I am like a toolbox, with all the tools I will ever need laid gently and neatly in the box, ready for me to use them.
The toolbox is translucent so I can see them there. The key to the toolbox is locked inside of it.
A recent column in the New York Times provides an interesting perspective on the way our minds are wired. He writes, “Evidence is accumulating that the human brain systematically misjudges certain kinds of risks. In effect, evolution has programmed us to be alert for snakes and enemies with clubs, but we aren’t well prepared to respond to dangers that require forethought.” The full article is here.
A recent article documents some important breakthroughs in the understanding of schizophrenia.
“Children with attention deficit disorder often struggle to understand sequence, tell time, and prioritize — with their education paying the price. Find out how to help your ADHD student comprehend clocks, calendars, and other time management skills.”
I do not like to discuss politics on this blog. It is not the focus of this blog. However, there are times when one must take a stand on a particular issue. This is one of those times. In solidarity with the people of Iran who are yearning for democracy (democracy, someone said, is not simply the ability to vote but also the ability to have an accurate count of the vote), I post the images below.
These images are from The Huffington Post.
Despite what the knuckleheads at “Unwrapping the A.D.D. Nonsense and Finding the Inner Genius” might say to the contrary, there is no causal relationship between A.D.D. (or A.D.H.D. or A.D./H.D. or any other choice acronym) and “genius.” In fact, the whole idea as to what really IS genius is up for grabs. Even worse, despite our attempt to make everyone feel good and special, some researchers believe that every child may NOT be a hidden genius. See: http://bit.ly/nvXN
Here’s some common sense information on the autism/vaccine connection and about vaccines in general.
See: http://bit.ly/2jbcpX
“Deep down I knew that even if I got a job tomorrow, a decent job in the industry I love, I would not remain happy. I would fall back into being dissatisfied and miserable. Along with ADHD, there came the evil stepsisters, depression and anxiety.”
See: http://www.additudemag.com/adhdblogs/1/5950.html
“Students with ADHD have a hard time completing and turning in assignments on time. Learn how to help attention deficit children turn in their school work by setting up organization systems at school and home.”
Read the rest of this at: You Matter
There’s a wonderful video of Jennifer Koretsky explaining ADHD on the Today show. If you were recently diagnosed with ADHD or suspect you might have it…take a look at this video.
Notes to the Reader:
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Putting the Mythology to Rest
So, though the image I have of Athena springing fully clothed from the head of Zeus has always captivated me when I think of it, mythology in the world of AD/HD is just one more hurdle to get over. If it isn’t laziness, then it isn’t superior creativity, either. It’s ironic that the very capacities that make us most human are the ones most strikingly sparse in the ADD brain.
It is an old, old compensation – though transparent – to attempt to feel “okay” by asserting superiority when one in fact feels less than “okay.” However, this is an unattractive, and potentially destructive, feature of our cultural habit of competitiveness. How much more congenial and functional, and friendly, to understand that all people have qualities that are more and less effective, more and less appealing; have areas of excellence and areas of incompetence. The world is so big and so populated, it never occurred to me to learn how to grind my own glasses, or repair the stucco on my house; we need not all do everything well, and there is no call for shame – or false pride – in that.
We are all born, there is room here for all of us, and that’s that. Now go set a timer for something.
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This series of posts was originally published as a column in Addvance Online Magazine, of which Betsy Davenport was managing editor for three years.
Notes to the Reader:
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Myth No. 4: ADDers are More Creative
As for creativity, it cannot be true that all the most creative people have AD/HD. There are more creative things to do than spend a morning searching for your woodworking tools, finding them dull and a bit rusted from the damp because you failed, in your haste last month to multitask your way to something more fun, to rub a bit of oil onto the blades. And, there are more creative things to do than have creative ideas; doesn’t “create” mean “to make something?” The ideas themselves might amuse us, but unless they result in something more or less material in nature, “creative” is a myth.
