ADHD:Gift or a Curse?Or the next stage in Human Evolution??

I've been thinking about this lately because I have it, and it just seems that in many ways it has been a blessing for me with more Pros then Cons. I think the traditional way of thinking(Non-ADHD and ADDer's) seems to be out dated - No offense

Us with ADD or ADHD think a lot faster and multi task more seem to be seasoned for what the future. i.e Faster everything, extremely opened mind, a lot of energy, and our minds function like a super fast computer ready to download new data, and solve new problems.

I don't think I have a problem with paying attention or comprehending-Its just I take in what ever I want to know and move on to the next thing, what ever interest me and leave the rest. Having ADHD is has its "bads" too but the only thing I think thats bad about it is that some things are harder to control for the normal person to understand you.

Some Doctors say ADHD & ADD is a myth because their is no clinical evidence to show from a Cat Scan, or any other testing that their is something wrong with the alleged ADD'er. Their has been a dramatic increase in the early to mid 1900's with record growth in ADD & ADHD diagnoses.

My son who is 3 years old, I believe also may have ADHD. He's very hyper active and show characteristics of the "classic" ADHD symptoms BUT he is extremely smart-I think gifted, he's way beyond his age mentally. I know for a fact because I have other children in my family and friends with kids that are the same age as him, an hes more advance then their are. I would say his mentality is that of a 5 or 6 year old.

These are the characteristics of Gifted and ADHD children

Research indicates that in many cases, a child is diagnosed with ADHD when in fact the child is gifted and reacting to an inappropriate curriculum (Webb & Latimer, 1993). The key to distinguishing between the two is the pervasiveness of the "acting out" behaviors. If the acting out is specific to certain situations, the child's behavior is more likely related to giftedness; whereas, if the behavior is consistent across all situations, the child's behavior is more likely related to ADHD. It is also possible for a child to be BOTH gifted and ADHD. The following lists highlight the similarities between giftedness and ADHD.

Characteristics of Gifted Students Who Are Bored

* Poor attention and daydreaming when bored
* Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant
* Begin many projects, see few to completion
* Development of judgment lags behind intellectual growth
* Intensity may lead to power struggles with authorities
* High activity level; may need less sleep
* Difficulty restraining desire to talk; may be disruptive
* Question rules, customs, and traditions
* Lose work, forget homework, are disorganized
* May appear careless
* Highly sensitive to criticism
* Do not exhibit problem behaviors in all situations
* More consistent levels of performance at a fairly consistent pace
(Cline, 1999; Webb & Latimer, 1993)


Characteristics of Students with ADHD

* Poorly sustained attention
* Diminished persistence on tasks not having immediate consequences
* Often shift from one uncompleted activity to another
* Impulsivity, poor delay of gratification
* Impaired adherence to commands to regulate or inhibit behavior in social contexts
* More active, restless than other children
* Often talk excessively
* Often interrupt or intrude on others (e.g., butt into games)
* Difficulty adhering to rules and regulations
* Often lose things necessary for tasks or activities at home or school
* May appear inattentive to details
* Highly sensitive to criticism
* Problem behaviors exist in all settings, but in some are more severe
* Variability in task performance and time used to accomplish tasks.
(Barkley, 1990; Cline, 1999; Webb & Latimer, 1993)

THEIRS MORE DOWN HERE.........

Questions to Ask in Differentiating between Giftedness and ADHD

* Could the behaviors be responses to inappropriate placement, insufficient challenge, or lack of intellectual peers?
* Is the child able to concentrate when interested in the activity?
* Have any curricular modifications been made in an attempt to change inappropriate behaviors?
* Has the child been interviewed? What are his/her feelings about the behaviors?
* Does the child feel out of control? Do the parents perceive the child as being out of control?
* Do the behaviors occur at certain times of the day, during certain activities, with certain teachers or in certain environments?


Gifted students with disabilities must be provided with appropriate challenges. The personal and societal costs of not developing their potential cannot be overstated.

