ADD ADHD Addessories

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ADD / ADHD Not A Disorder, Not A Problem, But Not To Be Ignored Either

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Got some interesting email recently from the ADD/ADHD is not a disorder and is not something to be “fixed” crowd.

I have read many ADD/ADHD books including Thom Hartmann’s Attention Deficit Disorder : A Different Perception which as far as I know sort of started the whole, the problem is with the schools / world, not with me movement.  I have also read many other resources that subscribe to the same worldview and view of ADD, so I am not unaware of this paradigm.  If you read through the various postings here, you will notice that I am careful to not suggest that ADHD is a disease nor something that needs to be “fixed.”  Rather, I simply not the challenges that it can and does present and potential solutions to those challenges.

I have ADD myself.  I take enough Adderall (generic) each day to make a small rhino nervous, and frankly, I’d like to try a bit more, but no doctor I’ve encountered is willing to go higher, so I may have topped out.  I do not believe that there is anything wrong with me.  And, from this perspective, I am very supportive of the train of thought that suggests that people with ADD/ADHD are not defective.  However, this is where my concurrence ends.

Welcome to Real Life

It may be that the schools are properly designed.  It may be that our society and its workplaces may not be properly constructed.  If you believe that, then by all means work for the changes you want to see in the world.  I applaud such efforts.  But, never forget, that in the meantime, you are living your life in the reality of today, and so are your children.

Harman contents that it is offensive to suggest that people, like his son, with ADD/ADHD be treated with medication, or try and find ways to handle the high frequency that their minds run on.  Instead, he says that schools should change and that people with ADD should choose better careers that their minds are better suited for.

Frankly, I find that offensive.  Replace the phrase, “people with ADD” with “women” or “Jews” or “Hispanics” and you’ll see just how offensive it is.  I content that this is the “wrong” approach to ADD/ADHD and the one that is limiting to its adherents.  Instead, I say that anyone, whether they have ADD or not, can do anything they want to if they are willing to do what it takes.  So, if you have ADD and want to do a “non-ADD” suited job, then figure out what, if anything, you need to accomplish your goal, and go do it.  Don’t let your brain hold you back.

Whether you have ADD or not, you can do anything you choose in this life if you have the right tools.

As I read Hartman’s book, I couldn’t help but thing it came off as a little naive.

For example, the suggestion that a person with ADD should choose different careers better suited to their “hunter” mentality like being a policeman was particularly uninformed.  Ask any cop how much time he spends running through the streets chasing down criminals versus how much time he spends doing paperwork and you’ll find that this may not be the fast paced stimulating job it looks like on TV.  In fact, virtually every job that Harman cites as good for ADDers comes with a very large non-hunter element.  There just are no pure hunters anymore.  (Even soldiers spend hours doing non-stimulating tasks every single day.)

Like Being Left-Handed – Different But Not Wrong

I find the best analogy for looking at ADHD and ADD is being left-handed.  There is nothing wrong with being left-handed.  It is not a defect.  It is not a flaw.  It is not a  problem.  But, you don’t just pretend that you are not left handed.  You find and use the tools and accessories that work better for lefties.  You don’t sit back and complain that the world has to be more left hand friendly.

Consider a child in school, we’ll call him Lucas.

Let’s say that Lucas is left-handed.  Let’s say that his handwriting is not up to par.  Let’s say that Lucas’ parents realize that the metal spirals on the left side of the standard notebook is to blame?  Should they insist that the notebook industry change? Perhaps.  Should they let Lucas fail subjects, lose self esteem, and be considered poor student while they wait for the notebook industry to change?  NO!

There are numerous tools that Lucas can use that will help alleviate the various issues that he faces from being left-handed.  Using these tools does not make Lucas untrue to who he is, rather they enable him to BE who he truly is, a smart, confident, student, who can write just fine when there isn’t a piece of metal in his way.  All it takes is a notebook with the spiral on the top instead of on the side.

What if Lucas has ADD instead?

Everyone, ADD or not, can benefit from learning, knowledge, and having the right tools.

The same things apply.  Lucas is not defective; there is nothing wrong with him.  But, to sit back and ignore the fact that he might need something that other students don’t need it stupid and cruel, and will do nothing but injure Lucas.

If a timer or special notebook or watch or whatever will help Lucas, then for the love of all that is good, get it for him and let him thrive.  Don’t sulk about what other people think, or about how our society is constructed.  Instead, give him the tools he needs to succeed at whatever he wants to do, and if at the same time, you or he wish to work for a better world, do it.  Just don’t throw away the opportunities he has today in the current world.

I won’t discuss medication here.  That is a very personal issue. 

