#unfortunately i have developed basic critical thinking skills since the age of 20 and am thoroughly suffering the consequences

[hawflake]

not to write an essay on naruto barely a week into 2022 but like...just imagine what the naruto manga could've been like if it had stuck to the grim cynicism it had going on early in the series, the unforgiving critical takes of the shinobi system and consequently what it means to be a ninja in that sort of society, and the nuanced characterization of the land of waves arc, and to a certain extent the chuunin exams in that they are openly acknowledged by hiruzen himself to be a proxy war between prosperous villages as a way to flaunt military prowess. the kind of story it could've been instead of trying to contain it strictly within narrow shounen manga parameters and if it hadn't been hampered by increasingly bad writing/editing decisions that i suspect were largely motivated by business decisions given its popularity and following in jump and the kind of audience the magazine caters to

like...early naruto shows kishi actually has the ability to tell a pretty decent story. i have no idea if what happened later on is solely due to kishi's shortcomings as a writer or if other industry/editor factors had corrupted the story into an ultimately disappointing mess by the end, but. imagine what we could've had if it'd stuck with sobering thought-provoking conversations like this

the waves arc ends on this somber realization of what the shinobi system is after naruto finishes his first big boy mission and his childlike arrogance/naivety is humbled by witnessing firsthand the sheer amount of devastation and trauma other people besides himself have had to deal with in a world that is utterly messed up in ways he couldn't even imagine. ending on this note sets up the expectation that the rest of the series will be devoted to exploring the question of what being a ninja really means and how naruto will fight to change the status quo, but...it's never really addressed again?

like there was even a big opportunity at the end of the pain arc when naruto and nagato are talking for naruto to really examine the shinobi world again and really consider what exactly he's been fighting for this whole time, but kishi does the most disappointing cop out by having naruto sidestep the question nagato is posing to him altogether and pulls out a FICTIONAL BOOK as proof of his commitment to change the world, essentially being like just trust me bro i was named after the guy in this after all and nagato is just like oh damn you're right. huh?????

since i only watched the show the first time around and read the manga this time, manga sasuke is actually so much more bearable than anime sasuke?? though i think his character motivations could've definitely been better conveyed. like.....i think i know the antihero vibe kishi was trying to go for when writing sasuke but.......he really wasn't very good at it lmao. but at least the critical questions sasuke asks are directly related to the question the early series poses at the end of the waves arc:

like kishi keeps doing this weird thing throughout the series where the storylines he writes inevitably end up criticizing konoha/the ninja world at large bc he literally set the world up this way on purpose when creating this series, but then he backs down when it comes to actually implicating konoha (perhaps bc such a prominent jump series can't go full on anti-establishment? 🙃). i think this is why sasuke's characterization suffers because on the one hand kishi wants you to sympathize him but at the same time wants you to think he's wrong for going against konoha despite everything he went through? and that's why it's so easy to write sasuke off as an asshole who refuses to listen to anyone bc kishi couldn't fucking make up his mind about the kind of character he wants sasuke to be and his ultimate role in the story?

the uchiha resentment that's literally embedded in the very fabric of konoha society since its establishment, the clan essentially being relegated into a ghettoed corner of the village and systematically kept from prominent roles of power stemming from tobirama's prejudice and the clear nepotism at play with the village's leadership, the true purpose of the uchihas' role as the village police force...sasuke is one of the few characters to actually make valid points and criticisms but since kishi desperately wanted to shoehorn the yin yang theme into as much of the story as possible partway through, he depicts the naruto/konoha view as morally superior and frames sasuke as merely blindsided by hatred who must be saved from his "darkness" by naruto. it feels like kishi wanted really bad to turn this into an easy good vs evil type of situation so he could wrap it up nicely and made sasuke decide on the childishly stupid goal to kill every konoha citizen that's out of character even for him, since when he was still with orochimaru and when he first formed team taka he pointedly refused to kill anyone who had nothing to do with him. it's like...kishi didn't even try to give sasuke a fighting chance in the story lmao

which is why the final naruto vs sasuke fight that was hyped up for the series' entirety lacks any emotional gravity and is so disappointing because even before they start you know how it's gonna end and sasuke's admittance of his loss to naruto acts narratively to dismiss sasuke's grievances and justified criticisms against the state that wronged him in every possible way as a fight he cannot win

and like?? the series never even gets close to questioning the reverence every konoha shinobi has for the will of fire? like maybe it didn't necessarily start out that way with hashirama when he first co-founded the village with madara in order to steer the world towards peace, but it's never criticized how it evolved to become a form of indoctrination and way of maintaining subservience to a military dictatorship, to the point you see even shikamaru equating it to some kind of pseudo-religion?

