Ideas, Information, and Insights into Adult ADD

I will be reading your blog, at least for a while.  I have to say though that i will be reading it with a lot of skeptisism.

I dont believe is these sort of conditions being a "desiese".  I see it as a psychological problem, or often just plain laziness when it comes to self disciplin.  But I'll read what you have to say for a while and try to keep my comments non confrontational...as long as you dont start writing about how God gave you this challenge for xxxxx reason. 

Hi, Jeremy. Thank you for your comments. Your opinion is held by many persons and I admit, it is attractive at times to me as well. The symptoms are felt to a degree by so many people that the expression of ADD as a disorder becomes watered down. The way I understand it is that for me, the symptoms are _always_ there. I cannot remember a time when I was attentive, when I was patient, or when I could complete simple tasks without paying much more attention to it then my peers do.

I really saw this in my son, Alex, whose symptoms we really worked hard to control. We tried behaviorial, psychological, dietary, and other means in a controlled fashion to determine their effects. You'll see some more of those stories written later in this blog.

I welcome your input and critical thinking. I'll try to keep the blog to factual and logical premises, but the occasional Christian statement may come up.

As an aside - it is a reasonable question to ask that, if I have so much trouble paying attention and am inattentive, how can I be writing this blog? Surely then it is a behaviorial issue and not a physiological issue. As I understand it, however, the ability to pay close attention to an issue, at a level over and above what is "normal" for ADD is called Hyper-Focus. Edward M. Hallowell, MD and John J. Ratey, MD state that one of the symptoms of ADD is:
Easy distractibility, trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or a conversation, often coupled with an ability to hyperfocus at times. The hallmark symptom of ADD. The "tuning out" is quite involuntary. It happens when the person isn't looking, so to speak, and the next thing you know, he or she isn't there. The often extraordinary ability to hyperfocus is also usually present, emphasizing the fact that this is a syndrome not of attention deficit but of attention inconsistency.( Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults)

There's also differences in types of things.  If you're writing a blog it's generally free-form "off the top of your head" type activity.  It may be that you are able let flowing actions happen, but then doing something structured and definate, like painting a fence, is difficult.

JeremyG, I sympathise with your idea about ADD vs. Laziness. Let me give you my ADDer's viewpoint:

I am a systems analyst with over 20 years experience in software development. I've worked hard, including 11 years with a consulting firm and 3 years in a software manufacturing firm. 10 years ago I hit a wall, where I had to work SUPER hard to do complete things that my colleagues found easy - things like timesheets, expenses, estimate, etc. After years of hunting - including psychotherapy, herbs, osteopathy - I still did not have an answer to "how can I make my job less stressful?". Then, by accident while researching allergies, I came across ADD information, which I took to my doctor. After a referral to a psychiatrist for evaluation, I was diagnosed with "inattentive ADD" and offered the option of medication, which I took. Oh My Gosh - suddenly everything fell into place. I understood: why meetings and parties stressed me out so badly; why my timesheets were always wrong so I had to redo them; why I "crashed" in the afternoons. Also: why I excelled at Abstraction; why end-users like me so well (that ADD timing and humour); why debugging programs was so easy for me.

Now, from my short bio above, perhaps you can tell that I am not a lazy person. The pattern described above is common for inattentive ADD, and here is why: ADDers often have above-average IQ, so they learn to circumvent their disabilities, to compensate. They don't even realise they are doing things differently (in their heads) because the end result looks just like everyone else. But when we reach our thirties, life becomes so complex that our coping mechanisms fail and we start to feel incapable and stressed out. Fortunately, many doctors are now realising that ADD can persist into adulthood and are helping us out. I can tell you, had we found this in childhood, my life would have been so much easier, so different - I'm tearing up here, thinking of how things could have been Getting medication suddenly allowed me to see how so-called "normal" people function (for example, normal people read a page from top to bottom... imagine how hard life would be for you if you had to read thru a toilet-paper tube that jumped all over the page. Well, it sure develops our intuition

Regarding laziness: in any sub-population there will be lazy people. There are probably lazy creative types, lazy math-whizzes, etc. And lazy ADDers. But let's not confuse the two: ADD is not simply a manifestation of laziness. However, it is worth noting: because ADDers are often of superior intelligence, we know when we are beaten and give up doing things we are not capable of (in my case, cleaning house - I hire someone. Organisation is a huge challenge for me, and I save my energy for being organised at work, which takes a lot more energy for me than for other people.) Let's not excuse laziness by calling it ADD... but let's not label ADDers as lazy.

I hope this personal perspective is helpful.

In fact, it's a recognised phenomenon that ADDers can focus better when they are PASSIONATE about something.
So, writing a personal perspective flows better than synthesising a term paper. Blogs suit ADDers well.
I'm pretty sure the reason I learned to read normally is that I discovered a passion for Science Fiction... some ADDers never learn to read correctly.