I will say that many of us with ADD don’t give a flying leap about whether or not society is not optimally setup for us.  We like it here just fine.  All we want is a fair shake to do what we know we can do.

The above criticisms aside, Harman’s book does offer some food for thought, especially if you or your child has been recently diagnosed with ADD-ADHD.  And, I always feel that people should make their own decisions. You can use the link below to get the book from Amazon, or it is in most book stores under “Psychology”.  Also, many library systems carry the book as well, since it was fairly popular during its time.

 

 

ADDessories = Empowerment Through Tools and Knowledge

The goal of ADDessories is not to change the world, nor the place of those with ADD in it, nor does it seek to change those with ADD/ADHD into different people.  Everyone, ADD or not, can benefit from learning and knowledge and tools.

The goal is to empower people with those tools and knowledge that allows them to achieve what they want with a little bit less friction and resistance.  If we are successful, they might even help you change the world.

ADD ADHD and the Failure of the Important Pile

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Important PapersPeople with ADD/ADHD are no different than other people when it comes to paperwork. A never ending flow of documents arrives into our lives via mail, email, printers, copiers, and of course, paperwork that is simply handed to us. In this blizzard of documents is everything from receipts, to bills, to warranties, to contracts, to instructions, and the list goes on and on and on.

To deal with this avalanche of important papers, many people, including many ADDers create an “important” pile in which they place those pieces of paper that flow into their lives that are meaningful for one reason or another. For some people, this results in some form of organization because at least when they remember the important reason they needed that paperwork, they know right where it will be.

Unfortunately, the same method of organization spells nothing but trouble for many people with ADD. The key element to making the important pile work is remembering what is in it, and then doing something about it. For plenty of men and women with ADHD, the important pile becomes too much like Las Vegas. What’s in the important pile stays in the important pile.

Organization Tip For People With ADD-ADHD

The first step in better organization is understanding where the faults lie in organizing efforts you have made before.

When it comes to the important file, the flaw for many with ADD/ADHD is that the pile encompasses too many things.  Receipts are important, so are instruction manuals, children’s immunization records, and bills.  But, some of the things in the important pile are important simply because they should not be lost, while other things are important because something needs to be done with them.  Mixing the two together spells trouble for those with ADD trying to get organized.

People with ADD are likely to remember again and again that their credit card bill is sitting in the important pile.  Unfortunately, most of those times, they will not be in a place where they can do anything about it.  Remembering in a restaurant or at a movie theater doesn’t help.  Even when they do remember when they are standing right by it, they might be in the middle of doing something else, and just plan on doing it in “just a minute.”  Next thing you know, something else is running around the brain, and the credit card bill has been forgotten again.

A technique that can help is to create two important pile.  One important pile is for paperwork that has to be kept, either of a specific reason, or “just in case.”  The other important pile is for papers that something has to happen with.  This includes things like bills, offers, things that require a response, and so on.

Once you’ve created two important piles, it becomes less critical to remember specific elements of the pile.  You don’t have to remember your credit card bill is due, all you have to remember is that you have a important to-do pile.

Why It Works for ADD/ADHD People

People with ADD-ADHD are perfectly capable of paying bills, filling out forms, and returning messages and emails. It’s just that other things keep coming up.  Those things lead to a response to do it later that gets forgotten about.

However, everyone, whether they have ADD or not, has those times when paying bills or doing paperwork doesn’t sound too bad.  In fact, there may be some times when you actually want to do those activities.  But, if you walk over to a huge pile of everything important, you might change your mind.  Or, worse, you might get half way through, pat yourself on the back for how much paperwork you just took care of, and then not notice that the really important thing  that is due in a day or two is two more pieces of paper down.  By the time you get back to the stack, it is too late.

Even more treacherous, is going through old paperwork that needs to be filed, has a tendency to create is own distractions.  “Oh yeah, I keep meaning to alphabetize these things.”  “I can’t do this until I get a new paper shredder.  Maybe I should do some research online really quickly.”

But, if you have an important to do something with pile, the dynamic changes.  First, the pile will be smaller.  Second, such a pile is less likely to distract someone.  A Visa bill offers little compelling entertainment.  Third, if you do get distracted, at least everything you have done up to that point is something that needed to be done right away, instead of having spent 60% of your time filing.

Try making yourself two important piles and dividing them out.  You might just find that you are less prone to miss important deadlines and due dates with things like mail and forms and bills.

