ADHD News

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18
Oct 11

ADHD ADD Awareness Week

Apparently, there is an ADHD Awareness Week. It’s going on right now.

And, why not? There is an awareness week, day or month for pretty much everything that exists, good and bad.

calendarI’m not a big fan of "awareness." It’s not that I don’t think it is a bad thing for people to be aware, it’s just that these days, weeks and months accomplish just about as much as those anti-smoking commercials on TV. I mean, seriously, is there anyone left anywhere in a America who doesn’t know that smoking is bad for them? Is there really someone in Cleveland right now, who, if he just saw a commercial that showed a bunch of people pretending to die in front of a cigarette company’s headquarters, that he would stub out his last cigarette ever?

Likewise, are there really teachers, bosses, parents, students who have never heard of ADD/ADHD?

The reality is that people are aware or not aware of what they choose. Furthermore, even if they are aware of something, they care or do not care according to how they choose. Awareness, at least the kind of awareness practiced by the PR types who run these things, accomplishes nothing.

Next week, most people in America will know what ADD is. The same amounts of those people will think it is a sham or not, and the same amounts of people will have it.

Let’s call these things what they really are. Feel better about yourself by connecting with others who have, know someone who has, or otherwise is affected by ADHD, and raise some money while we are at it week.

If you are interested in the official version, you can check it out here: http://www.adhdawarenessweek.org/

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19
Nov 10

Myths About ADHD Article

The folks over at Huffington Post showed up in my ADD news alerts, which seemed odd since it’s more of a politics / news website than a science website or a health information site. Of course, that means that a journalist came up with a sensational enough angle on ADHD to get an editor to give the green light. Most of the time, the results are not good for either ADD education and awareness or for the propagation of stereotypes about ADHD.

The angle that got a spot on the huffingtonpost.com front page was ADHD: 12 Myths and Facts. (Kudos on the SEO title, guys.)

So, what "myths" and "facts" did they come up with for their bite-sized review of all ADHD science and ADD research?

  1. Pesticides being linked to ADD. — They call it a fact. They aren’t wrong only due to careful wording. The real fact is that a recent research study showed that children with higher levels of one pesticide chemical were diagnosed with ADHD at higher rates. That leaves out a lot, like all of the children with ADD who do not have high levels of organophosphate as well as all the kids with high organophosphates, but no ADD.
  2. ADD Risk Higher When Mom Smokes or Drinks During Pregnancy — That’s true of just about everything.
  3. Food preservatives linked to ADHD – Researchers linked hyperactivity, which is not the same thing to some food preservatives.
  4. Sugar Causes ADD – Big fat myth. Good catch on this one.
  5. TV and Video Games – Myth
  6. Bad Parenting – Myth
  7. Brain Injury – Myth, but really inconclusive. Specific brain injuries are not common so finding a link it tough.
  8. Diet – Myth, at least the way people talk about it. Of course, eating better always helps. There IS some evidence that Omega-3 levels are low in ADD kids, but that isn’t the same thing as saying more Omega-3 would help ADD symptoms.
  9. ADD Genes – This one is starting to be accepted as a fact, at least among scientists and researchers.
  10. Over-diagnosis of ADD – Possibly true, although many kids with ADD are never tested, so maybe it’s a wash. Ironically, the most over-diagnosed condition in children is actually sinus infections. Doctors just hand out antibiotics when there is green mucus, even though a real diagnosis takes either a scan or 14+ days of symptoms. So many parents "know" that their kids have a sinus infection that it just isn’t worth the doctor fighting them on it.
  11. Lead Exposure – Not a lot of science here. Again, lead exposure isn’t that common, so getting a pool is tough. It’s a possibility though. Lead messes up a ton of stuff in the human body.
  12. Other Chemicals – Some chemicals are very harmful to the brain and nervous system. Assuming that ADHD can be "caused" at all, harsh chemicals might be one of the things that could cause ADD, although there is no actual link established by any legitimate research.

All in all, not a terrible article, if not very informative. Of course, as a bite-sized digest in the form of a slide show, you could do a lot worse.

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8
Jan 10

ADHD Women Affected Differently? ADD Media Story Suggests Women's Symptoms Different Than Men's

adhd-different-women-symptoms-msn-article-graphic Haven’t really had a chance to dive into it yet, but a front page story on MSN today displays the title "ADHD Affects Women Differently: What to Look For and How to Fix It" We’ll talk about everything that is wrong with that title later. (Often, in journalism, an editor writes the titles based on a cursory review of the article instead of the author.)

Do women have different ADHD symptoms than men do? It isn’t an unrealistic question. However, based on my quick scan of the first page, the author of this article may be barking up the wrong tree. It seems that the contention here will be that since women aren’t as likely as men to have hyperactivity as a trait of their ADD, their symptoms are therefore different than the ADHD symptoms that men have.

There are actually several types of ADD-ADHD. The three primary classifications are:

  1. ADHD with Hyperactivity (This is considered the "standard" ADD by the uninformed.)
  2. Passive Type ADHD (ADD without Hyperactivity, among other things.)
  3. Hybrid ADHD (A combination of the two types of ADD above.)

I don’t want to judge something until I’ve had time to fully read it and digest exactly what the text says, but on first glance, it appears that this article heads down the path to declaring that Women’s ADHD is different, when in fact, the type of ADD symptoms described as being most common in women are really nothing more than the clearly defined Passive ADD.

