Statement: My intent in this newsletter is to express as quickly as possible my own beliefs and opinions on matters. I have no problems with people who disagree with my opinion and have even been swayed to rethink my position from time to time.
We are still taking book orders for my new book "ADHD and The Criminal Justice System" and you can get my author's discount from the AMAZON.COM price...
Patrick Hurley was recently appointed to the Professional Advisory Board of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association. For more information you can go to www.add.org
Patrick also spoke on October 15, 2007 at the National Conference on Correctional Health Care
in Nashville, TN on his book. The Conference is sponsored by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), which has an impressive membership.
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I have always enjoyed relating symptoms and limitations associated with ADHD to real life examples. I will write about my favorites in this newsletter. Some of them I made up (at least I think I did "you know us ADHD types"), and others I have read elsewhere, or gotten from others. And some which I hope to identify I got from what I THINK are the original authors. If I missed someone and you know the source, send me the book or article with date of publication if you can, so I can record it. I apologize to anyone whom I may have slighted. Some of these are used in our upcoming book "ADHD and the Criminal Justice System - Spinning out of Control".
Toy Top - ADHD peoples' brains work like a child's top. Most of us have a brain that are spinning too slowly and have a wobble. Some have bigger wobbles than others. Like the top, we can wander around life (like the top wanders around the table top). When given stimulant medication, the oxygenated blood supply to the frontal lobe of our brain increases and, like a top that has been sped up, our brains come into balance and spin efficiently and we calm down. It is a great analogy to show people why the seeming paradox of giving a hyperactive person a stimulant drug actually calms them down.
House on Fire - In order to find out about our ADHD we need to know the cause. This is done by educating ourselves. ADHD people are like a house on fire. We must put the fire out first before we can find the cause or help them. By taking medication it allows us
to put out the fire, clear some smoke out of the way, and allow the investigation into how best to move forward to begin.
Car/Automobiles - ADHD people can have a NASCAR like car with high intelligence and all the extras, but if we have a problem with our brakes (ability to control impulses quickly) we can be like a high speed car out of control. We can have other problems such as faulty transmission, steering problems, or coolant loss. Whatever the problem is it can lead us to have problems in our lives.
Jigsaw Puzzle - Life for everyone is like putting a jigsaw puzzle of our lives together. "Normal" people, whatever that might mean, seem to be able to find the pieces and make great progress on their puzzles. ADHD people often struggle with our jigsaw puzzles. We try and force pieces into places where they don't belong. We get stuck trying to find
a key piece and stall out or hit a wall. It seems like we may have gotten our puzzle from Goodwill or the Salvation Army second hand store, and there are pieces missing. Sometimes the diagnosis of ADHD is enough to get us moving forward. In my own situation, I think I was stuck at about 60% done with mine. I got diagnosed and was able, after several years, to get to about 90% done. I doubt I will make much more progress but that 30% increase was significant in my life.
Orchestra - I believe this is from Dr. Thomas Brown. ADHD is like a full orchestra with great musicians. The Conductor of the orchestra, however, lacks proper timing and abilities to instruct the musicians correctly. So this faulty Conductor, which is the key to the orchestra, is unable to obtain the quality of music (quality of life) that the musicians individually are capable of producing. In order to make improvement, the Conductor must improve. Medication sometimes allows the Conductors in our brain to improve and the results are an improved quality of life.
Tuning in the Radio - ADHD brains are like having a radio that is not properly tuned in. We get static and run over from other stations. This causes distractions and inability to focus. Medication sometimes allows us to tune in the station clearly, eliminate the static, and focus on the quality of the listening and learning experience.
Tornados (or for our unfortunate friends in Florida, hurricanes) - Tornados and Hurricanes have categories ranging from 1 (mild) to 5 (disastrous) to describe their intensity. I think ADHD has these same intensity. I know people with mild ADHD, which I might classify as level 1. They have some complications that I am not minimizing, but which are manageable. As we move up, we find more and more complications. I guess I consider myself to be a level 2 having met so many people with ADHD. If you are, or know a level 5 ADHD person, they can be scary. Some of them seem to lay waste to everything and everyone in their paths. At the same time, some of those level 5 people have obvious intelligence, gifts and likeable qualities, and your heart just has to go out to them that they can improve and have a better life.
