Posted on 07/17/2004 11:43:25 PM PDT by neverdem
One of the problems that the author didn't write about is that brain chemistry is affected by diet and environmental substances like cleaning products or mold. An extreme example is what sniffing glue does to people.
A brilliant pioneer in the field is Dr. Doris Rapp, who discovered a unique way to diagnose ADD in your child. If you suspect an allergy to milk, for example, you eliminate it from the diet for at least a week. Then you give the child a glass of milk and compare handwriting samples before and after. You can clearly see a big difference.
Check out her website:
http://www.drrapp.com/products.html
started to read it, got sidetracked...
People that are scatterbrained and disorganized but stimulants make them even more so do not have A.D.H.D.
Ping
Where's there's money (in treating a "new" disease) there's a way (to hype that "new" disease)!
Let's see 400.00 per hour, times 10 hours in a good day, times working by email so you can treat several people per hour, times 15 clients .....
You want MY F**KING ATTENTION? Wonderful little amimation there. So kind-hearted.
Summary: If people who aren't reliable blame it on a ficticious but well-known mental disorder, they have a greater chance of getting away with unreliable behavior than otherwise.
You'd be surprised how far actually caring about one's work goes in getting one to work on time, getting the work done properly, etc.
I had a job once that I just couldn't get to on time, regularly... then I switched jobs to one I felt was more purposeful, and voila, problems disappeared.
Don't you think it odd that people who think they have ADD manage to summon enough attention to subjects about which they have genuine concern?
What a relief!
I thought I was just a slob. Nice to learn that I may have a disability.
It's called too much television!
It's amazing how the world went so far without anyone managing to identify such an allegedly widespread disorder.
I don't believe in ADD any more than I believe in the tooth fairy or that human activity causes global warming.
Behavioral issues show up on neuroscans, too, and ADD is entirely behavioral, not physiological. The behavior is identical to the effect of watching too much TV - short attention span and no patience for anything that does not provide immediate gratification.
I think ADD should be mocked until people are too ashamed to pretend they have such a disorder. Social pressure is in this case truly the best medicine.
I can vouch for this, having a family member who has ADHD and has not outgrown it. It is a chemical imbalance in the brain, pure and simple. That doesn't mean that I think that every single case of it is properly diagnosed, however.
Just keep punching that clock at exactly 8:00:00 AM and 5:00:00 PM and make SURE you meet those important DIVERSITY GOALS!
It is an attempt to create a society of 99.997% sheep, by drugging the MOST vital, most creative, most independent of us.
I believe that's one of the longest posts I've read at FR. Good read, even from the NYT. Don't agree with it all, but a good read on a quiet Sunday Morning out on the porch.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot, need a victim advocacy group - how about MAADD (Mothers Against ADD)?"
They can join forces with DAM - Mothers Against Dyslexia.
I'm almost as productive now as I was before, but it takes a great deal of effort, longer hours and I still make a lot of mistakes. I've managed to cover it up at work but I plan in the next month or so to get back onto Adderal. I'm tired of coming home after 8pm every night.
The naysayers ("ADD doesn't exist!") don't annoy me as much as they used to; and I'd gladly forego a little IQ if I could consistently remember my shoes and work badge before walking out the door : )
By the way, does anyone know of any medication (besides Adderal or Ritalin) that won't leave a body so tired at the end of the day?
"It's called too much television!"
No, it isn't. Do normal children get out of bed in the middle of night and go the living room and sit on the couch cross-legged rocking forward and back for hours? And I wasn't watching TV. We only had a B&W TV when I was a child and the two available english language stations had little programming of interest to a child. That's just one little example of ADHD behaviour, one that I exhibited as a young child.
Now, whether it is really a disorder or disability or whatever is highly debatable. I personally believe it is just part of the spectrum of normal human psychology. It has its good side and its bad side. It's not a great benefit in doing software QA test engineering, like I do, but I manage. Fortuantely my innate intelligence makes up somewhat for my lack of organization and focus.
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