The word “deviance” reminds me of the punk-emo-rock phase of the 90’s. Bands like Paramore, Green Day, and My Chemical Romance permeated the dedicated teenage rocker crowd. So moving were their blunt, angry, and head-banging lyrics to teens of the time, that they dressed like the bands and emulated their “my-parents-don’t-get-me” vibe in what some would call deviant behavior. Heavy makeup, “scene” hair, and tight jeans were hallmark looks of the time. I myself am terribly guilty of straightening my fringe till it pointed, insisting on jagged layers and black eyeliner. In public, people would scoff and roll their eyes at my friends and I. The look in their eyes told us we would grow up to be deviant young adults addicted to drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Later, many of these kids would be taking drugs; ones that were perfectly legal. Far from our anti-establishment rock, we would become institutionalized under the psychotropic system of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications, and ADHD pills.
Deviance in the form of the emotional rollercoaster of the teen and young adult year struggles has become highly medicalized. What before was simply the social and emotional clumsiness of growing up in a world of contradicting issues and expectations has become mental illness. Young discovery evolved from “typical” teenage rebellion to mood-disorders and chemical imbalances. This is not to say that mental illness is not serious and rooted in true science. It absolutely is a developed science and indeed very serious. However, every behavior outside of the norm (fluid between families, classes, ethnicities, cultures, countries, and individuals) has the tendency to be diagnosed. Much like Chaplin’s Tramp, people are navigating complicated worlds inside and outside themselves. In every Tramp film, Chaplin’s comedy comes from his character’s struggle. He falls, fails at jobs, experiences depression, fright, and anxiety. We laugh because he is our deviance, our failures of perfection and normality. In some instances the Tramp even becomes a criminal deviant. Today’s bio-medicalization tells us that because he has committed a crime, he must be mentally ill. In Modern Times, he steals bread because he is hungry and ends up jail. His condition of poverty caused him to step outside of the law: a poverty caused by the Depression, a social factor outside of himself. Other characters shake their heads at him; he must be crazy, they say.
Today thousands of people take psychotropic drugs, in both mandatory settings in prisons and hospitals along with the greater institution of society. Most of these prescribed drugs are associated with “deviant” mental illnesses used to control undesirable behaviors. ADHD medications translate into control of immaturity, outbursts, and active energy. Instead of looking at school environments, parenting methods, or social trauma, medicalization of this behavior perpetuates the thought that deviant behavior is caused mainly my mental illness. There is something wrong with you.
Depression and Anxiety in my life have been viewed in the same manner. I am not opposed to the science of mental illness. I understand that I was likely born with a predisposition to anxiety because my mother had a stressful pregnancy. I understand that I showed anxiousness and sadness as a young child before many of the extreme traumas in my life. However, the social stigmas surrounding me and the make-up of the consumerist and perfectionist society I personally grew up in, highly influenced my depression. I got tested in every way possible. When they could find nothing physical wrong with me, doctors chalked it up to chemical imbalances and sent me to a psychiatrist. This led to an addiction to Lexapro and Xanax. Lexapro, an anti-depressant, is one of the more popular and more mild of the approved drugs. Xanax is a highly addictive anti-anxiety medication. After I took bottle after bottle in just a weeks time and called begging for more, my doctor put me on a program to wean me off of Xanax forever. Detox was miserable. I shook, vomited, screamed, and cried for weeks; all while trying to maintain my school and keep my job. I was no better than when I began.
According to Pew Research, when it comes to mental illness, only 19 % of those surveyed agree that American is making progress is dealing with the issues. 35% say we are losing ground in our “war”. These were the most pessimistic results of questions on many health issues including cancer, smoking, and obesity.
Instead of looking into therapy or environment related issues, my depression and anxiety was seen as “abnormal”. I must be ill if I am unhappy in America. I propose that we take medicalization with a grain of salt rather than 10 mg of Prozac. As our definition of deviances changes (as it will) over the decades, let us look to our minds and our environments for clues to mental deviance. Americans take pride in their freedom, but seem to have no freedom to feel. For the Tramps of the world, I wish them therapy instead of the entropy of masking the symptoms of living in a complex and modern world.
[The Tramp and the eating machine. This scene is a comedic demonstration of how things are fed to us by society, even with unpredictable results}.
