CES.....
Don't jump too fast into putting my viewpoints into a religious pigeon hole.
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If you're around kids, you see that the "symptoms" of ADHD and so forth are hugely suspect.
I agree with you that the issues are personal and private. I agree that not all cases/kids respond to the exact same treatment.
I disagree with any social mindset that reaches for drugs as a quick fix. I submit that our society is heading more and more toward everything being, "a disease", needing medication. Obesity, PMS, kids full of life.
Whoops. We seemed to have slipped a communication gear there. Let me downshift.
The current method of creating physicians in this country is a complete joke. They select the genius people. Perfect academics, perfect activities, social movers and shakers, and basically your all around nerds. People with next to no soul if you ask me.
They take them, and bash into their brain to diagnose, classify and treat - the art of categorizing everything and prejudging. The teach them about the Pharmacopeia and how to use it to treat and to cure. What little shred of human being existed in the poor MD student when they entered medical school, is bashed right out of them so fast and so throughly by the time they get out and through their residency, that we are left with mostly mindless automatons. When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with your physician? Ha! It's a pity. However, I do admit there are exceptions to this rule, and when I find one in the form of a great doctor, I hang on for dear life, but mostly in my experience, doctors are bozos.
Yes, these doctors love to classify, diagnose and prescribe and I agree that it happens way too much and too easily.
I have seen many children classified as ADHD which in my observation, I thought to be nothing of the sort. I have on the other hand, been involved in research groups, teaching studies at Children's Hospital, parent support groups and other like activities, and I can assure you that I have encountered real children with real problems and real ADHD.
A true ADHD child would never have been brought to you as a teacher. They are incapable of functioning in a regular classroom environment.
Regrettably, a large portion of parent with special needs children, keep their children at home and attempt to home school them with varying degrees of success.
I apologize if you felt that I was putting your viewpoints into a religious pigeon hole. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The point I was trying to make is that, one's experiences and observations guide one's viewpoints and that there is nothing wrong with that within that context. However, to allow oneself to formulate the conclusion that "it doesn't exist" simply because you have not personally observed or encountered it yourself, is in my opinion - narrow minded.
I offered your Scientology viewpoints not as a negative or a criticism nor as the basis for your earlier statements, but rather the exact opposite!
For you and in your experience, they (Scientology and it's teachings/training) obviously have had a significant value and benefit to you, and are very much part of your reality. Would it be right for others to discount them simply because they have not had a personal experience or observation of what you have?
On a personal note, you offered to me the most wondrous firsthand experience of exactly what I am saying here!
You see, when I met you here at GF, I instantly liked what you had to say, the manner of how you said it, your wit and charm, your tongue in cheekiness. I enjoyed all of it and I came to respect what you had to say. We developed a friendship outside of the Internet and without a doubt, it had validity and substance to me and it spoke to me in ways that I could relate to and it still does so, even stronger.
But then...one day...out of the blue, you told me that you were a Scientologist, a lifelong practitioner, highly active and trained and a firm believer of it's principles. ****, you even worked in an environment whose purpose is to help people based upon these beliefs.
I felt like I had just been plugged directly into the electric socket...I thought - "Whoa Horse, Whoa! ****!! Stop the **** boat I want to get off!!! What the **** just happened here????"
Yes, even me, the mighty CES - so set in my ways...experienced immediately..a shaking at the core, torn out of the safety and comfort of my own little world of viewpoint, slammed face down into the ground and got a nice big stomp on the back of my head for good measure. I thought to myself...how could this be? This is not possible. This does not compute. This does not concur with my personal experience and knowledge.
It was in that exact moment and with a blinding clarity I have not known before, that I realized that I had just met a flaw in my mind. I had formulated an opinion of Scientology and Scientologist without even trying and without knowing it. I had formed an opinion from "Non-experience", from the absence of observation. Holy ****! System Crash!! Processor halted!!! Need to reboot...
What a POWERFUL learning experience for me.
The human mind is an amazingly complex and fragile organism. Everything we eat or drink, see, hear, smell, taste and feel causes our mind to form and to shape. Each of us are unique in that regard, yet remarkably similar as well.
Pharmaceuticals have their benefits and detriments to be sure, but to simply dismiss them and the conditions they are designed to treat, seems highly suspect to me.
Now, it's time for me to go watch Dancing Buttons...