This is topic that I hear about often but I honestly know very little about. I remember hearing jokes and references to drugs being used when I got to the University of Michigan. I would hear things like “Oh you are at the Business School all of those smart students taking all of that Adderall to stay up late.” I had never heard of things like Adderall before. Today I still wonder if that is because of my Race or SES? Through our research we confirmed that abuse and stigmas around prescription drug usage have been preventing the people that need it most from getting it.
My attention has been draw to the effects that mental health has on the African American community. What struck me the most from the NAMI article was the fact that suicide was listed as a mental disorder most common among African American males. I think back to a guy from my high school that recently community suicide but had a history of posting suicidal and depressed messages on his social media. I was never close enough to follow him on those social media pages but our community was heartbroken once they saw his continuous cries for help that appear to have gone so unnoticed by our community. I was also drawn to the fact that exposure to violence can lead to depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress order. I can think of all the people in my family that we call “crazy” and how they are the same ones that had the roughest upbringings in extremely unsafe neighborhoods. It was so easy for me think of instances where I remember this happening in my family or to friends but it is very rarely named as a mental illness but more so something “people need to snap out of” in my community.
I think it is also powerful and note worthy that “only about one-quarter of African Americans seek mental health care, compared to 40% of whites.” We see that race truly plays a factor in mental health diagnosis and prescriptions. The Root article really gets at how harmful ignoring this when it comes to academic performance. Many African American students are written off as non-smart the minute they show disruptive behavior instead of giving them the attention that they need. And in other cases like the one Idris (a black male), he wants the medication but his parents are afraid. While other times students are diagnosed with mental disorders when the problem is actually the teachers poor education skills. This is a major issue in terms of African American males due to toxic perceptions of them not being as smart being perpetuated through media and informing the way we interpret their behavior. This makes it so easy for society to count them out and write them off as disabled.
The Root article even mentions “Some doctors admit to prescribing Adderall and other ADHD drugs to low-income kids, not because they have a disorder but just to help them do better in school.” This is super important because low SES usually comes with poor academics and parents that are not around due to long work hours so if they can use medication as a quick fix for their children’s academic issues many of them roll with it without questioning it. So we see that prescription drug abuse is real in academics, specifically Adderall but it is not random and even being suggested to us by the people closest to us. In terms of the Black community I feel like prescriptions drugs are being misused more so than abused in academics. They are being used to label problematic students, typically black males, as having an issue and prescribing them medication without proper investigation into the cause of the misbehavior for example.
Although our focus has been on prescription drug abuse and misuse in academics, we recognize that this topic also relates to other usages, such as for the purposes of losing weight. So I have included an additional Shape article about women and body image in terms of using prescription drugs like Adderall. Please feel free to refer to this in your reflection.
As someone who struggles with mental health while also continuing to work on my consciousness around race, this is a topic that I have come across before but am also grateful it is being brought up here. Stigma around mental health, combined with the pressures of a school like the one we go to often result in the use and abuse of these drugs. I also wonder how this compares to the race-based reality of non prescription drugs, and whether the disproportionate rates that people of color are persecuted over white people. I definitely also want to validate the mention of body size concern as a factor in Adderall use/abuse. It's something we don't talk enough about at IGR, so thank you for bringing it to us.
ReplyDeleteI think this is such an interesting article because, like you, I hadn't really heard much about this before. This intersects with a lot of identities you mentioned, race, SES, gender and even religion as Rachel pointed out.
ReplyDeleteI was intrigue with one part in the article "Black Boys and ADHD: Biology or culture clash?" which talked about the parents becoming aware of his diagnosis of ADHD but refusing to give him medication until their son asked for it. Was this because of the stigma associated with drugs for learning disabilities or mental disabilities? Was this because of his race? How would the situation have changed if he was white?
I'm glad you two chose this topic as it's something I've never thought about (which I am aware is a privilege itself, when it comes to mental ability status). Great blogs!
As someone who regularly encounters people "going over their limit" through my other job, I can say this was not as striking as it may have been for other people because we see this all the time - and in my personal experience, I have seen a lot of first-year students fall into co-ingestion. One of the first questions asked when residents are taken to the hospital because of alcohol consumption is whether they had ingested anything else aside from alcohol.
ReplyDeleteOne point that stood out to me was that, in the NAMI article, it suggested that being homeless was a preceding factor in developing a mental illness, in a causal relationship rather than a correlational one. I do know from other studies that often times there is a high rate of mental illness among the homeless, but this has been more due to our society's inability to properly address neuroatypicality than an inherent facet of homelessness leading to mental illness.
Also in the NAMI article, I think it's really important to talk about the distrust felt by the African American community as well as health care providers biased against African American patients - and the lack of African American health care providers in total. If you do not see people like you in these roles, who have a better understanding of your background and identity, you're not necessarily going to want to rethink your distrust of the medical industry - and it turns out that among providers it's a mistrust based in reality.
I'd love to talk more about the intersections of race and ability status in class. Thanks for bringing such a great topic to us!
I hold this subject very close to my heart because at U of M I am around so many different people than what I'm used to being around. I'm from a low SES background and neighborhood and now I'm at one of the wealthiest universities on the planet and I have met many other Blacks that are on the wealthier side and they come from private schools and suburbs. They also depend alot on Adderall when they have huge assignments, tests, or papers. I completely despise it. Even though I am not here to judge anybody that does it. I just think that it is unfair that we use and abuse these drugs from people that really need it. I think that college students use it as a luxury and they overuse it of course. They use it and then they don't sleep for 24 hours or more. It's not healthy. They get addicted because they see how well they can work while on it and then they think that they need it every time they have a huge assignment so they get discouraged if they can't get it. It's such a horrible vicious cycle. I know that there is a stigma that Blacks have "troubled" children. I think that our children do sometimes have a hard time in school because they have a lot of energy and they aren't used to being in a school setting. Outside of school they have so much freedom so to go from one extreme to another can be difficult for most children. I don't think it is effective to give children with ADHD Ritalin or adderall because it's changing the way children naturally are. They should be able to be themselves. And they are studies that say most children grow out of after a certain age. But one the college level I do feel alot of students misuse and abuse medication like Adderall. I can't wait to finish exploring this in practicum.
ReplyDeleteI am glad this topic is being addressed in our class. As a member of the Greek community, I encounter friends, women and men, who consistently turn to prescription drugs such as Aderall and Ritalin to stay focused on an assignment that they have procrastinated on, or to study for an important exam coming up. I think there are a lot of things that this topic uncovers, such as the reliance that our society has on medicine and technology, but also how it completely undermines the significance and urgency of a learning disability. Why is it that there is so much stigma against having a mental illness or disability, but when it comes to school, it is often used as an excuse and a way to succeed? Who defines when it is “socially acceptable” to have a disability or use drugs prescribed to those with one? In addition, what is it about high socioeconomic status that makes illicit drug use more common? Is it the socialization of having to do well in school, or that they can achieve anything?
ReplyDeleteThe intersectionality of race with this topic is one that I have never contemplated before, and I am looking forward to discussing it in class. I think that society attributes students “acting out” due to a mental condition if the student is white, but due to the personality and nature of the person themselves if the student is black. This is another example of assumptions made about students because of their race, and I want to further unpack this issue regarding many intersectionalities
I did not clever to thank, but the writing on which is the information I was looking for already a long time. cara mengobati gagal ginjal
ReplyDeleteThere are some interesting points in time in this article but I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as well.
ReplyDeleteCara cepat mengatasi infeksi jamur kulit di tangan
All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.
ReplyDeletecara mengatasi maag saat hamil muda
cara menyembuhkan flek paru-paru