Behavioral Medicine Associates, Inc. Education Pages

Advantages of a different style of attention...

Many of the people who've invented the 20th (and 21st!) century meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Of course, ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DISORDER. The "disorder" part is important to understand. That means you have such a hard time focusing and avoiding distraction that you aren't taking care of business as well as you should be able to. That's a problem that needs to be solved. Sometimes medications are the answer, sometimes not. One problem is side effects, another problem is that the medications wear off by the evening. That's why we use neurofeedback to train the attention. This can be combined with a medication approach or may completely substitute for medication.I prefer to call this condition "Attention Difference Difficulty" to emphasize that ADHD, unless quite severe, is not a disability but a "difference:"

Imagine a bunch of stone age folks sittting around chipping flints. Who was the kid who said "NO MORE CHIPPIN' FLINTS. I'M BORED SILLY. I'M OUTTA HERE!" That was the kid who wandered off, one time found some native copper on a beach. Banged on it. It looked cool, shiny and hey, if you smash on it for a while it takes an edge. Makes one heavy ax head. Fun to work, too. So this "ADHD" kid started the Bronze Age. Not bad for a kid.

Many of the inventors and creators of our time were and are those easily bored, distractible folks. They "think outside the box." Because the brain of someone with ADHD usually rests at a lower level of arousal (activity) than most people, a person with this genetic tendency may feel more normal when they're "in the thick of it," when they're taking risks, doing something outside the normal expectations of society. Maybe you know a few, maybe that describes you or your child. Taking risks, getting bored with routine and other characteristics of ADHD people can be a plus or a minus depending on how you respond to it. I think overall it has been very useful to the human species to have 5 - 10% of us turn out this way. My grave concern is that we are currently attempting to "tame" these interesting people with medicines, and to teach them that they have a disability, rather than a rare set of abilities that have to be cultivated and turned into useful styles instead of deficits.... 

 Check out the interesting book "ADD - A Different Perception" by Thom Hartman.

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