Coping with the effects of ADHD

Coping with the effects of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder inattentive type) is often challenging, but this is partly due to the misconception that ADHD must be a disorder. Understanding your personal ADD or ADHD is your key to a natural ADHD cure.

ADHD is a complicated subject. Very complicated. Despite what we read in the newspapers and on most websites dealing with ADHD, there are many ADHD theories. The verdict is still out there and you can be the jury on your own personal ADHD signs. The neurodiversity and the social construct theory and the hunter farmer theory explain ADHD as normal variations within humanity’s diversity.

 Mainstream ADHD research is looking for one cause of ADHD and a miracle ADHD cure. This is like trying to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. A few centuries ago the scientists of the day were trying to turn lead into gold. Today’s gold is profits for pharmaceutical companies. The cure for your personal attention deficit and/or hyperactivity is in your hands.

In our Western society we have become accustomed to trusting science religiously. Science results do not lie, but where opinions differ, as they do in ADHD research, it is usually due to four reasons:

• What aspects of the subject are chosen to study.
• What results to choose.
• How the results are interpreted.
• The human factor; how honest are the scientists, in striving for the truth, or striving to gain status in their careers.

Is ADHD a disorder? Yes and no. It can even be the sign of a gifted child.
Is ADD ADHD a neurological genetic disorder? Yes and no. There are neurological genetic disorders that result in ADHD signs, but this is not the true or pure ADHD. Blond hair and brown eyes are also genetic, and talents for painting or writing are genetic neurological talents. The ADHD gifted child is neurologically and genetically different, but not disordered.

It all depends on which facts you choose you include, and which facts you choose to ignore.

ADHD signs are described in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition) ADHD diagnosis. These are subjective interpretations of some behavior patterns and not anything objective. They are disconnected from the attention deficit causes.

Among the causes for attention deficit hyperactivity are these eight possibilities:

• Physiological causes
• Medical causes
• Psychological causes
• Personality disorders
• Developmental causes
• Genetic
• Personality types
• An Attention Dysregulation Personality or an ADD/ADHD personality

An understanding doctor who is aware of these other possible causes of ADHD symptoms is invaluable to tracing the reason for the attention deficit and/or hyperactive behavior.

An Attention Dysregulation Personality is a person who cannot by choice or willpower choose to be inattentive, normally attentive or hyperfocussed or super attentive. These people are unable to cope with boring tasks and respond to boredom by being easily distracted and attention deficit. When forced to do a boring task any distraction is a stimulant, which explains the distractibility.

There are many types of responses depending on personality types. For a child with ADD or ADHD the classroom can be boring. In the inattentive type, the child tunes out and daydreams, probably being very attentive, but not on what the teacher is talking about. In the the hyperactive type the child gets restless, fidgety and disturbs the class. These people have true ADD and ADHD. The attention deficit personality and attention deficit hyperactive personality are hereditary, and are personality types who do not easily fit into our modern regulated western society.

Sorry that I don’t have a miracle cure, but your path to coping or curing attention deficit is in your hands, by understanding your particular combination of symptoms, your personal talents and strengths. Schools tend to teach us to focus on our weaknesses, but with ADHD we need to assess and work on our strengths while developing strategies to deal with our weaknesses.