Dr. Laura,

Like you, I too get tired of so many people being labeled with ADD, especially boys. Boys are so different than girls and they learn differently. I find a lot of the teaching methods used in schools are geared towards girls, so no wonder why the boys don't pay attention.

I am also getting tired of people being so quick to label someone as Bipolar. Teenagers are especially using the Bipolar label a lot. If someone has a day where they are angry about something then they must be Bipolar because yesterday they weren't angry, at least this is the explanation I hear from the teenagers. It really aggravates me society wants to diagnose and label people so quickly. Why can't we just allow people to have emotions, to experience them, to deal with them, and to move on with life? Instead, society wants to label everyone and say people must have a disability or mental illness if they aren't going to act perfectly happy, content and normal. Who defines normal anyway? I think it is perfectly normal for an individual to experience different emotions throughout their life.

I even hear the phrase "this weather is so bipolar". Hello, how can the weather be bipolar?

I do agree there are people who have mental illnesses and disabilities. And, I am not disrespecting them in any way. I just don't think the terms should be used so widely.

Sheila