#793 X-Quisite Drugs

We are a society that loves our drugs. We look for reasons to pop a pill for a problem. The other day I was reminded of this as I enjoyed a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice that I’d freshly squoze out of a paper carton.
The taste was exquisite and hauntingly familiar. I finally placed it. It tasted exactly like St Joseph’s aspirin for children. I remember nearly overdosing on that aspirin as a child. I would watch my mom popping pills for her various aliments and would invent a headache so I could do the same.
St Joseph’s aspirin tasted good. I got in the medicine cabinet and ate half a bottle. Strangely, I survived without any brain damage. Some would argue otherwise.
So I learned to be wary of drugs. No matter how good they tasted.
I was also a boisterous child—disruptive in class. The class clown. I was energetic and failed to remain on task for long when assigned a boring project. My boredom threshold was low—largely because I was a quick learner. I grasped the essential concepts quickly and was ready to move on.
That quickness has served me well in adult life. In elementary school, it led to frequent exposures to corporal punishment. These days I would no doubt be prescribed Ritalin. I would be labeled with a disorder—Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to be exact.
And I would no doubt protest being labeled—vociferously, loudly, and with a big ruckus. Which would call for a further diagnosis and round of medication for the newest psychological pharmacological craze—ODD.
That’s right ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder. In the old days, we called it backtalk. Not “minding.” Being a teenager with an attitude.
The classic archetype of a young person developing aggressive personality traits to distance himself from adult authority figures and create a unique adult identity for himself.
There’s a great label to endear him to polite adult society. That boy is ODD.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Catch 22 disease.
Because one of the symptoms is you refuse to take the drug they tell you to take for it.
America, ya gotta love it.