The Broken Escapement – An A.D.D. Metaphor
“Each swing of the pendulum releases the escapement, making it change from a “locked” state to a “drive” state for a short period that ends when the next tooth on the gear hits the locking surface on the escapement. It is this periodic release of energy and rapid stopping that makes a clock “tick;” it is the sound of the gear train suddenly stopping when the escapement locks again.” (Text & Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapement)
Isn’t the problem of A.D.D. really a problem of a broken escapement? The A.D.D. mind is that gear and, with a broken escapement, there is nothing to regulate its spinning. Sometimes the escapement is engaged, sometimes not. But it is the absence of this regularity that makes an A.D.D.er an A.D.D.er. It is why an A.D.D.er cannot sleep (their clock does not know when to tell them to stop); it is why an A.D.D.er cannot (easily) complete a task on time (they have no internal clock); it is why an A.D.D.er does not understand how small (positive) actions over a long period of time can a have a large (positive) impact in the future. It’s interesting that the lack of such a simple mechanism – an “internal watch movement”; the biological equivalent of an escapement – is the key that separates/differentiates the A.D.D.er from non-A.D.D.ers.
V. cool, Jeff.
Thank you! I thought it was a useful metaphor.
Jeff,
Wow!! Thats not only useful, it’s worth a zillion bucks. Very accurate description of my own mind!
Scott.
And look…I give it away for free!
Whew!!Thats a laod off my mind….I’m down to my last zillion dollar bill!
Looks like gonna have to break it up, to pay the switch around A’s & O’s guy. Dang it!
Jeff,
This blog entry is one of the reasons I love your site so much. You have such a great way of putting things in a perspective that I have never heard before and that gives me a greater understanding of an ADD Mind.
Thanks Again,
Laura
Laura,
Thank you so much for being a dedicated reader and for letting me know that these ramblings & writings are not for naught.
Metaphors can be so powerful in helping us to see things we wouldn’t normally see. The danger is that sometimes we mistake the metaphor for the thing itself. Not likely in this case but sometimes it happens…like when we describe the mind as being like a computer.