I was having a conversation with my niece the other day and we got on the topic about allergies and ailments that weren’t recognized or barely diagnosed in not just our generation, but our parents’ too, and beyond, no doubts!
I’ve thought about this a few times throughout my life, many of us suffer something that was never talked about in the past. It could be anything from OCD to PTSD – and anything else in between. I know for myself, I questioned and was convinced about my own mother having a personality disorder even though I wasn’t certain what label it was when I was young and I wasn’t quite sure if it was a disorder or theatrical acting. After reading many books on psychology (my go to genre from teenhood ), and a decade later, I realized she was a full blown narcissist and created a persona to compensate for her growing up poor and desperate for money, attention, and affection. This makes it no surprise she didn’t learn how to show affection, all attention had to be focused on her, and her serious lack of the value of a dollar.
In most elementary schools, kids aren’t allowed to bring in peanut butter sandwiches to the school because of peanut allergies other kids may have. When I went to school, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were a staple for many kids. Who ever heard of a peanut allergy? I never heard of a child getting ill from it. What happened between then and now? Did many children suffer from nut allergies and chalk them up to a traditional tummy ache or something else? Or, did peanut allergies become a plague because of changes in soils and environments? I wonder the same question about lactose intolerant (like me), and gluten-free (like me) and all of their ilk. Did many back in the past get bloated, crampy, and constipated or ill from these things and blamed anything else because these intolerances weren’t heard of?
What about ADD and ADHD, and while we’re at it, what about those with Autism or on the Spectrum? Surely back in those days children who fidgeted or zoned out, or acted out in ‘unusual’ manner were labeled as such children with some sort of misbehavioral pattern or ‘doesn’t play nice with others’type of label- because there was no diagnosis for such things in the back when. Heck, I told my own husband, not long after meeting him, that he was a ‘man on a misson’ and was sure he had undiagnosed ADD.
My husband’s wheels were always spinning, even if you thought he was just zoning in on some TV sport, he was always thinking of me, us, his work (his next sale), sports, plotting his next day, listening to the TV and to me, at the same time. I kid you not. He used to irk me if I went into his mancave and asked him something while he was glued to the TV then nod his head in acknowledgment. After testing him a few times, I knew he didn’t mean to ignore, that was partly how he was wired. When at first he would respond like that I’d make him repeat back to me word for word what I just said. And he did! He always had to be busy, either physically, or in his head. I told him many times he definitely had ADD and he agreed.
There are so many other conditions I could mention, like Menopause. Back in the olden days when women were experiencing hormonal fluctuations and disruptions and so very misunderstood, even by the medical society, and labeled with the ‘condition’ hysteria, even sending some for shock therapy! My goodness, what were people thinking?
I think we’ve come a long way in the medical world, but still have a much further trek to go. With all the years and decades and funding for research on cancer, I can’t help but wonder if someone is keeping that discovery hush because sicknesses are big business for BIG Pharma.
©DGKaye2024
DGKayewriter.com 