What a load of trash article. Mental health is real. GI issues are real. People are living with disability in this world. Maybe they excel at Stanford because the accomodations they secure make juggling the insanely hard demands of society just a bit more manageable. Maybe if everyone could access proper healthcare we would find out that 38% of the general population is disabled. Reject the boomer austerity mindset; return to compassion.
At a time when more people are being diagnosed with neurodivergent disabilities, how do they quantify this “fraud”?
Okay, devils advocate, I have been medically diagnosed with ADHD and generalized anxiety, when I was in high school, EVERYONE was pretending to be mentally ill, it was the trendy thing for some reason. This still seems to be the case as I’ve gone back to school 13 years later
I second this. That said, I understand why people get upset when people say this sort of thing. Because there is a long history in our culture of mental illnesses not being taken seriously, and people with legitimate mental illnesses might worry that you are accusing them of faking it (which is of course not the case).
But there is simply no denying that being mentally ill is trendy among young people at the moment. It was when I was in highschool and university, which was not too long ago, and it’s still trendy now. I think a lot of it is influenced by online trends. It started with Tumblr but has now spread to other platforms like Tik Tok etc. And its become a way of social signalling, of showing others that you’re a considerate person who cares about these sorts of issues.
The end result is a lot of people unscrupulously self diagnosing. Ir, even worse, going to private health clinics (illegal in most of Canada, where I’m from) who they know will just hand out ADHD diagnoses (and Adderall prescriptions) for a flat fee.
In the article there’s literally a guy with diagnosed Asperger’s. He claims he “doubts he needed accomodations because he got into Stanford”. But it is likely, given that he is diagnosed, that he got into Stanford as a result both of his own achievements and as a result of his learning in highschool being augmented by certain accomodations there.
The article seems to go entirely off self reporting and vibes and gives literally no indication of how they came to the conclusion that most of that 40% must be faking.
The best they do is compare it to the percentage of people in community colleges who receive similar accomodations for such ailments.
The reason I find that suspect is specifically because of course rich people are the ones who will be able to afford to get a diagnosis. They will be able to afford the medical bills and other accomodations to get things like paperwork filled out and to grease the palms of doctors and psychologists to be seen in a timely manner.
Poor people statistically go to community college more often, and they are significantly less likely to be diagnosed. So of course they aren’t seeking out accomodations for things like learning disabilities or ailments like anxiety disorder.
The article at best shows that Stanford is lax in their standard for how they verify the need for accomodations, because a zoom call is a crazy way to verify the legitimacy of a medical claim without requiring any medical history or proof of diagnosis.
And, the other things about the meal plan etc are crazy because like. Why is a school charging such an exhorbitant amount for a meal plan and not providing “fresh salads” and other good quality foods? Why not just offer the option to all students full stop?
I was diagnosed with ADHD (ADD) in elementary school. Basically my entire family have ADHD or Autism or both. Diagnosed. Those who aren’t diagnosed are mostly my parents age or older.
Just because something is trendy doesn’t mean that the number of people with a legitimate mental illness or learning disability are any less prevalent. There’s such a push to let people know these learning disabilities exist because so many people aren’t diagnosed.
So what is your devils advocate stance here? That faking it harms people with the legitimate learning disabilities or mental illness?
That you just know by looking at people that they’re faking it?
That giving people who say they need it more time and accomodations to complete assignments and tasks somehow harms us as a society?
Like.
You didn’t even address what I asked. Which is, how do the people in the article making the claim quantify who is faking it? What is the metric they use to legitimize who has learning disabilities or mental illness?
Just giving anecdotal evidence from your own lived experience isn’t a devils advocate argument in and of itself.
Take a fucking look around. People aren’t faking it.
You’d be a fool to say that no one does though.
Man I’ve been inpatient about 4 times now and even I know some people fake it
Faking disabilities is hardly unique to Stanford; it’s rampant in California. There are sometimes significant benefits afforded disabled people, and very little detection and enforcement of disability fraud.
especially around service dogs,.
- But most students, in my experience, claim less severe ailments, such as ADHD or anxiety. And some “disabilities” are just downright silly. Students claim “night terrors”; others say they “get easily distracted” or they “can’t live with others”. I know a guy who was granted a single room because he needs to wear contacts at night. I’ve heard of a girl who got a single because she was gluten intolerant…
- At Stanford, almost no one talks about the system with shame. Rather, we openly discuss, strategise and even joke about it. At a university of savvy optimisers, the feeling is that if you aren’t getting accommodations, you haven’t tried hard enough.
I do not consider this fair, or adequate, regardless, of course. If you are healthy, you must be proud of it. It’s pure disgrace, regardless.
Yes, these people may exploit the system, and probably are proud of it, but this all subconsciously affects self-confidence deeply, morally/psychologically, and it sure comes out soon or late from the mind and heart, from soul, especially if they started at age of tuitions, I believe.
And here, for around 40 years living, working in military and education, I haven’t met anyone yet who would actually recover their inner stance enough to not become a fearful and self-disclosed individual, since the ethics border gets shift and blur gradually and permanently. These never find peace throughout their life, and trust no one, including themselves, which is indescribably sorrowful…