The other element of the article looks to be about how Passive ADHD (or "women’s ADHD) may be missed more often because of the missing hyperactivity symptom. This, unfortunately, is 100% accurate. I have the passive type (I’m also happen to be male) of ADD and mine went undiagnosed for years. Not only was it never picked up on during the childhood or school years, but it took over a year after seeking help as an adult during which time I was given medications for both depression and anxiety (neither of which did much of anything for me.) So, at least that information may be helpful for the public at large.

If you are interested in reading the MSN ADHD Affecting Women Different article, it is linked up there at the top of the article.

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10
Dec 09

ADHD Depressing State of Affairs for Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness

Over at Google, they have some new(er) features on their search engine that were rolled out this year. Some of them, like the Limit Search to Past Year feature and limiting search results to specific date range, I’ve been using since the day they came out. Others, like the different search "Views" (Related Searched, Wonder Wheel, Timeline) and the ability to add More shopping sites, or list Fewer shopping sites, have gone mostly unnoticed and unused by me.

This morning, however, I was playing around with some of these new Google search options. (Kudos, to Google, by the way, for carefully choosing the way the offer these additional features. Instead of calling them "advanced" or something like that, they are simply called "more options." That makes them much more likely to be checked out and used by non-techie search engine users.) One of the particularly interesting "More Options" that Google now has is the Wonder Wheel.

Google Wonder Wheel, Related Searches, and Suggested Searches

The Wonder Wheel is basically a visual representation of the Related Searches function, which is sort of an extension of the Suggested Searches that has been a feature on the main Google search page for some time now. As you type in your search, the search program tries to guess what it is you might be searching for based on the words you have already entered. This not only saves some potential typing, but it also generates phrases and keywords that are more likely to lead to successful search engine results instead of those far corners of the Internet where ad-filled junk pages await to ambush visitors.

For example, if you are wondering about the latest ADHD medications, you might go to Google.com intending to type in add drugs or something similar. However, as you type in the words, suggestions appear below the search box. Sometimes, this is very helpful, and sometimes not, depending upon what exactly you are searching for. In this case, it is likely to be very useful provided you were looking for something more specific than you intended to type.

google-suggested-search-function Notice that most of the suggested terms are actually for adhd and not add. This is because:

Furthermore, if you were looking for specific information, such as updates about the side effects of ADHD medications, the suggestion will get you to the data you were looking for faster, because you won’t have to sort through all of the webpages that, while about ADD drugs, are not necessarily about their potential side effects.

The Wonder Wheel takes off on this concept by not just showing you longer phrases that might be what you are looking for based upon being an exact match for what you have already typed in, plus additional words or letters, but by displaying related searches that might be more relevant to what you are looking for. Or, more importantly for doing in-depth research or analysis, related topics or searches that might have valuable information about what you are really looking for. This avoids the problem caused when you are searching based on what makes sense to you, but might not match up quite right with the information you are looking for.

Use Google Wonder Wheel to Find More Related Information

When you type a search term into Google and then select More Options –> Wonder Wheel, what you get is a graphical view of other search phrases that might be related to what you are searching for. This image is essentially a "wheel" composed of your original search as the hub, with "spokes" going out to each related search. Depending upon the initial search, there can be a lot of spokes, or just a few.

The best part is that each related spoke can also be clicked on. When you click on one of the related spoke links, the wheel moves with the related topic you clicked on becoming the center of the main wheel and the original wheel and spokes dropping into a secondary place. You can keep repeating this process to get closer and closer to the data you want.

If you start going in the wrong direction you can click on previous wheels. Although only the immediately preceding wheel and spokes are visible, previous hubs are represented by a series of disappearing circles. Each of these circles can be clicked to bring back up that wheel. So, if you know you want to go back three wheels, you can just click the 3rd circle. If you aren’t sure which one you want, hovering the mouse over a circle pops up the name of the search in the center of the hub.

It works remarkably well for numerous topics. It is especially useful for topics you don’t know much about. For example, if you want to search for a Christmas toy for a youngster and you know they want something like a robot hamster, you can search for robot hamster toy, and then use the wheels until you get to the specific Zsu Zsu Hamster thing that is Hot Toy for Christmas 2009. (No, I don’t get it either.)

However, using it to look at topics related to ADHD-ADD is depressing. Results showing "related" searches linked to some of the more unfortunate mental illnesses can lead people with little ADD experience into making some unfounded conclusions about their relationship to ADHD. Even worse, is that no matter how many links on the Wonder Wheel you click, ADHD solutions never appear. There are no links displayed that go to ADHD organization tricks or to ADHD tips for time management or even an ADD exercises. You can’t even get to the ubiquitous ADD Coaching that is so promoted within the community. Instead, you can go off and find out about bipolar disorder. Sigh.

adhd-information-reliable-search-graphic I think that this one seems pretty reasonable. Certainly these would be the most likely concerns of such searches.

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bad-adhd-information-search-results

This one is unfortunate. Looking for tips to manage ADHD? Well, instead, how about suggestions linking ADHD to bipolar disorder and OCD? Maybe, boosting the ADDer’s
self-esteem would be helpful? Hmm…I don’t think those suggestions are making me feel any better.

It isn’t anything to get bent out of shape about, and I know that the nature of Internet searching is that Google search rankings are necessarily geared toward the lowest common denominator of knowledge, but it would be nice to see such a powerful tool at least be able to point toward one or two "positive" websites about ADHD.

Maybe as awareness grows and the fad-ishness of ADD continues to fade, there will be less demand for all things alarmist and conspiracy, and more demand for the answers to ADHD’s challenges. Until then, keep coming back here, or grab the Addessories RSS Feed to have the latest updates come directly to you.

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