Weird huh?

I've been researching PEOPLE IN HISTORY with ADHD and a lot of History's Greats or people so-called "ahead of their time" are on the list they are:

Albert Einstein
Ansel Adams
Ann Bancroft
Beethoven
Alexander Graham Bell
James Boswell
Sir Richard Francis Burton
President George Bush (both)
Admiral Richard Byrd
Lord Byron
Thomas Carlyle
Andrew Carnegie
Jim Carrey
Gen. H. Norman Charles
Thomas Chatterton
Samuel Clemens
Samuel T. Coleridge
Christopher Columbus
Tom Cruise
Leonardo da Vinci
Salvador Dali
Emily Dickinson
Patty Duke
Thomas Edison
Albert Einstein
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ernest & Marel
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Edward Fitzgerald
Malcomb Forbes
Henry Ford
Rick Fox
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Frost
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Tom Gainsborough
Galileo
Bill Gates
Susan Hampshire
Handel
Mariette Hartley
Stephen Hawking
Wm Randolph Hearst
Ernest Hemingway
Bill Hewlett
Alfred Hitchcock
Dustin Hoffman

.More Famous people with ADHD...

Thomas Jefferson
Bruce Jenner
"Magic" Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Michael Jordan
Carl Jung, M.D.
King Karl XI of Sweden
John F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy
Jason Kidd
Evel Knievel
Bill Lear
John Lennon
Lewis and Clark
Carl Lewis
Abraham Lincoln
Luci Baines Johnson Nugent
Louis Pasteur
Gen. George Patton
H. Ross Perot



Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf
George C. Scott
George Bernard Shaw
Tom Smothers
Socrates
Steven Spielberg
Sylvester Stallone
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jackie Stewart
James Stewart
Richard C. Strauss
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Nicolai Tesla
Henry David Thoreau
Leo Tolstoy
Ted Turner
Vincent Van Gogh
Jules Verne
Werner von Braun
Lindsay Wagner
Mike Wallace
General Westmoreland
Weyerhauser Family
Walt Whitman
Jamie Williams
Robin Williams
Tennessee Williams
Woodrow Wilson
Henry Winkler
Stevie Wonder
Virginia Woolf
F.W. Woolworth
Wright Brothers
Vince Lombardi
Robert Lowell
James Clark Maxwell
Steve McQueen
Mozart
David H. Murdock
Napoleon
Nasser
Isaac Newton
Jack Nicholson
Anthony Hopkins
Howard Hughes
Nostradamus




Edgar Allan Poe
Cole Porter
Elvis Presley
Dan Rather
Buddy Rich
Eddie Rickenbacker
Guy Ritchie
Joan Rivers
John D. Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Pete Rose
John Ruskin
Nolan Ryan
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anwar Sadat
Pierre Salinger
Charles Schulz
Robert Schumann
Pablo Picasso
Charles Schwab

This is the 10 ten advantages for ADD'ers in the hi-tech field from Adultaddstrengths.com

1. The Ability to Hyperfocus.

Hours of full engagement and concentration in a task, IF you find it interesting. You can get into the zone and be totally immersed in what you’re doing while the outside world disappears. When I went on the net for the first time in 1993 at an Internet cafe I got on the machine at 8 pm and around 4 am decided it was time to go home.

2. Rapid Fire Mind.

Your brain processes information at hyperspeed. You can do things in 30 minutes on a computer that might take other people hours. Downside if you’re stuck with an old machine and not enough RAM you’ll be frustrated cause it can’t keep up with the speed of your brain.

3. Multitasking at Will.

Able to run 14 apps at a time and effortlessly switch between each without breaking a sweat. Able to do several projects at a time with ease.