ADD/ADHD, , , ADD Organization, , ADD Tips

What It Is Like to Have ADD/ADHD – Adventure 2

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coke-can In our continuing series on what it’s like to have ADD comes this little gem, not second hand, not from reading, or talking to people with ADD but from me, this afternoon. E

For the last 2 hours I’ve been dying of thirst.  I keep saying, “Ok, get up and get some water,” but with each mouse click and keyboard stroke there appears one more thing.  Just one more little thing, and then I’ll go.

Of course, my most pressing project has been behind all of the other Windows on my computer screen since I booted up this morning.  I’ve gotten plenty of interesting (read new, and not due today) projects done since lunch time.  I’ve re-ordered the Netflix queue, ordered decorations for the baby’s room, bought a new pre-paid plan on Shutterfly, and emailed a dozen people about maybe refinancing our mortgage or second mortgage just to see if we can save some money.

Oh, and I’ve updated Facebook about 20 times.

Back to the drink.

So, I finally stood up, mostly because the urge to drink something had been joined by an overwhelming urge to also visit the bathroom.  I have no idea how long my leg has been bouncing autonomously like that.

And what should my eyes notice, just 12 inches away from my main desk surface sitting atop the “L” on the way to the door (next to my day planner by the way)?  An unopened Coke that I had retrieved the last time I was thirsty (and the phone rang).

ADD/ADHD – It’s not just distraction, it’s not noticing.  (That’s my new slogan.  I’m working on the jingle…instead of going to the restroom….)

***************  Not bad. Just 4 minutes to find clip-art instead of my ADHD distracted by clip art!

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Technorati Tags: ,,ADD/ADHD,,Distractability,ADD Traits

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Non-Prescription ADD Treatment Options – St. John's Wart

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My recent post on avoiding medical scams in the name of non-prescription ADD / ADHD treatment options, drew a heavy response, including a lot of people who were interested in what the non-prescription vitamin and supplement choices were that I referenced.

There are literally hundreds of vitamins or supplements that various people purport to have a positive affect on ADD behavior.  However, none of these treatments have received the kind of scientific study required to actually say that they do or do not work.  That isn’t surprising since there is no money in finding out that Vitamin X treats ADD symptoms better than Ritalin in children, getting funding for such research can be difficult.

(Incidentally, if you are a non-profit organization or scientific researcher or group that does ADD/ADHD research, and you would like some grant writing help, please feel free to contact me.  I’m a professional writer and I would love to help out by doing SOME pro bono work if it would bring some funding to your research. — Note: I’ve had one bad experience with a group in the past who thought that my offer to help gave them a free full-time grant writer.  I am willing to help, but I also have a family and a business to run, so please contact me with the right expectations in mind.  I will work hard to help get grants to fund this important research, but I can only do so with the flexibility my schedule allows.)

Some treatments only seem to have ADD benefits in children, while others only seem to work in adults.  And, most concerning of all, is the lack of data on side affects or other drug interactions.  So, make sure you do your own research and investigate all of the details.

I have done my best to list sources when I can remember them or re-find them.

St. John’s Wort For ADD / ADHD

St. John’s Wort is actually most commonly indicated for the treatment of low-grade depression. As such, it seems to help with certain ADD symptoms in some individuals, most likely because it treats some of the depression-like symptoms that occasionally manifest with certain types of ADHD. That being said, it does have a widespread following of ADDers who insist that it provides some relief for their symptoms.

St. John’s Wort has been shown to inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.  This allows these neurotransmitters to build up to greater levels in the brain.  Depression is thought to be caused by low levels of these chemicals and that is why St. John’s Wort is effective in helping treat certain kinds of depression, according to research.

Theoretically, the same kind of mechanism may have something to do with ADD.  However, the research on that is still out.

What is known is that a large number of people with ADD/ADHD also show certain symptoms of depression.  Whether there is a correlation at a physical, biological, level, or if this there is just a correlation due to the lifelong burdens carried by some ADDers isn’t known.  However, if children, teens, and adults with ADHD do have some sort of depression in association with their ADD, then St. John’s Wort would help with the depression, which would provide an improved mental state overall, which could be misinterpreted as helping the ADD part of the issue.

Indeed, recent research from the National Institute of Health showed no improvement in ADD symptoms over a placebo in children and adolescents.

However, this was a very small study over a very small period of time.  Ironically, this is exactly the kind of research that gets dismissed by the medical establishment as non-conclusive when the study makes conclusions the other way around.  That is, if this study had found vast improvement, you could be sure that the researchers would conclude by saying that this was only a small sample and that further research was needed.  The fact that they don’t say that here, is disturbing to those of us who want to think that medical research gets a level playing field regardless of the outcome and whose profits might be hurt.

