Thinking about Mizuno Ami - it's kind of a shame that she never got into either fields of psychology or psychiatry (though the latter would probably be more her speed).
Reason being? Well, I've been conducting some research to turn my short wiki blurb into an outright character bible for Benjamin. And this means really diving into the whole mess with ADHD and ASD. And I do mean it - this really is a big mess because not only do the two disorders have overlapping symptoms, but also symptoms that tend to be at odds with each other.
Funny thing is? A dual diagnosis was not permissible until DSM-5 came out in 2013 - prior to that, they were mutually exclusive. (Keep in mind, they are still very much two different disorders, but the comorbidity rate is astonishing - roughly half of everyone initially diagnosed as ADHD or ASD has the other disorder as well!)
I know she did a lot of cram-school, but I don't recall if the subjects were explicitly described. Although, this is Japan we're talking about here. Their education system isn't the kind where you can cherry-pick areas of study until you reach college. As I've mentioned elsewhere, in middle and high school, it's usually one of two choices: a humanities track and an academic track.
That said, though, I seem to recall she also did a lot of self-study, reading up on material pertinent to an education in the medical field. Am I off with this?
Thing is, that material would be more than 20 years out of date. Not that it's a real big deal - after all, she has yet to undertake formal education in medicine.
Thus, I can't help but shake this mental imagery of Ami doing her version of a "WAIT. WHAT!?" when she hears about dual diagnosis being allowed with ADHD and ASD. And then her lamenting the fact that she's already laid the ground work for going into bio-med, because this is exactly the kind of tangled mess that she could really sink her intellectual teeth into; puzzling out not only the implications in psychiatric medicine, but also the psychological aspects as well.
Reason being? Well, I've been conducting some research to turn my short wiki blurb into an outright character bible for Benjamin. And this means really diving into the whole mess with ADHD and ASD. And I do mean it - this really is a big mess because not only do the two disorders have overlapping symptoms, but also symptoms that tend to be at odds with each other.
Funny thing is? A dual diagnosis was not permissible until DSM-5 came out in 2013 - prior to that, they were mutually exclusive. (Keep in mind, they are still very much two different disorders, but the comorbidity rate is astonishing - roughly half of everyone initially diagnosed as ADHD or ASD has the other disorder as well!)
I know she did a lot of cram-school, but I don't recall if the subjects were explicitly described. Although, this is Japan we're talking about here. Their education system isn't the kind where you can cherry-pick areas of study until you reach college. As I've mentioned elsewhere, in middle and high school, it's usually one of two choices: a humanities track and an academic track.
That said, though, I seem to recall she also did a lot of self-study, reading up on material pertinent to an education in the medical field. Am I off with this?
Thing is, that material would be more than 20 years out of date. Not that it's a real big deal - after all, she has yet to undertake formal education in medicine.
Thus, I can't help but shake this mental imagery of Ami doing her version of a "WAIT. WHAT!?" when she hears about dual diagnosis being allowed with ADHD and ASD. And then her lamenting the fact that she's already laid the ground work for going into bio-med, because this is exactly the kind of tangled mess that she could really sink her intellectual teeth into; puzzling out not only the implications in psychiatric medicine, but also the psychological aspects as well.