http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryant-welch/fort-hood-a-harbinger-of_b_356318.html

So far as I know, his Positive Paychology is little different from Norman Vincent Peale’s Positive Thinking, in its lack of research, its appeal and its waxing and waning popularity. Being optimistic or pessimistic are likely brain traits and even if we can change our habits of thinking, it is unclear whether that changes an inborn tendency.

Martin Seligman is the guy who worked for the military in such a way that they used his theory on learned helplessness to assist in developing their torture protocols at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Though he insists he had nothing to do with torture, he apparently did not refuse to teach them what they wanted to learn and he had to have known their purpose.

There has been a long and unpleasant conflict in the American Psychological Association over this. Ugly, and makes me (perhaps unfairly) reject pretty much anything the guy says.

I do, though, have a problem with the optmism/pessimism dichotomy. This does little more than reproduce the market mentality of winners/losers and places the onus on individual attitudes, thereby through a sleight of hand converting the issue into a moral problem (“if only you had the willpower to be optimistic”). I prefer the word “realism,” to know what the problem is so that I can come up with the right solution.

My day job is being a problem solver, usually within the context of software issues. To solve the problem requires, not optimism, not pessimism, but realism. I must know what the problem is. I must know the extent of the problem. Only then can I come up with a solution. More and more I’ve been applying that type of thinking to my ADHD and I am finding solutions. If you want to call that optimism, that’s fine. But I will take exception with calling the search for and examination of the problem itself as being pessimism. That’s not pessimism. That’s finding the root cause of a problem. In my day job, I just call that troubleshooting which describes the process without any moral or judgemental overtones.

- sen via crackberry

The benefits of an optimistic outlook on are many — optimists are higher achievers and have better overall health. Pessimism, on the other hand, is much more common. Pessimists are more likely to give up in the face of adversity or to suffer from depression. In his book, Seligman invites pessimists to learn to be optimists by thinking about their reactions to adversity in a new way. The resulting optimism — one that grew from pessimism — is a learned optimism.

Other differences exist between pessimists and optimists in the areas of permanence, pervasiveness, hope, and personalization.

Permanence: Optimistic people believe bad events to be more temporary than permanent and bounce back quickly from failure, whereas others may take longer periods to recover or may never recover. They also believe good things happen for reasons that are permanent, rather than seeing the transient nature of positive events.
Pervasiveness: Optimistic people compartmentalize helplessness, whereas pessimistic people assume that failure in one area of life means failure in life as a whole. Optimistic people also allow good events to brighten every area of their lives rather than just the particular area in which the event occurred.
Hope: Optimists point to specific temporary causes for negative events; pessimists point to permanent causes
Personalization: Optimists blame bad events on causes outside of themselves, whereas pessimists blame themselves for events that occur. Optimists are therefore generally more confident. Optimists also quickly internalize positive events while pessimists externalize them.
The optimist’s outlook on failure can thus be summarized as “What happened was an unlucky situation (not personal), and really just a set back (not permanent) to for this particular endeavor of mine (not pervasive)”.

rather than joining the is it a gift, is it terrible…how about just “is” and approachingn life with adhd or anything else for that matter, with optimism and just move on?

A gift would be, not needing to say A.D.D. gave me a gift.

~Heather

You said;”I always felt different and bored very easily”. Your not the “Lone Ranger” here bro. Keep reading and take caution about what you read, is my best advice. Look at “A Fraud” post/comments etc. You may find it interesting..You/we are at a very good blog to learn about other A.D.D.ers thoughts and revelations.

Jeff,

“She turned me into a Newt!” From “Monty Python And The Holy Grail”. Love that movie!

Scott.