ADDing Up

I will bet you satisfy at least one of these conditions :

1. You have ADD (and you know you have it).
2. You have ADD, but do not know it yet (I did not know until I was past 40).
3. You do not have ADD, but someone near you does (a difficult child, an inattentive spouse, or an unmotivated employee).

[If you are a female, your chance of having ADD is about the same as a male. But, between #1 and #2 above, your chance of being in #2 is 5 times higher.]

If you are struggling with ADD yourself, this site will give you a fundamentally new perspective of your “problem” by stripping away many of our perceived biases (which can be blamed on the name “Attention Deficit Disorder” itself). You will learn that what everybody, yourself included, believed to be a serious medical condition is but a personality trait that makes you different from others. And the “cure” could be as simple as making the right career choice that better suits your unique abilities.

If you are not among this suffering multitude (one conservative estimate puts the number at 17 million in USA alone), you have a moral and social obligation to help others, probably someone in your family, friends or workplace. What you will learn here can help you better understand their struggles, which may be affecting your own life: perhaps your child is too slow with homework, relationship with your ADD-afflicted partner is suffering, or you are having problem with a “troublesome” employee.

In other words, directly or indirectly, everyone is affected by this scourge to some degree. Think of the huge burden ADD has inflicted on our society:

• 35% of kids with ADD do not finish high school (25% repeat at least one grade).
• 52% of untreated teens and adults abuse drugs or alcohol (19% smoke cigarettes, almost twice the normal fraction).
• 43% of untreated hyperactive boys are arrested for a felony by age 16.
• 50% of prison inmates in several studies have been found to have ADD (75% in one study).
• 75% have interpersonal problems (car accidents, driving without license, speeding tickets, and so on).
• Parents of ADD kids divorce 3 times more often than normal.

[Unfortunately, this list ignores the much larger number of adults with a struggling career or relationship because of ADD.]

I am going to argue that most, if not all, of these problems are a result of looking at ADD in a completely wrong way. In our fast-paced and pill-popping  culture today, where anything that does not “fit the mold” is either suppressed with medication or ignored as an aberration, ADD is big enough and serious enough to deserve a fundamentally different approach. That is what I am going to do here.

It then begs the question :

Why should you listen to me ?

I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, or a doctor of any kind (well, I am a doctor of science, but that does not help with “treating ADD”). You will not get any medical advice or suggestion here. So, indeed, why should you listen to me ?

Here is why :

• I have had ADD since I was born, and seen it up close and personal every day for over 4 decades (and counting). I know not only what ADD can take away from a life and career, but also what it can give back in terms of a unique set of abilities.
• A lifetime spent in science has taught me when not to trust a “consensus opinion” about complex issues such as ADD, and also given me a keen eye to see through any prejudice that inevitably arises from a wrong (and popular) opinion.
• ADD, like any psychological condition that does not have a visible symptom, is where the patient knows more about her/his conditions than the doctor (which is why patients speak and doctors listen).

You cannot find a book on ADD that does not present a number of different cases (using false names for real patients) to make the author’s point. This patient-knows-best perception is particularly true for adults with ADD, because they are more mature, and have been living with it a long time (40+ years in my case).

This brings us to the final question :

Why only talk about adult ADD ?

Considering the extent of this problem among young kids (take another look at this list), and the fact that people are usually born with ADD (and rarely get it later in life), this is a good question.

My interest in adult ADD is mainly because I came to know of my own condition in midlife, which makes me comfortable talking about adult conditions. As soon as my doctor told me I have ADD, I began to look back and saw how all my failures, and successes, line up neatly into the checkerboard of who I am, and not what I have. This is an exciting experience that I want to share with you here.

Also, adults with ADD face some unique challenges that kids do not. Along with the huge relief that now you know why you are struggling with your job, may also come the regret that you cannot turn back the clock and start with a “softer” career path more suited to your “limitations”. One point that I will particularly stress here is that one is never late in starting something new, and that you are likely to find untapped capabilities within yourself because of ADD.

Another problem unique to adult ADD is that,  because it is neither a physical ailment nor a serious enough mental problem like depression (which, if left untreated, may lead to suicidal tendencies), health insurance companies (in USA at least) are generally iffy about paying for your treatments. So, if you have a health insurance, check with them before visiting a specialist. (Kids with ADD are covered under most family insurance plans, presumably because if checked early, they will avoid much stress and health issues later, thereby sparing the insurance companies substantial financial burden.)

A final note.  Once I know enough about ADD in general, I plan to start a separate discussion on ADD in children. This is an important and personal issue for me. As the father of a 5-year old absolute darling of a daughter, I am quite conscious of the possibility of her inheriting ADD from me (as I did from my parents). As she grows up in front of my eyes, I would like to make sure she chooses her career goal naturally, based on her interests and abilities, irrespective of whether she gets my ADD or not.