The Biological Causes of Mental Illness Cannot Be Separated From the Social Ones
Case in point: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in kids with ADHD or Autism.
When children struggle socially or emotionally, many parents are strongly motivated to believe the struggle must have some biological cause. This makes discussing the interpersonal and cultural roots of many mental illnesses very difficult and fraught.
For example, if a kid has a very powerful emotional reaction to rejection, and cries and flails on the ground for half an hour after getting a bad grade on a test, many parents will find it compelling to explain this as a case of “rejection sensitive dysphoria” (or RSD) — a supposed ‘symptom’ of ADHD — and to see rejection sensitive dysphoria as being rooted in a kid’s neurology.
Under this point of view, all that crying and flailing is a disproportionate response to receiving mild negative feedback, but the kid can’t help that they’re reacting this way, because they have a disorder that makes them perceive any small slight as catastrophic. This explanation offers up a tidy-enough seeming solution: you treat and medicate the kid’s ADHD, which is supposedly the biological source of the issue, and hopefully their big crying flailing meltdowns and oversensitivity will end.