like it's held up to be this lofty code of conduct about protecting your comrades and a noble act of self-sacrifice, even your worth as a shinobi equated to how far you are willing to go to uphold this doctrine (and going against it is in many cases an act of treason). but there are so many instances in the story where the hypocrisy of this messaging shows, namely the village's collective treatment and abandonment of naruto, the uchiha massacre, the choices itachi had and what he was ultimately driven (manipulated) to do in order to maintain intra-village peace out of his loyalty to konoha (which overrode even his feelings for family and clan), the village leaving a 7? 8 year old sasuke to his own devices despite his fragile psychological state, the village ostracizing sakumo for putting his comrades above the mission and driving him to suicide...and yet there is not a single discussion about the dangers, shortcomings, and implications of this ideology, all the underhanded and atrocious things the village has swept under the rug in the name of the will of fire.

and the end of the series' answer to the question of what it means to be a ninja, to "endure," rings hollow when the last chapter shows nothing really changes, naruto continues to uphold the status quo as hokage, the five villages are i guess on friendlier terms with each other but the shinobi system is still going strong and 12 year olds are still being treated as soldiers/tools of the state once they graduate ninja school??

imagine if kishi had stuck with this kind of political intrigue and kept exploring the characters' roles and relationships to the society they live in and are conditioned to uphold? instead of doing whatever the hell that was in the war + kaguya arcs that destroyed any agency any naruto antagonist had by reducing the entire series and character decisions to a cheap "gotcha" since all of the shinobi world's grievances were orchestrated by some higher power who is literally an alien? like everyone was manipulated by obito who was manipulated by madara who was ultimately being manipulated by some alien moon goddess' armpit demon? is this even the same person who wrote the land of waves arc lmao

like early naruto was exploring some surprisingly complex and mature ethical, moral, and political themes for a series published in a magazine aimed at like 8-16 year old boys and perhaps that’s why the later manga is so different in tone and story direction as it gained more attention and popularity. like looking back now it’s clear kishi was already able to write like this so early in his career and despite how much i love dunking on him it makes me wonder how accurate his being a bad writer really is, or if it's more that he was prevented from writing what he wanted originally more than any personal writing failings on his part. which he has plenty of, but i wonder how many higher up decisions were made that effectively killed his original vision for this series. i mean naruto was def one of jump's biggest cash cows (and still is; just look at the fact boruto exists) and as a result they probably wanted to pander to a certain audience, effectively sacrificing a compelling story for a lucrative business decision based on what "sells" and keeps people reading without rocking the boat. like part 1 and part 2 naruto are two very different stories with different messages and maybe we'll never know the exact reasons or how much it really had to do with kishi's abilities as a writer. and yet i know the bitter sting of what could've been will eventually fade again and i'll just keep crawling back every few years because i love setting myself up for disappointment 😔

don't even get me started on how these writing shifts impacted the naruto girls...like it wasn't Great obviously but part 1 had nearly all the good character-growth moments for them and it's hard to believe the same person wrote the part 2 girls like that without some outside influence making certain decisions :/ the utter disrespect

[missmentelle]

Would you say it's the same thing for ADHD? I was diagnosed as having 'traits of adhd' a few years back and always assumed it was more a reflection of the fact that i was diagnosed by a med student not being supervised who made some significant errors in the way she tested me as well as omitting what I thought were some significant observations from her writeup, but I've been wondering lately whether I am actually ADHD or not

It’s the same for all disorders - if a diagnosing professional wrote down on a psychology report that you have “traits of” a mental disorder, it means that they felt you did not meet the criteria for a full diagnosis at that time, most likely for one of five reasons:

You didn’t have enough symptoms to meet the minimum required for the diagnosis, or you were missing a key symptom that is required to make that diagnosis.

Your symptoms are not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis; they do not cause significant disruption or impairment in your daily life. 

Your symptoms only occur in one specific context (eg. you have symptoms at school, but not at home, work or with friends), or your symptoms are a side effect of medication or intoxication. 

Your symptoms have not been going on long enough to meet the criteria for the diagnosis, they don’t occur frequently enough to make the diagnosis, you have long symptom-free periods that negate the diagnosis, or your symptoms did not appear at an age consistent with the onset of that diagnosis.

You sort of meet the criteria for the diagnosis, but there is a different diagnosis that does a much better job of explaining your symptoms (this is sometimes listed as a “differential diagnosis”, rather than “traits of X”).

A report stating that a person has “traits of” a certain disorder or “features of” a disorder is actually extremely common. I’ve probably read more than thousand psych reports at this point in my career, and it’s quite normal for phrasing like that to appear on them. Usually, this is actually a sign that the person is being rather thorough - they are noting that they considered ADHD as a possible diagnosis but ultimately could not make the diagnosis for some reason or other. As I said, other reports may format this differently, and include a list of “differential diagnoses” in the conclusion - this is a list of diagnoses that they considered but ultimately ruled out for one reason or another. 

Unfortunately, learning that you have “traits” of a disorder doesn’t really tell us much, especially without seeing the full psych report. Maybe you didn’t have ADHD then, but you have since developed it. Maybe you don’t have it and never did. Maybe you have some other sort of executive dysfunction or disorder that explains your symptoms, but it was missed the last time around. Maybe a diagnosis of ADHD was warranted back then, and still is. Maybe you only have ADHD symptoms in a specific context, which would make you ineligible for diagnosis but suggests there is something going on that needs to be addressed. I don’t know enough about your case to know for sure. All that I know is that the only way to be sure if you have ADHD - or any other mental disorder that you may be concerned about - is to seek a second opinion and get another assessment done. 