4. High Energy Level.

You’re able to keep going on a project (if it’s interesting, ADDers are more into creative and entrepreneurial activities than clerical and repetitive ones). 14-hour days? No problem. Adrenaline is my fuel source

5. Highly Creative.

Able to think beyond the idea of a box. This comes naturally for ADDers, while others pay thousands of dollars to try and learn this. Since you take in more information than the average person, and you’re easily distractible, you’re more likely to view a problem from many different angles than vanilla people (non ADDers), and therefore come up with more possible solutions to a problem. Need an idea generator? Find an ADDer.

6. Quick Learner.

IF it’s something you’re interested in. ADD is mainly a condition of boredom; you have no trouble paying attention to something if it’s interesting. Most people find it difficult to do boring or repetitive things but these can often totally shut an ADDer down. Your rapid fire brain + highly creative mind + the ability to hyperfocus equals fast absorption of new information quickly. Dr Ed Hallowell, who has ADD and has written several Delivered from Distraction : Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder, said he stopped teaching Psychiatry at Harvard University because the non-ADDers brains were just to slow and they took so long to get it. He got tired of being continually frustrated waiting for them to catch up to the ADD students.

7. Stimulus Seeking Brain.

A perfect match for the wired world, an under stimulated brain and an over stimulated virtual environment. Being an info junkie can be a good thing. Well, not always

8. Constantly Scanning your Environment.

Allows you to notice more and find information and resource that others miss. Also allows you to see possible problems before they arise, and opportunities that others may not see because they have tunnel vision vs. multiplex vision. An ADDer invented the electronic ticket.

9. Great in a Crisis.

High energy intense situation? Lots of chaos and change? Sign me up; I thrive on stimulation, change and chaos. We can create order from chaos effortlessly. We can also create such an environment as well if needed.

10. Risk Taker.

Impulsivity means you’re more willing to take risks and have a bias for action, act now while the opportunity is hot instead of getting into analysis paralysis. Many entrepreneurs have ADD i.e. Paul Orfalea who founded Kinko’s, JetBlue Founder and CEO David Neeleman who attributes his creativity to ADD. Both are Billionaires. Imagine how successful a high tech CEO would be if they didn’t take many risks.

I'M SORRY FOR THE LONG ARTICAL GUYS/GALS BUT THIS WAS A SUBJECT ON MY MIND FOR A LONG TIME, AN I KNOW THEIR A LOT OF INTELLECTUAL PEOPLE ON ATS, SO I WANTED TO GET YOUR OPINIONS......... THANKS

I agree that it could possibly an evolutionary adaptation to the society we live in from my own research and experience with ''ADHD".

However, I have seen, in my travels, a lot of people take it to the extreme and it is not necessarily a gift to them. It becomes a burden because they abuse it.

I believe that these strengths combined with daily meditation could definitely help out a lot of people suffering from adhd or add.

If you are extremely interested in a few things and only get into that, great. But being curious about somethings that may not be interesting is also important in life. It seems its often the things that we may forget to pay attention to are the things that wind up producing lemons. Not everybody is an optimist, but Im glad that I am.

I work in the restaurant business as a chef and adhd definitely helps me perform better. Im able to juggle multiple things at once and have developed a lot of the strengths listed in that list.
A lot of people in the restaurant biz are neurotic as hell and seem to have lost their minds somewhere.
This is where the meditation comes in to counterbalance the attention deficit. When one meditates one is able to reach levels of focus on a subconscious level and thereby affect not only attitude but reality itself.
Meditation gives you the ability to step outside of yourself and observe yourself amongst many other benefits.
I read that it also beefs up the brain.

When I started meditating every day, throughout the day, I changed as a human being. No longer was I flipping out silly things that were out of my control. I simply was able to flow and turn the proverbial lemons into lemonade. I was also able to remember more things and I was able to eliminate my habit of going into the walk in fridge to get something and then forget what I was going to get once I got there.

great thread man flagged and starred

It's always seemed to me that ADD is a product of the information age, a coping mechanism in an age defined by overstimulation and frenetic, non-stop assaults on the sensory organs and the brain.