Hunter versus Farmer - Thom Hartmann has a book out on this called “Attention Deficit Disorder : A Different Perception". I enjoy his positive approach to ADHD. The basic premise hear if I understand it correctly is that man in his earlier years almost all lived in Hunter oriented communities. They followed the herds or animals in a nomadic way and lived day to day. In doing their hunting they had to have all their senses fine-tuned and take in all outside stimuli. If pursuing game and it ran into a thicket of bushes and a rabbit bolted out they had to be able to instantly react to go after the rabbit if they hoped to eat and provide for their family. At the same time it was dangerous for them in the wild and they had to be able to hear the twig break or other noise that may alert them to the oncoming Lion about to pounce for their chance for dinner. They basically had to be aware of everything around them at all times. Too much focus on one thing could mean death.
As society progressed we started moving into towns and farming communities. These were oriented more toward patience and focusing on particular areas. A farmer has to plan and plant his crops in the spring and then till and weed the crops and hope for good weather in order to wait for fall to harvest their crops. Some people struggled with the confines of this type of life and their wanderlust kept them moving about and trying to find their place in life. As City and Farming became more the norm these people who continued to have Hunter like attributes and wanderlust began to be seen by their family and friends as irresponsible and "different". If you think about who probably came to the United States it was probably largely dominated by these Hunters who had trouble sitting still and lacked the patience to fit in where they were. They were willing to take risk and
leave everything behind and get on a boat and cross the ocean to the new world. Since these Hunter traits seemed to be passed on genetically they got to Boston and New York and met up with other like-minded people of the opposite sex and had children and likely passed the traits on to them. The premise of the book states that some of the struggles they went through, their impulsivity, often quick tempered, creative, adventurous, entrepreneurial, pioneering abilities resulted in the expansion West and the wonderful inventions and business successes that made the United States what it is today. Some of them as a side issue also suffered from attempts to self medicate such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, gambling and other risk taking activities.
Some (not necessarily Thom Hartmann) have suggested that if you think of two minority groups in the United States today who have a disproportional share of difficulties with alcohol and drugs and legal problems are Native Americans and African Americans who are only several generations removed from Hunter Societies.
Computer Screen Savers - Recent developments in ADHD research seem to point to ADHD related problems regarding maintaining attention as being related to the brain shutting down or sort of going on strike in certain circumstances. What was always seen as a lack of willpower or laziness in staying on task is now seen as the brain struggling to remain active in times where the task or assignment lacks stimulation or is boring. As hard as the person tries the brain doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Its like reading a book for school where you read 30 pages only to realize that you have no idea what the
last 10 pages were about so you go back to reread. The best example to explain this is what happens to a computer screen if there is a pause in use or attention to the computer. The screen saver comes on and nothing really happens until you click the mouse back on. ADHD people can have their screen savers come on at the most inopportune times and without even realizing it.
The last thing I want to address this month is medicine. Many people oppose the use of medication especially when it comes to our children. One of the problems is that unlike a
broken bone that can be seen on an X-Ray ADHD is subject to the diagnosis of an experienced professional Psychologist or Psychiatrist. This does not make the diagnosis any less valid than the broken bone.
If we or our child is diagnosed with diabetes and needs to be put on insulin few parents would hesitate to do so. If they have a heart defect that could benefit from a drug they would not hesitate. If they have eyesight problems we would get them tested and buy them glasses. It seems like if we go above the neck to the most complicated organ in the human body the brain then things get controversial. Unless someone is obviously Mentally Retarded it seems that any other brain disorders most of which are diagnosed through experience and knowledge of the diagnostician are seen as skeptical. It is my belief that failure to properly treat ADHD and other brain related disorders can have more and possibly worse ramifications in quality of life issues than some other health related diagnosis.
Thanks and talk to you next month.
Patrick Hurley
addcorridorcoach@aol.com
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