(I’m going to give some clarification about what having “traits of” a disorder means for other readers who may have similar questions. You should know, though, that ADHD is actually slightly different than other disorders like BPD that you may have “traits of” - ADHD is a neurological condition that responds to medication, and if you are given ADHD medication when you don’t actually have ADHD, you are going to notice pretty quickly that you’ve been misdiagnosed. If you calm down and get more sleep while taking what is effectively speed, you can be pretty sure that ADHD is the correct diagnosis for you. People with other disorders like depression, agoraphobia, PTSD and BPD don’t have the same kind of litmus test available for their diagnosis.)

It’s important to remember that everyone has traits of at least one diagnosable disorder - most people will have traits of several. Some people are more easily distractible than others, some people have more trouble sleeping, some people are naturally low-energy or feel more intense emotions. If you browse through a copy of the DSM-V, you are going to find some stuff in there that sounds like it applies to you. Nobody has perfect mental health, especially in their teens and early 20s. But most people do not meet the criteria for the diagnosis of a mental disorder.

This is where we have to think critically about what a diagnosis actually is, why we do it, and what it actually means. Diagnosing a psychological disorder is not like diagnosing a medical disorder, where we can do some blood tests and scans and know exactly what a person has. Psychological diagnoses are always subjective, to some extent - we made categories to describe common clusters of behaviours and symptoms, and we decided where to draw the line between “someone who is just quirky” and “someone who needs formal psychological treatment”. Where exactly we draw that line has always been the subject of debate. 

We could make it so that everyone who has any sort of mental health flaw at all gets diagnosed with a disorder, but that sort of defeats the point of diagnosis - if almost everyone on earth has a diagnosis, then a diagnosis effectively becomes meaningless. There’s no longer meaningful distinction between “someone with an overactive imagination” and “someone with treatment-resistant psychosis” - it all just gets slapped with the same diagnosis. It can also lead us to “medicalize” behaviours that might not need to be “medicalized”. After all, if we diagnose someone, we need to do something about that diagnosis. Diagnosing them means we’ve identified that they need some sort of treatment or intervention. But do all quirks in human behavior really need to be ironed out with treatment? Do we really want to build a world where everyone who falls outside a very rigid definition of mental health gets told that they have something wrong with them? Likewise, if we make diagnosis too restrictive, that’s not good either. Now we have the opposite problem - if we make the criteria for a diagnosis too strict and too narrow, we miss people who might seriously benefit from having treatment. If we say “you need to be severely suicidal before we can diagnose you with depression”, we’re going to overlook a lot of non-suicidal people whose depressive symptoms are ruining their lives, and who could be treated if we just recognized them as depressed. If we are only diagnosing and helping the most severe of the severe cases, we aren’t really making good use of the tools available to us and diagnosis once again becomes basically meaningless, because not having one is no longer a good indicator of whether or not you need help. 

Diagnosis is a balancing act, and there are a lot of people who fall in kind of a grey area where it’s not totally clear if we should be diagnosing them or not. People are complicated, and they rarely fit neatly into categories. If we have a twenty-year-old girl who experiments with drugs, has a lot of short-term and casual dating relationships that end poorly, struggles to make and keep friends, and doesn’t really have a stable sense of who she is and what she wants, does she have BPD? Or is she just a normal 20-year-old? How would we decide? If we diagnose her, we might be pathologizing behaviour that isn’t really all that unusual for her age group, and making her feel like she’s defective for struggling with things that are pretty normal for someone her age to be struggling with; diagnosing her could make her believe that she’s incapable of healthy relationships, which could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, if we don’t diagnose her, we could be missing the fact that she does actually have a fairly serious disorder, and depriving her of the chance to get life-changing treatment that might help her develop the healthier, more fulfilling relationships that she has been missing out on. We could be leaving her to deal with her destructive behaviours on her own, without having any of the language or tools she needs to disrupt those patterns. 

If you’ve been assessed by a mental health professional and you have questions about how they reached the conclusions they did, I encourage you to ask questions and have an open conversation about your symptoms, possible treatments and needs. If you don’t feel that they have a good understanding of your case, I highly encourage you to get a second opinion on your diagnosis from another professional. Whenever possible, seek a diagnosis from someone who specializes in mental health - this should be a psychologist or psychiatrist (or in some cases, a neurologist), and not a general practitioner or family doctor (some family doctors can diagnose and treat basic depression, but even then, you should seek a referral to a specialist for further treatment and assessment). Also remember that diagnosis does not have to be a barrier to seeking therapy - anyone can get therapy, even if they do not meet the criteria for a psychological diagnosis, and everyone can benefit from seeking out a therapist to improve their coping skills, social skills, and general mental health.  Hope this answers your question! MM

[zeondevoll90]

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