Making Use of Adult A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder)

ADD is a man made excuse, and its an acceptable excuse cause there is a medical name put to it and meds made.. its all a medical gimic to make money on the meds.

Isn't the brain an amazing organ?! I share some similarities with you as my thought process works in the same manner at times, although I have never been diagnosed with ADD (perhaps I should see a doctor?), it's good to know that I'm not alone. It's also a great example of taing a potentially negative characteristic and turning it into a positive one.

Since your article made no mention of meds, are you treating your ADD with it or are you learning to live with it?

"True American," it is very easy to judge something that you have no experience of, but it's not very bright.

Everything these days is over-diagnosed and over-medicated; that does not mean that there are no real health issues. And I am not using A.D.D. as an "excuse" for anything; or did you actually read past the title of the article?

Shirley, I have both bipolar disorder and A.D.D.; fortunately, the medication that works to keep my moods stable also helps with A.D.D. It has varied over time; it used to be Depakpote and Wellbutrin, but now that I am older and depression is more of a problem than mania is, I do fine on just Wellbutrin.

I have to do a lot of other things, too: like eat healthy, drink lots of water, sleep regularly, and get some exercise every day. Those habits alone don't keep me functioning without meds; but without those habits, medication alone wouldn't keep me functional.

I've also found that taking magnesium supplements helps, and lowers the amount of Wellbutrin I need. Magnesium is one of the elements used in nerve transmission, and a lot of it is lost in modern food processing. This may be another cause for the rise in A.D.D., besides the over-diagnosis stimulated by the pharmaceutical inducstry and parental anxieties.

And there are coping skills that I picked up during the 45 years before I got diagnosed, many of which turn out to be "focus management" skills that are taught in non-medical approaches to A.D.D.

Then there are the oldest "medications" of all, with which many people with A.D.D. "self-medicate": caffeine, sugar, and nicotine, all of which lower the nerve-firing threshold, increasing the rate at which the neurons fire. Since I've been taking magnesium, as well as the Wellbutrin, I've been using less coffee, cola, and chocolate. :)

The success of Wellbutrin in helping some people quit tobacco may be because they were using tobacco to self-medicate undiagnosed A.D.D.

Everybody has some attention wandering and some hyperfocus; it doesn't necessarily mean you have A.D.D., any more than having moods means you have mood disorder. If you have a doctor you can trust, who does not regularly make a habit of prescribing lots of meds for you, that would be the best person to talk with about your personal experience.

Two of our children have Adult ADD, and I have 2 siblings with Adult ADHD. All have different and similar symptoms, as well. I sometimes doubted its validity, initially, as one is wont to do, however, watching people struggle before your very eyes, people that you know and love? It's a whole new ballgame. Some are severe, one is very mild. She's been able to manage it without medication, going on to some impressive successes. Two are severe, vibrating messes. One denies the condition, one is being treated. Still another doesn't have the H factor, but we continually see function difficulties. BTW: this can be proven by EEG as was with one of our children, the one who is mild. The truth is she is just too mean to let this stop her and anybody telling her that she has a problem is enough to bring on her fire. Our observation is that personality and/or temperament factors into responses. It can be crippling, sometimes it's not, but it's real.

True American? That's a total load of bovine excrement. I raised an ADD child back when the only medication for it was Ritalin, which turned him into a zombie. My son's add was the result of a febrile convulsion when he was two that stopped his heart for nearly six minutes. His disorder was measurable on an electroencephalograph. It wasn't the doctor making things up.

Yes, the disorder is grossly over-diagnosed today and the label is used for every active or normal little kid because they tend to be disruptive in school. That doesn't remove for a moment that there are real ADD people out there. People who suffer so badly that it affects their lives. My son had a measured 20 second attention span and would watch television by putting the top of his head on the floor and walk around his own body. He was subject to nightmares, night terrors, and many other things. He had trouble learning to read, though he's a voracious reader today.

My son is 43 years old now and he still suffers from the effects of ADD. So try to research before you make ridiculous statements condemning a whole group of people.

Thank you, Linda and Carolyn!

To refuse to believe anything is as intellectually lazy as to believe everything without question. Both are an abdication of responsibility for critical judgment. A lot of harm can be done by being too ready to diagnose A.D.D. -- as much, or more harm can be done by refusing to recognize it at all.

well written article and worthy to publish...it is said that "ignorance is bliss",so guess True American is one happy person!...LOL...BTW, isn't that name, True American an oxy-MORON ? bahhahaaaaaaaaaaaa 10+

ADD is a real condition but it has been misdiagnosed and overmedicated in many cases. I do not have any experience with the adult ADD, but my niece was misdiagnosed in 1st grade and put on medication. She became very lethargic and he work suffered. Her parents quickly got a second opinion, which removed her from the medication. The correct diagnosis was that she was a normal active 6 year old that a lazy teacher did not want to deal with. Cases like this damage the credibility of those who are truly suffering with ADD. BTW, rated 10

I can't believe that person titled True American said that. Reminds me of the whole Brooke Sheilds and Tom Cruise thing where he commented that women didn't need prescriptions for post pardom they just needed vitamins and exercise. Well Tom when you push something the size of a watermelon out a hole the size of a lemon after you have been growing this very special person inside your body then we can talk. But I digress, seems I might have a little ADD myself ;)

All of the issues Anitra are real and at times can affect us all. I have a son with Autism and that can have some of the same effects. I had a mother with sever bi-polar and other family members that still continue to suffer with these diseases and there is nothing man made about them. Nothing at all.

