ADHD

[Carborendum]

I was introduced to ADHD in 6th grade.  Here's the story...

When I was a child I had a problem reading.  As young as I was, I was unable to verbalize the nature of my problem.  And the only advice I was given was "keep reading more and it will become easier for you."

That didn't work.  It only made things worse.  And again, I couldn't describe why.  By 6th grade my teacher called for a parent-teacher meeting about me.  I got high marks on everything else.  I could read any sentence.  I could write well.  I got highest marks on spelling.  But I simply couldn't read through a book.  And all I knew was that it took too long.

In that same class, a new student moved into the district.  He and I had the same first name which caught my attention.  But for the purposes of this post, I'll call him "Joe".  Because of him, I was first introduced to the term "ADHD".  And apparently, it was bad enough that he required medication.  For Joe, I'd absolutely agree.  Even with medication, he was a wild child who sometimes got words mixed up in common sentences because his brain was so chaotic that it was difficult for him to not jumble words.

My first question was "why does ADD have to include hyperactivity?"  No one had an answer that satisfied me other than "they are usually related."  I really didn't understand that.  Later, I realized it was because my ADD was not a clinical condition.  It was just the way my brain worked.

As I got more acquainted with Joe, I realized that I had ADD, but I was not hyperactive.  So, apparently, I had something else going on.

I played a lot during recess and lunch hour.  And my body got a workout.  My brain worked a lot faster than my body.  This led to insomnia.  My brain was going long after my body was tired.  So, it was difficult for me to fall asleep.

Looking back, I now understand what was really happening.  I've spoken of the cross-referencing brain I have.  That was my greatest strength and weakness.  Any time I read a word, my brain would immediately connect that same word with many other instances where I'd either read or heard that same word.  This made reading an entire paragraph a spider web of cogitation.

Scriptures were actually easier to read because the verses forced a break in my thought processes to interrupt the connections in my brain.  That's why my parents never knew I had a reading problem.  I was perfectly capable of reading scriptures.  And that was what we read together.  So, for them to hear from my teacher that I was failing in my reading was a surprise.

If medication were as common as it is today, I would have had a very different brain development.  And I would have had a very different life.  I'd probably be on welfare.

Edited Wednesday at 12:47 PM by Carborendum

[Backroads]

I believe the current terms is that it's the same issue but may be hyperactive or inattentive. I have a lot of ADHD and Tourettes in my family, and us eventually learning about this stuff was life-changing. Then came the day when my ADHD mom, while helping a friend learn about her kid's autism diagnosis, kept glancing at my dad, the guy she just assumed was an awkward nerd she happened to fall in love with. Now diagnosed, and the childhood stories about him are textbook.

I suspect I have ADHD myself, though not diagnosed. I was the model student growing up, but my brain is also an oddity. 

I think I mentioned in another thread about a student I had that couldn't even get out the door to go to recess for the recommended running around time, he was so unfocused. Could barely eat because of the wiggliness and attention. He'd be about 5th or 6th grade now and I wonder if they ever found something to help him. 

[NeuroTypical]

The "disorder" part of ADD or ADHD may be a disorder, or may just be a way of existing.  It seems like there are a bazillion of us with ADD/ADHD who are out just living our best lives the best we can, just like everyone else, but with some different coping mechanisms and learned habits and methods to make life work.  The diagnoses themselves are probably waaaay over diagnosed with our youth, especially boys.  "Sit still and pay attention" is a nice skill for a boy to develop, but it's often not the best way to learn.

[Backroads]

3 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

The "disorder" part of ADD or ADHD may be a disorder, or may just be a way of existing.  It seems like there are a bazillion of us with ADD/ADHD who are out just living our best lives the best we can, just like everyone else, but with some different coping mechanisms and learned habits and methods to make life work.  The diagnoses themselves are probably waaaay over diagnosed with our youth, especially boys.  "Sit still and pay attention" is a nice skill for a boy to develop, but it's often not the best way to learn.

It's absolutely overdiagnosed. I think to some degree we are in a time where disorders may be some variation of "cool". I definitely believe in circumstances that are so extreme they cause real issues and need to be treated, but people are also trying to categorize every little thing.

My concern is that we're so scattered on how to approach not just ADHD but attention in general that we are at a loss for that elusive best way to learn. A common sadness among teachers is that we can't really do much that is more active because kids have no traditionally-learned limits, so all the time is spent practicing limits and boundaries. "I would love for you to run around. Can you do it without destroying something or hitting someone?" That's a surprising amount of steps and skills to get to that point.

[The Folk Prophet]

Once I was discussing our ADD with my brother and he said, "Remember when we were kids and it was just called being bad?"

[Ironhold]

14 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Once I was discussing our ADD with my brother and he said, "Remember when we were kids and it was just called being bad?"

That goes back to what I've noted before about how the "gifted" label was often a cursed gift. A great many of us who were called "gifted" back in the day were in fact high-functioning autistic. Parents were encouraged to hold us "gifted" kids to often impossibly high standards, with autistic tics, autistic tells, and signs of autistic burnout all being regarded as personal failings on the part of the "gifted" kid who was, clearly, slacking off and not living up to their potential. Cue a great many "gifted" kids burning out completely in their twenties and thirties, to the point that a few years ago one could find "Gifted Kid Burnout Bingo" cards floating around online as a way for people to retroactively recognize how much damage the label had done to them.