The study in question was 54 children aged 6 to 17 who were otherwise healthy and taking no other medications.  In standard scientific methodology half were giving St. Johns Wort and the other half were giving a placebo.  The two groups were generated randomly from the participants.  Then monitored for changes to inattentiveness and hyperactivity at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks.

In other words, 27 children were tested to see how they responded to St. Johns Wort. The good news is that the study lasted 8 weeks, because the research on St. Johns Wort suggests that it takes several weeks to become effective.  But, the bad news is that at weeks 1 and 2, and maybe even week 4, there should not be any expected benefit.

The other bad news is that this study used the older weaker form of St. Johns Wort commonly sold in grocery stores and health food stores.  The newer form, called High Hyperforin contains 3% – 5% of hyperforin, versus the 0.14% used in the study.  However, since that form is relatively new and people have been claiming benefits since before it became available, this is still good research.

The really weird part of the study is that symptom improvement was noted to IMPROVE in BOTH groups!  While that lets the scientists conclude that there is no benefit of the supplement over the placebo, it raises an interesting question for those of us who actually care about those with ADD, namely, why did the symptoms improve for everyone?

Was it just that actually having some attention paid to their condition provided some help?  Was it that a new an interesting environment (where the observation took place) was enough to stimulate the minds of these children to help with symptoms?

Is The Criteria Too High?

Another interesting factor is that the researchers actively expected this outcome. They anticipated a 5-point reduction on the ADHD RS-IV total score in the placebo group!

Further, it was determined that in order to count as a “meaningful” improvement, the St. John’s Wort group would require a 13-point improvement on the same scale.

The ADHD RS-IV scale has 18 items. Each item is ranked from 0 to 3 with 0 being never or seldom, 1 being sometimes, 2 being often, and 3 being very often. In other words, the lowest possible score is 0 and the highest possible score is 54. So, for a meaningful result to be obtained, subjects needed to show a minimum of a 24% improvement! Considering that most people with ADD/ADHD aren’t necessarily looking for a result that would give a zero, and would be very happy to move down to a one on their major symptoms, this seems to be a very large requirement.

Obviously, more study is needed and there are interesting facts that should be looked at.

Should You Try St. Johns Wort for Your ADD?

Obviously, everyone has to make their own health decisions, and I am not a doctor, nor do I have any other certification or qualification, so take this a general knowledge only.

St. John’s Wort has been subjected to extensive study around the world, mostly in Europe.  During those studies no major immediate side effects have been reported. Indicating that St. John’s Wort can’t hurt, even if it doesn’t help.  This makes it a perfect treatment to try out and see if it can help you, even if it doesn’t meet the scientific criteria set out for clinical trials.

There is one area that is a concern and that is that St. John’s Wort does interact extensively with a wide array of medications.  In other words, St. John’s Worth is NOT the treatment for you to try if you currently take any prescription medication!

Talk to your doctor first to fully understand what affect St. John’s Wort might have on your medications BEFORE you try anything out.

Also, St. Jons Wort can be very stimulating to the brain.  That means that it can make it difficult for some people to sleep.  If you are taking St. Johns Wort, do it first thing in the morning. If you develop trouble sleeping, or it feels like your brain is “buzzing” then, cut back the dose or stop altogether.  You’ll be way better off with your usual ADD symptoms than you will be with long-term sleep deprivation.

Otherwise, if you are going to try alternative therapies, you could do a lot worse than St. John’s Wort.  Be careful, and listen to your body.  If it doesn’t feel right or you seem to have problems flare up, stop.

Also, remember that St. Johns Wort is not an instant-on treatment.  Depression patients report that it takes WEEKS for the herbal supplement to provide any noticeable improvement.  This is because inhibiting the re-uptake of neurotransmitters doesn’t mean you get the full smash right away, so if you are going to try it, don’t just take it for a week and decide it doesn’t work.

Pay attention to what you are buying.  Shifty supplement manufacturers and retailers want to capture your dollars no matter what, and they know that some people won’t pay certain prices.  That means that the lower concentration St. Johns will sell right next to the higher concentration supplements and no one will make that clear on the front facing label.  Turn the bottle around and make sure that you are getting the right amount that you have decided to start taking.  You’ll need a lot more of the 0.14% kind than you will of the 3% or 5% kind (and vice versa).

Good luck, and let me know how it goes for you by posting a comment or shooting me an email.

, , ADD/ADHD, Non-Prescription Treatment, ADD Mediction,

P.S.  If you noticed a couple of mispellings of key words like “Wort”, that is to allow those who search for information with mispelled words can still find this page.  That is also why I actively alternate between ADD, ADHD, and ADD/ADHD.

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