Thanks for sharing and we appreciate your knowledge and forethought to help us understand such a complicated disorder.

As many have explained, until you have dealt with ADD or ADHD, you have no reason or right to talk about it. I have seen it misdiagnosed, but that HARDLY means that it does not exist. My son has ADD and it tends to run through my family. We did not know it until my son was diagnosed. I had grade problems in school, and almost flunked out in the 6th grade, and ended up an honors student by high school. The only difference was my level of interest. I found a way to do homework that I could handle, and it got done. Unfortunately, it goes against anything they reccomend, and it causes me trouble as I am getting older. (basically, I could only do things if I was multitasking to make it more interesting) I don't know why that worked, between that and rotating my homework in 10 minute shifts (which drove my mother nuts, and she thought I was just trying to get out of doing it right) I was able to get things done without losing total interest in anything. My son was born with a learning disability too, so his was more severe than just ADD, but he was never hyper, and we have never required medication for control, just had to be taught to "redirect" and be given therapy on focusing. It is very hard. As I have gotten older, I am again running into problems with things like getting into books, and movies. IF something doesn't interest me right off, it is hard for me to stay focused, or even stay awake. It is real easy to sit back and make grand judgement about people and things, but I hope true American (who, sadly to say, may be acting more like alot of true Americans than people hate to admit) never has to live with the stigma of having a condition that is either "over diagnosed" or something that is either not obvious or something nobody knows about or understands, so they don't have to deal with people like themselves who think that they are just sitting around trying to take advantage of the system somehow, when all you are trying to do is find a way to live and feed your family!

Lisa, I can identify with your dilemma. My sister with ADHD has been insisting for years that I have it, as well. It's almost impossible for me to stick with something which doesn't interest me, in particular, books. History interests me tremendously, so I can tolerate less than dynamic passages, but I have no patience for fiction. None. I have felt bad about this over the years, like it was a character flaw, but we are only interested in what we are interested in. The last work of fiction I read was "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. I enjoyed it, but my mind is racing and picking it apart for what is believable and not as I am reading. Not enjoyable. I'm a published poet who has no patience for reading poetry. I excelled in history and English (tolewated the reaking with class discussion to look forward to,) as well as Sociology and Art. Other things were way too boring.

The flip side of this is that when I am focused, the rest of the world goes completely away, whether it is washing dishes, writing or painting. I still think I probably don't have ADHD, but, who knows, and I'm not about to get into that, I'm doing okay. I could do better at managing my errant focus, and I probably will once I don't have teenagers kicking me in the pants all day long.

Regarding those who dismiss ADD and ADHD, all I can say is that they must have no experience in this area, which makes them unqualified to testify on the subject.

P.S. I was distracted by my husband prancing around, but what I meant to include is that aside from "The Secret Life of Bees," I don't believe I had read a novel since 1981. Of my own free will, that is.

its fake.

T.A. that last comment was nothing but stupid. You're dismissing the real experience of real people because it doesn't fit with your preconceived notions. Are you sure you're not a conservative in disguise? Or are you studying to take over for Stephen Cobert? "The facts are biased; I'll stick with what my feelings tell me."

As Linda demonstrates, you do NOT have to take medication to cope with every variant of attention span. But having more information about what influences you helps with *every* situation. There are strengths to A.D.D., like hyperfocus. it is no more physically possible to force our attention onto something boring than it is for a depressed person to "just cheer up." When we know what's going on, we can stop uselessly beating ourselves up for what we can't do, and start making the most of what we can do.

I haven't had an opinion about ADD due to lack of experience. However, I read a book, I think it was talking about left brain and right brain stuff. In the introductory material it mentioned ADD, and I began to realize that it was fit with the psychology I knew - it was just called by another name.

Knowing this, the point being made me realize that what comes under the ADD is a normal, natural condition. Usually the treatment that is needed is understanding, and acceptance. For example, most people have not trouble keeping their attention on something they find interesting. However, particularly with children, quite often society forces them to concentrate on being something they are not, so society requires (in school, etc.) to try to keep their attention on something not of interest. For example, English when the child is interested in football. Etc. Some people cannot make that transition. Therefore ADD.

Linda and Lisa: I recommend the book Women With Attention Deficit Disorder: Embracing Disorganization at Home and in the Workplace. It helped me (and Wes, too) learn to accept my limitations and work around them, while making the most of my strengths.

