Your suffering from Childitis

[jackfaire]

It seems these days that normal child behavior is a mental disorder.

My daughter get's lost in her imagination like I did as a kid comes up with these fantastical stories and such. I love it.

Recently her guardian was told, "Her intense imagination means she is crazy and she is possibly schizophrenic"

I am sorry excuse me wtf?!?!?? Your telling me the fact my daughter is creative and can imagine all these wonderful things is really just a symptom that she is out of touch with reality even though she sure seems to have plenty of grasp on reality.

The only reason I have considered getting full custody of my daughter is that they keep medicating her to help with her "problems"

Yes she did have some problems early on but rather than try therapy they have her on meds. How are you ever supposed to know if she no longer needs the meds if all of her behavior has been medicated.

I worry that my daughter will never be quite normal because they treat her like normal is bad. Part of this is based on the fact that her mom is diagnosed bipolar.

If my daughter is schizophrenic then so am I. My imagination works the same way that hers does she got it from me as surely as she got my curly hair.

I think they need to stop making children into minature adults, for one get rid of play dates and just let kids play, and let kids be kids.

Thoughts opinions?

[Kimmik]

Amen..

I so agree Jack, people are waaaaaaaay to quick to medicate...

[Lace Neil Singer]

I was like that as a kid; and the schizophrenic label was brought up then, too. Eventually, due to my refusal to socialise "normally", I was tagged as having antisocial personality disorder. In actual fact, I had Aspergers. But since that wasn't an option back then, it was never brought up.

People seem to want all kids to be identical, faceless drones; they're easier to control and shove into neatly labled boxes. That's just sad, in my opinion.

[jackfaire]

I would accept that my daughter maybe has ADD and I have recommended techniquest that help me deal with it but for the most part she just seems like a normal kid.

[Kimmik]

Add.... mmmmm I have more Ados... Attention deficit... oooooooooooooooo shiny..

But for a while as a kid I was thought to be stupid.. as I didnt do my school work... I was thought to be mentally retarded because I dont function the same way a person my age should... I was Bipolar schizoaffective and a various numerous other things.


Come to find out I have CD, BPD, ADD and No I am not retarded.. I just see things much differently then most.

[jackfaire]

Come to find out I have CD, BPD, ADD and No I am not retarded.. I just see things much differently then most.

Until I was 8 I was considered Mentally Challeneged. ADD had only been around 8 years and it was before the OMG Everyone has it craze. Their reaction upon diagnosis was medicate. I am sneaky though and wouldn't take my meds.

[Cat]

Oh noes!!! a child has an imagination! we cannot allow that!! /scarcasm

When I was youngin (ok these still apply): I had a wild imagination I'd get lost in, the real word was(is) too dull. I was called stupid, slow, do I have a mental issue (the last was asked of my teacher. )

I still go off in to day dreams, cannot keep....oh, kitteh picture...focus on the task at hand unless I am soley driven to do such (like my mass cleaning)

Never diagnosed with anything, never saw anyone to do so (ok, 'cept the SAD)

Anyway...your daughter is awesome for having an imagination, I hope she keeps it....it'll do her well in the future :)

[IDrinkaRum]

Without imagination, how do writers write? Poets poet? And painters paint?

I mean ... come on! We need those imaginations to help take those who don't have one into the bright beyond to show them that imagination isn't as bad at they make it out to be.

I don't know/remember if the teachers ever despaired of me, but then I don't care.

I love my daydreams more than the real world (except when dealing with child :D).

Hooray for imaginations!

[jackfaire]

My dad accused me of being an escapist spent more time with my head in the clouds than I do in the real world.

[KellyHabersham]

I was like that as a kid; and the schizophrenic label was brought up then, too. Eventually, due to my refusal to socialise "normally", I was tagged as having antisocial personality disorder. In actual fact, I had Aspergers. But since that wasn't an option back then, it was never brought up.


Same here - although I think for me, much of it was that when I had psychological testing done/saw therapists, my mom mentioned everything BUT the symptoms which would indicate having Aspergers. And it wasn't until my sister started taking college classes in child development and doing home-therapy for autistic kids that anyone caught on what my "problem" actually was.

[Racket_Man]

My dad accused me of being an escapist spent more time with my head in the clouds than I do in the real world.

heck if I were reading a good, well written, descriptive SciFi book, you could set off a sitck of explosives next to me and I would have never noticed. but then back then (about 40 years ago) I love to read like no bodies business. Iwould rather have had a book with lots of mental images than anything back then

[fireheart17]

I can partially relate on this one: when I was five and again when I was thirteen/fourteen, the schools I went to thought that I had Aspergers. No, I just had problems with social skills.
Funnily enough, they figured out that I was actually gifted and talented instead at the age of six and I wound up telescoping grade one and two. (because I found the grade one work way too easy, I wound up doing the grade two work even though I was in grade one) I wound up being skipped to grade three after my teacher had to fight for me to do so.

[Ree]

"The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man
I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said... It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

Well the teacher said.. You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me.....

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one

The teacher put him in a corner
She said.. It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said...Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said.. and he said

Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen."

