Letters to the Editor
alarajrogers
Published Letters: 440 Editor's Choice: 86
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The problem isn't thinking hormones affect behavior...
[Read the article: Hormonal holiday shopping]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course they do. I suspect that the majority of adult women have experienced the phenomenon of their moods and feelings changing over the time of their menstrual cycle.
The problem is the ridiculous assertion that all women have the *same* cycle, and respond to it in the same way.
For some women, these suggestions might make sense and work well with their cycle. But if the book suggests that *all* women are going to follow the same pattern, then it implies that if you don't, you're abnormal. The truth is that every woman has a different menstrual cycle. So many women complain about PMS mood swings; PMS is *pre-*menstrual. I don't have a single mood issue until the period actually hits, and then it's mostly related to being in pain until the one-day depression at the end of the cycle. So from my perspective, suggesting that I'm going to feel more up to shopping *during* my period than just before is frankly insane, as is the suggestion that I might have any part of the cycle that makes me more "tired" than the menses themselves do.
And also, women have very different opinions about SHOPPING! Many people will explore "neighborhood craft stores" when they're feeling "adventurous", not when they want to stay "close to home"; if they want to stay close to home they'll go to the nearest big box store because that's where they always go and it's what's familiar. And if you're feeling like bargain shopping, why are you going to the mall? Don't most malls price everything higher than if you found the same item at a big box store? Maybe the mall is where you go when you feel like exploring and being adventurous, and your neighborhood stores are where you go when you want to get all your shopping done at once because you happen to live near a variety of them.
So the basic idea -- that your cycle affects your mood, and your mood should affect what you set out to do, and knowing what your mood is likely to be and thus controlling what you do accordingly is probably good for you -- that's sound. But the idea that there is one way to feel during a menstrual cycle, or one way to respond to specific feelings... that's just unbelievably stupid.
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Men *are* prone to hormonal shifts.
[Read the article: Hormonal holiday shopping]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Men are totally affected by hormone shifts. Studies have shown the fluctuations in testosterone affected *by* things like getting chewed out at work or getting a promotion, and affecting things like immune response and mood.
But unless a man is checking his T levels every day with a blood test, he doesn't *know* how his hormones are fluctuating. So he's never going to be able to do better than guess -- "Today feels like a high-testosterone day, so maybe I'll go jogging!" Most men actually don't know what exactly T does for them anyway.
It's funny, because people make stupid comments about "how can we trust a woman with her finger on the button? What if she gets PMS?" When men as a class are much more likely to push the button than any woman, with PMS or no, and when you can't actually *tell* when a man's hormones are screwing with him. People think hormones don't affect men, but the only truth is that men's hormonal shifts are invisible and not nearly as cyclic or predictable as women's. In my opinion that makes them *more* dangerous than women's hormonal shifts are, to be honest.
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Did it ever occur to Mr. Amsden...
[Read the article: Life: The disorder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...that maybe the reason adults are being medicated for ADD is that -- what a shock -- ADD is an *actual illness* that does not go away with the onset of adulthood? Maybe adults aren't being diagnosed with ADD, and being medicated with drugs, because they cannot let go of their childhood, but because the science of psychology has advanced enough to recognize that medicating with drugs for a neuropsychological condition is *not* the same thing as taking recreational drugs, and that the reason we give ADD drugs to children and teens is not that they are children and teens but that they have ADD?
I was a smart kid. Bright, motivated and focused, I routinely kicked ass academically. My younger brother, every bit as smart as me, could not do his homework. Could not do his schoolwork. We thought he was too bored to focus, but, you know, I solved the boredom problem by multitasking. He got an endless litany of "just try harder." Now I have a degree from an Ivy League college and a thriving home business in IT; he lives with my parents at the age of almost 30 and hasn't managed to complete college. He's been diagnosed with adult ADD, and he's doing better with the college than he ever did before meds. Same potential, same parents, totally different outcomes. Hmm. Maybe my brother had a problem! My gosh, who'da thunk it?
The idea that ADD is being suddenly diagnosed in adults because adults can't let go of their childhood is silly; the idea that children and teens are given medication for ADD because kids need special crutches but adults should just suck it up is frankly disgusting. Children should not be drugged unless they *need* drugs, and if they *need* drugs, why would they stop needing them as adults? Do child diabetics stop needing insulin?