A short time ago, news programs all over America provided viewers with an eye-witness account of a person experiencing rage. The rage was condemned as racist, and created a situation that has threatened a man's career. The man was forced to apologize, even to the extent of appearing on a radio program hosted, ironically, by one of the most racially divisive personalities in the U.S.
The person who was the object of the unwanted media attention is, of course, Michael Richards. Personally, I believe him when he says that he is not a racist; he is being 100% truthful. Allow me to explain what I feel really happened that night, and how the events, as they transpired, may not have been avoidable.
My name is Michael E. Platt, M.D. I am a board-certified internist who specializes in natural hormone replacement for men, women and children. I have never talked to or examined Mr. Richards; my impressions are based strictly on my observation of his behavior in conjunction with my knowledge of how hormones effect how we act. I have a strong suspicion Mr. Richards is living with ADHD - attention deficit hyper-activity disorder.
I approach the condition of ADHD from the point of view that its underlying cause is hormonal imbalance. Please understand I am aware such a contention is extremely controversial. However, years of experience with patients, has led me to feel that this conclusion is self-evident.
My supposition is as follows: people with ADHD produce large amounts of adrenaline. Adrenaline can make people hyperactive; it allows them to get involved in sports activities in school, and later on, creates Type A personalities such as workaholics which can result in their being extremely successful in business. ADHD is frequently misrepresented, I feel, as a learning disorder. More to the point, I would describe it as an 'interest' disorder.
Adrenaline is known as the "fight-or-flight" hormone. It gets people ready to fight or run away from danger. People with extra adrenaline are quick to anger, short-fused, prone to road-rage, and wind up in anger-management classes. I suspect Mr. Richards is ADHD which means he always has an underlying increased amount of adrenaline. Under stress, people with ADHD pour out adrenaline and can literally go into a rage.
My supposition concerning Richards is as follows: He is on stage, under increased adrenaline levels. He is performing a stand-up routine. He's working through his routine. Suddenly, he is interrupted by two men who heckle him. His routine is thrown off by the surprise interruption, his thought processes go astray, he feels attacked, and he feels rage. Since he can't physically attack them, he strikes out verbally. Since the patrons were black, he attacks their color. If they had been Hispanic, or oriental- my guess is the same thing would have happened, but he would have used different racial epithets.
My feeling is that ADHD may be the most under-diagnosed condition in existence today. I have, in addition, observed that we are continuously beset with examples of the condition's tragic consequences - a father beating his four year old son to death for soiling his pants; a man crushing the skull of a stranger with a baseball bat, a policeman (many of whom I suspect are ADHD) beating a suspect after a car chase when they refuse to lie on the ground- remember Rodney King?, plus famous personalities like Mel Gibson, O.J. Simpson, etc., whom I suspect are also ADHD. People who use drugs and alcohol, are often are using them to alleviate the stress caused by too much adrenaline in their systems.
This article, of course, is my hypothesis. But is has a solid experiential basis. I deal with patients daily who have undiagnosed ADHD, and I understand that ramifications of how bringing hormones into balance can eliminate ADHD with noticeable results, often within 24 hours.
It is not my intention to debate the medical community about hormones; my intention is to present a different perspective for Mr. Richards' actions which I feel were unavoidable in light of his possible hormonal imbalance.
For what it's worth, I feel the action of the hecklers was rude, inappropriate and inconsiderate, representing behavior that could have been avoided by using a semblance of civilized behavior. In contrast, I feel that Mr. Richards' response to their taunts was an unfortunate hormonal response that could not be avoided.
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