All the toys are seventy-four different colors, they light up, they play music - it's sensory overload. All the television shows and the 30 second commercials. Even songs have gotten shorter...

For God's sake, watch a music video and tell me that children brought up on that aren't going to be moving and thinking at a mile a minute.

Most of the kids I've known with diagnosed ADD were brilliant in a fast-paced, entertaining situation (i.e., video games), they were just completely unable to restrain themselves mentally or physically when forced into a slow, relaxed setting.

Most people would consider me ADD - my parents just wouldn't let the doctors get their claws in me, and I'm glad for it.

My worry is that if this false reality we've nurtured ever implodes, people with ADD won't know what to do with themselves. It's an evolutionary advancement? More like an evolutionary cul-de-sac.

I realize you have a vested interest in making this development out to be a very good thing, but I'm afraid it's of limited use outside the bubble of the information age.

Wouldn't you agree?

quack

nature is ADHD,

that part of my life was quite "adhd" , ...

less sugar
less concol games
parent your child

i dont belive in the adhd theory,
its just a lazy way of summing up neuroses.

Neurosis, also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, is a term that refers to any mental imbalance that causes distress, but, unlike a psychosis or some personality disorders, does not prevent or affect rational thought. It is particularly associated with the field of psychoanalysis.

reply to post by iiinvision
Thanks for the star and flag iiinvsion I appreciate it.


Your right when you said "a lot of people take it to the extreme and it is not necessarily a gift to them" -I think its because some people don't even know that they have or don't except that they do-also they haven't probably educate themselves on it, to see and use the benefits of it.

I use to be interested in only a few thing but now I learned that its good to know little bit of everything. I feel like my brain is a dry thirsty sponge constantly looking for knowledge. I kid you not I just started experimenting with meditation to help me out.

I did it only once this week, and boy did I love it! No BS I noticed better memory for like 2 days straight, EXCELLENT actually it was a significant improvement. May b if you have some time one day you can help me? because I'm a Rookie, and you seem to be on the track I'm looking for.

reply to post by WyrdeOne

"For God's sake, watch a music video and tell me that children brought up on that aren't going to be moving and thinking at a mile a minute"LOL I hear that your right!lol.....

I don't see it as cul-de-sac, may be for some who don't know the true potential of it, and don't know their strengths right.

Its like a base ball player that joins a team he may be good at playing all positions but his strength on the team is the Slugger and he makes home runs all the time he's all was gonna work on that skill constantly training for homers. I think that would go for none ADD'ers as well don't you think?

I'm little tech savvy but not very and I think ADD helped me in all aspects in my life. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn I'm very popular I know everyone and they all know that I'm a very Unique person because of my diversity's. I'm outgoing,energetic,(like to think) very smart,my social life is excellent, and I was always that "guy" to attract all the most popular girls in the schools, jobs, everywhere because ADHD contributed to my personality tremendously. People like my fast thinking,and talking ways.

I feel if one takes his time to see the strengths of it they can focus it really understand it, and implement it more in their daily lives they can be very successful socially,intellectually and financially..

reply to post by king Pop!p


no problem man...thanks for contributing..

to me, meditating is simply silencing the inner dialog of the mind. The opposite of hyper thought. Start of small and keep pushing yourself. Once you can meditate for 5 minutes to the point where nothing can disturb you and you can focus only on one thing constantly than you are pretty much ready to develop the concentration aspect.

When you are in hyper thought your brain vibrates at a frequency of 12+ hertz. Perhaps extreme hyper thought is in the gamma wave range of 26 + hz.
Deep sleep is when your brain vibrates at 1-4 hz
and when you meditate your brain vibrates at about 4-8 hz.

When one who has the capacity to reach gamma wave frequency with the mind at will, as well as achieve theta wave state at will, than I believe that person will have come to a significant milestone in the controlling of one's own mind.

check out this book for a wealth of information..read with an open mind
ninja mind control


also go to scribd.com and type in any subject and you are bound to get some good free books.

cheers