~Harry Chapin

[jackfaire]

Amusingly my ex is the first teacher and I am the second. Making cookies with my daughter she wanted to lay them on the cookie sheet her way and I was like sure have a blast. My ex was all, "No you must teach her the right way to do it"

Uhm they are cookies and my baby girl can do them the way she wants!

[Dreamstalker]

"Her intense imagination means she is crazy and she is possibly schizophrenic"

I am sorry excuse me wtf?!?!?? Your telling me the fact my daughter is creative and can imagine all these wonderful things is really just a symptom that she is out of touch with reality even though she sure seems to have plenty of grasp on reality.

I got this, at an age when schizophrenia cannot and should not be diagnosed conclusively as it's too early (I know there's childhood-onset schizophrenia, I had none of the symptoms). I was FIVE, every kid at that age has imaginary friends and the like. That resulted in my being put on some antidepressants that I later found out should never be given to children as young as I was (I would bet that those meds messed me up more than had I not been on them at all).

When I was a teen, I was in a couple different gaming groups and even ran one (Ghostbusters/Doctor Who/CoC). Hence I was writing scenarios, some of these were more "adult" than the typical D&D hack-n-slash (as in serious topics involved). The solution? Institutionalize me. Luckily my "regular" therapist saw through that plan.

How are you ever supposed to know if she no longer needs the meds if all of her behavior has been medicated.
Exactly. In some cases (mine included), the meds may cause effects that wouldn't exist otherwise, especially if the medication is treating a nonexistent problem. These effects are more often that not dismissed.

I was like that as a kid; and the schizophrenic label was brought up then, too. Eventually, due to my refusal to socialise "normally", I was tagged as having antisocial personality disorder.
This was my diagnosis track almost exactly (with a few other non-diagnoses such as psychosis thrown into the mix).

There's a "right way" to put cookies on a cookie sheet, but if I wanted to put the dough less than 2 inches apart (yes that's the recommended way, but it's not a hard and fast law) and wind up with one massive cookie then that's what mom let me do. We both thought it was a blast trying to break them apart...after a few times of that I learned myself that you were supposed to space them apart for a reason (it was annoying having to break them up all the time)

[Ree]

Learning to conform isn't really such a bad thing.
In my opinion, that "catering to their whim" attitude only results in a child who grows up thinking they are a special snowflake with the world revolving around them.

There's nothing wrong with showing a child the "right" way to do things.

"See, sweetie, if we put the cookies this way, we fit more on. The cookies come out the same size, and are easier to take off when they're baked. Plus, they will cook better and faster."

The thing is, there's nothing wrong with imagination, either.

"OK sweetie, we'll do one tray your way."

Yeah, there's no rule that says cookies have to be a certain size, and cutting them apart isn't such a big deal, but sometimes, there are reasons things are done a certain way.

My daughter had a great imagination as a child, and I encouraged it. I also taught her that sometimes it's fine to colour outside the lines, but there are also times when the lines have been put there for a reason.

In the case of the teachers in the song I posted, if it's a science class where accuracy as to colours of plants is important, then, yes, "flowers are red and leaves are green", but if it's an art class or an illustration to go with a writing assignment, then, by all means, use every crayon in the box if you want.

As to medicating children in order to get them to conform, I find there is far too much of that being done because it's too much work for parents and teachers to take the time with an extremely active child with an active imagination.

I also find there is way too much labelling going on when it comes to children.

It's like there is suddenly an epidemic of hyperactive, autistic, bipolar or schizoid children in today's society.

I blame Sesame Street. :p

[Amanita]

I'm so glad that I am not in school right now! I hate to think of all the meds the teachers would demand I be put in. As it was, I had enough problems, with this wild imagination of mine.
Some artists draw anthro animals, I did (and still do) it with skyscrapers. I remember one of my 10th grade teachers getting all concerned "You don't think this is real..do you?"

Too bad I was not a Pagan back then. I could have shot back with "I'm an Animist, got a problem with that?" But I suppose even professing belief in Animism might have earned me a nice meeting with the school shrink.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I always used to draw fantastic animals in art class; such as horses with flames for mane and tails, and with butterfly wings. Luckily, I had a fantastic art teacher who just let me get on with it. I still do draw fantastic animals now, and what's so wrong with that? Stifling a child's imagination is a terrible thing; let them have their fantasy world, as long as they're still in touch with the real world when it's important to be.

[Talon]

"...and when I show a glimmer of thought, you lock me up, you inject me with drugs and you call it a [i]treatment!"
- paraphrasing Riker from Star Trek:TNG

[jackfaire]

Learning to conform isn't really such a bad thing.
In my opinion, that "catering to their whim" attitude only results in a child who grows up thinking they are a special snowflake with the world revolving around them.

I agree you should make them conform to behaving properly to wearing your clothes properly etc.

If we had been baking the cookies for a bake sale, or as a gift for someone, or for anyone other than ourselves then yes they should be made the recommended way.

However when making them for personal consumption as long as made to cleanliness and health standards appearance should be a matter of personal preference.

Me I don't care what a cookie looks like as long as it tastes like a cookie and I think that something like that is a good place to teach her that her creativity and imagination are okay.