi)
"Most men can’t really imagine “equality.” All they can imagine is having the existing power structure inverted."
You know, if you are a woman and you’re out there and you’re struggling with your health, you have to keep showing up for yourself as if you’re showing up for somebody that you really, really care about. Because I’ve got to tell you after being sick for a long time, it gets harder and harder to care about advocating for yourself. It becomes really, really difficult. And what ends up happening is, because it’s such an isolating disease, quite often our own families don’t even understand it. Finding support out there and pushing until you get an answer. There is no reason that we should be walking around so sick, knowing in our guts that something is wrong, and being told that there is nothing wrong with us. It’s a crime; it should be a crime.
Lyme Disease Is a Feminist Issue: An Interview With Sini Anderson (via disabilityhistory)
a farm on my drive to work is growing these bad boys along with zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds around the perimeter of their cornfield. i want to think it's because of companion planting, it might just be because the farmer thinks they're pretty. either way, +1 to commute.
"being trans is a trend" is an argument used by people who feel threatened by the growing popularity of challenging the gender binary. yeah, it’s trendy in that it’s becoming more widely practiced, more socially acceptable, more popular, and more positive to question the idea that there are only to genders, to explore the way you see yourself and others. if you don’t like it then fuck you
In one of her “Twenty-One Love Poems,” Adrienne Rich talks about her old self in the third person. “The woman who cherished / her suffering is dead. I am her descendant. / I love the scar tissue she handed on to me, / but I want to go from here with you / fighting the temptation to make a career of pain.” With your approval, Virgo, I’d like to make that passage one of your keynotes in the coming months. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you will have an excellent opportunity to declare your independence from an affliction you’ve been addicted to. Are you willing to say goodbye to one of your signature forms of suffering?
Virgo Horoscope for week of June 12, 2014 (via brujacore)
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