I also learned, on my own, that when something boring just absolutely positively has to be done, there are ways to make it doable that are more productive than "let it go until it's a crisis, THEN it will be interesting!" :D

One is to break it up into very small pieces. If I'm facing a whole room that has to be cleaned, it's a "blooming, buzzing confusion," as somebody once so aptly described it. So I divide it up, either by layers or by strips. I might go through and pick up all clothes, then all dishes, then all books, then all scraps of kleenex; or do the whole thing in a one-foot strip at a time.

Another thing that works for me is to turn it into a game. That's what "find all silverware in the room" is; it's now a treasure-hunt. Starting a catalogue of all my books helped in getting the room into order, because books are a major part of the disorder, and cataloging books is interesting to me. For some other people, it may be boring. You have to find what works for you.

It's really no different from any other part of human life. The more you understand what influences you, the more you can influence back at it.

Bill, "all traits vary in any population." There is a whole range of human behavior in any area, and the range stretches much wider than what a particular social group may consider "the norm."

Any human being, especially a child, forced to do what we aren't interested in or to not do what we are interested in, gets stressed and bored; girls will most likely "daydream" and boys will most likely "act out." That isn't "ADD" or "ADHD."

People are interested in different things. A lot of people may be interested in a particular movie, a few people aren't, their attention drifts off and they get restless. That isn't necessarily ADD. Some people can clean house industriously, others get bored and start dancing with the mop or playing sock-puppet with the oven mitts. That isn't necessarily ADD. Some people have shorter attention spans for anything; that isn't necessarily ADD.

It's like moods. Everybody has moods. Some people are more volatile than others; react instantly and dramatically to any stimulus. Some people are more cheerful, while others are gloomier, just as a natural level. In a healthy body, there is an intricate biochemistry that links our emotions with what's going on and what our goals are; just as there is an intricate biochemistry that links our attention with what is going on and what our goals are. It varies from person to person, but the overall function remains, to link what is going on with how we evaluate (value) what is going on and how our body responds to it.

In mood disorder, the mood biochemistry becomes unlinked. Your emotions (and energy level) no longer respond either to what is actually going on or to what you desire. You are very excited about the new job one day, wake up the next morning and feel no point to getting out of bed. Intellectually you recall that you are interested in the new job; physically, you just can't get going.

In attention disorder, the attention biochemistry becomes unlinked. I can want to clean the house desperately; I have every motivation for cleaning the house; but I cannot focus on cleaning the house. I am not subconsciously resisting cleaning because I really don't want to do it, any more than I was subconsciously resisting going to work because I wasn't really interested in the job. I've been put through all that pseudofreudian b.s. and it doesn't do any good. I can no more force my attention onto the chaos in the room any more than I could force myself out of depression.

What I can do, when I understand the physiology, is manage it. Take baby steps that ease my emotional biochemistry into alignment with what's actually going on; take baby steps that ease my attention biochemistry into alignment.

I don't think anybody needs to be treated for a problem that is interfering with other people's comfort, not their own. If somebody has a problem that is interfering with their OWN goals, I don't want them to be denied anything that will help them. In many cases, just understanding what is interfering with you can help you work around it. In some cases, you need medical help with the biochemistry.

Unfortunately, some people like TRUE AMERICAN seem to think that it is just a way for "bleeding heart liberals" to try to squeeze money out of the government to keep it away from "hard working american businessmen who are legitimately trying to earn their way in life instead of using excuses to have things handed to them."

ill cure ya of the 'ADD', all i need is one of those lil clicker thingies... second u start not paying attention ill hit the lil clicker and smack u in the head

Nah, True American thinks he's a liberal. He's also young and thinks he is much much smarter than anybody else. He's getting a big kick out of laughing at all of us for taking this so seriously when he knows it's stupid.

He is the classic troll. I suggest we stop feeding the troll and let him go find another bridge to lurk under.

You are so right. Thank you for the informative article.

I am not a troll... =|

Another well-written article, Anitra. Ignore the troll.

DB10.

I agree, True American is not a "troll". He is just misinformed and unwilling to be objective. He/she apparently doesn't allow himself the time or effort to . . . God Forbid . . . see things from any perspective but his own. This is so narrow-minded.

Many, many years ago, there were many diagnoses that were never heard of because the diagnostic process hadn't discovered them yet. Does that mean that bacteria didn't agree before a means of identifying them were developed?????

I saw this online the other day and loved it. "Don't be so quick to call someone a liar because their opinion is different from yours. You may both be wrong."

So TA, try to keep an open mind and not be so quick to judge. You'll get much farther in life.

What frustrated me, Karen, to the point of calling TA a troll, was that he turned the whole discussion thread away from the point of the article -- which was NOT "I have A.D.D." The point was, there is a useful aspect to letting your attention scatter around and pick up stray objects, as well as a usefulness to "hyperfocusing" on one thing; and anyone, regardless of "diagnosis," can make use of this.