It's like, for example, the fact that I feel a fever leads me to think, “Oh, it's just viral, the flu”.... But it turns out that it's not, that a few days later I feel worse and I go to the doctor, and then the results determine that my feverish symptom was the result of a urinary tract infection. In a manner of speaking.
That's a really good example/analogy. I was actually listening to an interview with a Dr today talking about peri-menopause and menopause and how often women in peri-menopause are misdiagnosed with depression or other mental health disorders when it's actually the change in hormones that's affecting their brain chemistry and indeed lots of other functions in their bodies. So many things, both physical and mental, will change as our bodies change through puberty as well.
In my case, I tend to get bored easily.
I feel like this is a trait that is becoming more common now with the immediate entertainment at our fingertips that is social media. A demonstration of how environmental factors can change our brain chemistry.
I recall the popularity of the MBTI test, although I think it has waned somewhat now. My daughter got me to take it when she was a teenager because I think a lot of people were putting their "personality type" in their social media profiles. I don't recall my result, likely because it had no meaning for me.
I rather feel like the brain is a bit too complex and changeable for us to easily label conditions. We still don't even fully understand the complexities of the physical body, after all.
I have come across references to infanticide in many ancient cultures, but not senicide before. I guess it makes sense for the same reasons as infanticide would have. It makes me grateful to not be living in a situation that would call for it and I suspect people would be less eager to want to claim disability, mental or otherwise, if we still did live in those situations.
Thank you for such a thought provoking comment.