Characteristics of ADD

 Characteristics of ADD

from page 9 of Thom Hartmann's Complete Guide To ADHD

 

 

ADD is not an all-or-nothing diagnosis. There appears to be a curve of behaviors and personality types, ranging from extremely-non-ADD to extremely-ADD. Although there has not yet been enough research in the field to know the shape of this curve, it probably resembles a bell curve, with the majority of "normal" individuals falling somewhere in the center, showing a few ADD-like characteristics, and minority (perhaps somewhere around 20-30 % of the population) being split up on the two extreme ends of the spectrum.

Since a large body of research indicates that ADD is a hereditary condition, the distribution of this curve may well reflect the intermixing over the years of the genetic material of ADD and non-ADD individuals, blurring the edges of both types of behaviors. Placed along the spectrum of ADD individuals you will find people who typically exhibit some or all of the following characteristics:

 

 

Easily distracted. ADD people are constantly monitoring the scene; they notice everything that's going on, and particularly notice changes or quickly changing things in their environment. (This is the reason why, for example, it's difficult to have a conversation with ADD people when a television is on in the room; their attention will constantly wander back to the television and its rapidly-changing inputs.

 

Short, but extraordinarily intense, attention span. Oddly enough, this isn't definable in terms of minutes or hours; some tasks ill bore an ADD person in thirty seconds, other projects may hold their rapt attention for hours, days, or even months. ADD adults often have difficulty holding a job for an extended period of time, not because they're incompetent but because they become "bored." Similarly, ADD adults often report multiple marriages, or "extremely intense, but short" relationships. When tested for attention span on a boring, uninteresting task, ADD people tend to score significantly lower than others.

 

Disorganization, accompanied by snap decisions. ADD children and adults are often chronically disorganized. Their rooms are a shambles, their desks are messy, their files are incoherent; their living or working areas look like a bomb went off. This is also a common characteristic of non-ADD people, possibility related to upbrining or culture, but something usually separates messy ADD folks from their non-ADD counterparts: non-ADD people can usually find what they need in their messes, while ADD people typically can't find anything. An ADD person may be working on a project when something else distracts him, and he makes the snap decision to change priorities and jump into the new project. -- leaveing behind the dubris from the previous project. One ADD adult commented that "the great thing about being disorganized is that I'm constantly making exciting discoveries. Sometimes I'll find things I didn't even know I'd lost."

 

Distortions of time-sense. Most non-ADD people describe time as a fairly consistent and linear flow. ADD individuals, on the other hand, have an exaggerated sense of urgency when they're on task, and an exaggerated sense of boredom when they feel they have nothing to do. This sense of boredom sometimes lead to the increased consumption of substances such as alcohol and drugs, which alter the perception of time, whereas the sense of fast-time when on a project often leads to chronic impatience. This elastic sense of time also causes many ADD adults to describe emotional highs and lows as having a profound impact on them. The lows, particularly, may seem as if they'll last forever, whereas the highs are often perceived as flashing by.

 

Difficulty following directions. This has traditionally been considered a subset of the ADD person's characteristic of not being able to focus on something they consider boring, meaningingless, or unimportant. While receiving directions, conventional wisdom has it that ADD people are often monitoring their environment as well, noticing other things, thinking of other things, and in general, not paying attention. In other words, ADD people frequently have difficulty following directions, because the directions aren't fully received and understood in the first place

Another theory to explain this is that ADD people are very independent, and tend to dislike being told what to do. They prefer to think for themselves, and may therefore place less importance on other's directions.

But another explanation for this, according to some authorities in the field, is that people with ADD sometimes have difficulty processing auditory or verbal information.

When you say to a "normal" person, "Go to the store and pick up a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, and some orange juice, then stop at the gas station and fill up the car on the way home," the "normal" person will create a mental picture of each of those things as they hear them described. They picture the store, the milk, the bread, the juice, and the gas station. This congruence of verbal and visual images makes for high-quality memory.

But an ADD person may only hear the words -- without creating the mental pictures so vital to memory. They drive off to the store, repeating to themselves, "Milk, bread, juice, gas; milk, bread, juice, gas..." until something distracts them and they lose the entire memory.

This problem with auditory processing is fairly documented among many children with ADD. However, the percentage of its prevalence among the general, non-ADD population is unknown. It may be that ADD people are only slightly more likely to have this problem, or it may be a cardinal symptom/problem.

One ADD adult described it this way: "I find my comprehension of long chain of words is improved vastly, by a picture. That way my brain can directly absorb the pattern. If you un-pattern it and translate it into a linear string of words, then I'm forced to absorb the string and reconstruct the pattern."

This may also account for the so-very-common reports from parents of ADD children that their kids are television addicts and hate to read. Reading requires the processing of auditory information (words sounded out within the brain into internal pictures), whereas television is purely external visualization. At the residential treatment facility I ran in New Hampshire, we found it useful to remove the televisions altogether from the residence of ADD children. After a few months, the kids began reading, and the habit persisted after the reintroduction of television.

There's also debate about the cause of ADD/auditory processing problem. One camp says that it's the result of a hard-wiring problem in the brain -- the same mis-wiring problem that causes other ADD symptoms.

The other camp theorizes that converting auditory information to visual information is a learned behavior, acquired by most people about the time they become proficient with language, between ages two and five. Because ADD people "weren't paying attention," they may be more likely to have simply missed out on this vital skill.

Since the skill of converting words to pictures can be taught to ADD people with relative ease, the latter theory appears probable. Just say to an ADD child, "Will you please visualize that?" and watch for the characteristic movement of their eyes toward the ceiling, which usually means they're creating an internal mental image. If this is done each time instructions are given to an ADD child, eventually (often in a matter of weeks) the child will learn this basic skill of auditory processing and it becomes second nature. (For ADD adults, Harry Lorayne's Memory Book is wonderful, with its heavy emphasis on several methods to teach this skill, along with what Lorayne calls "original awareness," which is merely a painless method of teaching yourself to pay attention.

 

Exhibit occasional symptoms of depression, or daydream more than others. ADD individuals who are relatively self-aware about the issues of sugar and food metabolism often report that depression or tiredness follows a meal or the consumption of sugary foods. This reaction may be related to differences in glucose (sugar) metabolism between ADD and non-ADD people.

Another possibility is that ADD people are simply bored more often by the lack of challenges presented by our schools, jobs, and culture, and this boredom translates for some people into depression.

 

Take risks. ADD individuals seem to have strong swings of emotion and conviction, and make faster decisions than non-ADD types. While this trait often leads to disaster, it also means that ADD individuals are frequently the spark plugs of our society, the shakers and movers, the people who bring about revolution and change. ADD expert Dr. Edna Copeland, in a 1992 Atlanta speech, referenced a study which indicates that about half of all entrepreneurs test out as being ADD.

Evidence is strong that many of our Founding Fathers were also ADD. If they hadn't been, the United States of American might never have come into being. ADD risk-takers may have predominated in the early Americas because the people best suited to undertake the voyage to this continent and face the unknown.

 

Easily frustrated and impatient. To "not suffer fools gladly" is a classic ADD characteristic. While others may beat around the bush, searching for diplomacy, an ADD individual is most often direct, to the point, and can't understand how or why such bluntness might give offense. When things aren't working out, "Do Something!" becomes the ADD person's rallying cry -- even if the something is sloppy or mistaken.