Those thoughts may travel fast, but if you can’t catch them, what good is winning the race for who can think fastest? We are generally frustrated when they go above the speed limit and disappear over our mental horizon before we can hitch a ride and guide them to a destination worthy of them, and our efforts. Details? They are important. The telephone call to the psychiatrist before a holiday weekend, registering for your child’s – or your own – summer drama class, having stamps in the house when you have things to mail, placing warranty papers in a file labeled for quick retrieval when the washing machine fails, turning off the oven when dinner is cooked, putting things away when you’re through using them… Dull, crashingly dull, I know; especially when your Brain (technically in charge of keeping track of these things more or less outside your immediate awareness) has taken a walk and it’s your Mind left behind to supervise. Your Mind has, indeed, much more interesting things to do, yet if you’re going to have a sensible life, you’ve got to press it into service anyway.
Notes to the Reader:
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Myth No. 3: ADDers Are More Sociable
The “sociable” person with AD/HD is likely to be offending people left and right without realizing it, if she is running off at the mouth and nothing to stop her; and at least one study cites childhood shyness in girls as a predictor of AD/HD (as childhood boisterousness is a predictor for boys). There isn’t much difference between saying everything that comes to mind, or nothing at all, if both options are a response to overcrowding of thoughts and the brain’s failure to sort through and automatically nudge forward the one thing one would like to have said. Similarly, chronic lateness and chronic earliness both are characteristic of people without an inner sense of time. The primary difference is that the early bird’s overcompensation may not inconvenience others as much.
People with AD/HD can certainly be inappropriate; and the sooner we accept responsibility for that, the sooner we’ll have good friends. Everyone else is not uptight, though some certainly are; but many have been able with enviable ease to learn and accommodate to our culture’s ways without any loss of spontaneity (which word, by the way, is often used by our encyclopedia salesmen as code for “impulsive”). Planning – yes, with some flexibility – increases the chance of getting to do the things we need and want to do, and at the times we later on would be glad to have done them.
Notes to the Reader:
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Myth No. 2: ADDers are Smarter than Non-ADDers
Now down the pike comes another set of rumors, like an encyclopedia salesman who, during the Depression, was instructed to “Sell them a set if it’s their last nickel.” This set is just as inaccurate, more insidious because some people with ADD – who can least afford them — are lining up to buy them, themselves. Shockingly, people with AD/HD have even created some of these falsehoods.
“People with ADD are smarter.” “People with ADD are so much more gregarious and sociable than other people.” “People with ADD can multitask better.” “People with ADD are so much funnier and more creative.” “People with ADD have to take medications, just to get on in a world where the so-called ‘normal’ people have ridiculous hoops for us to jump through.” “People with ADD aren’t inappropriate; everyone else is uptight.” “People with ADD can think at the speed of light and no one can keep up.” “People with ADD can’t be bothered with the details because we are thinking about much more important things.”
First, I should tell you, I think myths are lovely. Myths are filled with hopes and yearnings and they reflect our faces back to us, more beautiful than we are really. Myths have been around since anyone can remember, and though we enjoy the notion of the Greek gods, and of Athena springing fully clothed from the head of Zeus, her father, we chortle disparagingly over the primitive belief that spawned that image.
Now, if it is a comfort to some to believe myths, and if they do no harm to anyone, I have no objections. But there is nothing amusing about standing in your kitchen, tears streaming down your face, having forgotten what you were about to do, and knowing time is elapsing at the usual rate – that is, too fast. It is not “multitasking” to start and leave off — without returning to finish or clean up – four or five different jobs in the same morning; it’s a mess. So far, though the request has gone out repeatedly, none of our respected researchers has asserted that people whose brains lack the usual chemistry and even structure are, by definition and as a group, more intelligent than the rest of the population. Smart people hang out with smart people; AD/HD can occlude high intelligence and high intelligence can mask AD/HD, as the intelligence compensates for a compromised cognitive system. People of average wattage make up the bulk of the population; they have less “extra” wattage with which to compensate, and may be simply considered below average, “behavior disordered,” relegated to the fringe; who is noticing – and seeing — them?
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