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by
Bill Dueease
Copyright © 2004
If you have ADD,
I am blessed with
ADD and enjoy every minute of it.
and the life of her 23 year old son after reading this article.
(I
want to thank you for this article. It hit home for both of us.
I can tell you that reading that article blessed me beyond words")
Shirley Meek Williams
Approximately three to six percent of the
American population is believed to have ADD. ADD stands for “Attention
Deficit Disorder.”
My belief is that ADD is misnamed. Instead,
it should be named .
People with AEA/ADD have certain mental and physical characteristics that
give them distinct advantages. These same characteristics also present
several drawbacks. I believe the condition was named by focusing on the
drawbacks and completely overlooks the advantages. AEA/ADD people are
not normal. They can rarely be controlled. Thus, normal (non-ADD) people
have labeled ADD people with the "Disorder" tag. The term "Disorder"
being defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as a "disturbance
of the normal physical or mental health."
AEA/ADD people can and do perform remarkable things, when they understand
their advantages and utilize them, and understand the drawbacks and overcome
them. For example, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, John F. Kennedy, John
Lennon, Henry Ford, Mozart, Galileo, and Winston Churchill, were believed
to have AEA/ADD. Terry Bradshaw, Robin Williams, Magic Johnson, Henry
Winkler, and Mohammed Ali are also believed to have it. (The author personally
conversed with Mohammed Ali for three hours and was privileged to see
how special his mind worked.) They were and still are very special people
BECAUSE they have AEA/ADD.
People with AEA/ADD do not have the filters normal people have that restrict
the volume and capacity of the brain to receive input from the five basic
senses. Smell, Sight, Touch, Hearing, and Taste. AEA/ADD people hear,
taste, smell, feel, and see things that normal people do not. It
can be said that ADD/AEA people do not have an attention deficit.
Instead, their attention is expanded, because AEA/ADD people
are far more attuned to their surroundings. They receive and process much
more information through the five senses. As an example, I understand
that a normal person can hear sounds between 20 and 20,000 Hz. An AEA/ADD
person might hear sounds between 10 and 30,000 Hz. This relative difference
is true for the other four senses as well. They also have more difficulty
blocking out input from the five senses. For example, it is much harder
for ADD/AEA people to ignore noises that normal people can ignore, or
do not even hear.
In addition, the brains of AEA/ADD people operate much faster than those
of other people, estimates range from two to three times faster. For one
thing their brains have to operate faster to process all of the additional
input they are receiving from the five senses. In fact, their brains seek
constant input. Their brains are almost always on full throttle. Consequently,
AEA/ADD people appear to have much higher and longer lasting energy levels.
AEA/ADD people are most often very intelligent. But their intelligence
is not always readily apparent. Albert Einstein had to take the fifth
grade over again. AEA/ADD people are most often very impulsive, because
their brains naturally circumvent the “rational” part of their
brain that restricts clear thoughts by considering the input of others.
Their impulsive actions are not always well received by normal people.
However, when AEA/ADD people are able to use their exceptional information
gathering capabilities, their faster, less restricted, ability to process
this additional information, and they are able to gain control of their
impulsiveness, they can present their remarkable conclusions and results
to the normals in a way that will be readily accepted.
Sometimes AEA/ADD people will feel down,
because of the frustrations of dealing with the normal, slower world,
which can be troublesome if they let these frustrations get to them. However,
AEA/ADD people frequently bounce back to their normal energetic levels.
It is also my experience that AEA/ADD is passed down directly from parents
to their children. We have found that a vast majority of AEA/ADD people
has, at least, one parent who also has it, whether they know or admit
it. This is a blessing, because this gives ADD/AEA children, at least,
one parent who can easily relate to them by operating at their same speed.
AEA/ADD people operate in a mindset that is outside the world of normal
people. Consequently, they constantly think out of the box. AEA/ADD people
see more of the world and are able to process the additional information
to see the truth in things that normal people frequently overlook. They
are very creative and constantly take themselves, their thoughts, and
their ideas places that normal people rarely know exist. AEA/ADD people
want to be trailblazers and they most often are. They are very adept at
reading other people, especially in one on one personal interactions.
AEA/ADD people can recognize, understand and organize extremely complex
ideas, concepts, and processes. They have an extremely sensitive, very
acute and very accurate sixth sense. Their hunches and intuition are remarkable,
and are almost scary at times.
They frequently have spurts of boundless energy, then they like to hibernate.
They have the unusual ability to hyper focus, and do so for long periods
of time. By hyper focus I mean they can direct their entire mind and body
on complex, yet specific activities and get into zones of concentration
that are very remarkable. This hyper focus produces spectacular achievements.
Thomas Edison was legendary for his spurts of hyper focus. He tested over
5,000 different light filament materials, before he finally found the
one that worked. They can think extremely fast on their feet and react
faster than most people. They can also conduct multiple activities at
the same time. This is called multitasking.
In summary, AEA/ADD people are blessed with the ability to receive additional
information through their senses, they are able to process all of this
additional information and reach accurate conclusions very quickly, and
they have the intelligence, energy, focus, and motivation to go places
and create things that normal people are most likely not aware of.
In the eyes of normal people, AEA/ADD people have the following impediments
that provided the basis to call it a "Disorder." AEA/ADD people
cannot be controlled. They can be fidgety and impatient, especially in
confined meetings, like school classes (because they get bored). AEA/ADD
people appear to be disorganized (invariably messy). They appear to be
easily distracted, (because they react to sensory information not perceived
by others). They appear to have difficulty focusing on anything for very
long (because they get bored). But they also get into zones where it is
difficult to interrupt them. They appear to frequently forget to complete
things (like completing paperwork), or forget about important dates and
events (like meetings). They can have brilliant ideas but often forget
about them later.
They can be difficult to talk to, because they frequently interrupt normal
people and sometimes even finish their sentences, and they regularly bounce
from subject to subject. They appear to be very impulsive and frequently
do or say things that are out of the norm. They frequently address the
truth in things, and appear to have fewer social graces. They are frequently
stubborn and challenge information presented by others, and are far more
often than not right. They tend to get bored easily. They normally do
not perform repetitive tasks well. They seek challenges and change. They
have difficulty turning their brains off, or slowing them down. Their
minds are either seeking more input or creating more ideas.
Yet, when two AEA/ADD people meet and interact, few of the above drawbacks
occur. Watching two AEA/ADD people talk about matters they both enjoy
can be a trip. That's because many of the "drawbacks" that frequently
bother normal people, do not affect ADD/AEA people. Thus, some of the
drawbacks represent the uncomfortable ways normal people (only) react
to the behaviors of people with AEA/ADD. Two AEA/ADD people will have
similar energy levels, think at the same speed, focus at the same levels,
are tuned into similar input from their expanded senses, and process the
information at the same speed. They are much more in tune with each other
and communicate with much less difficulty. AEA/ADD people are not bothered
as much by bouncing from subject to subject, fidgeting, impatience, boredom,
lack of social graces and impulsiveness when they communicate with each
other.
However, there are some drawbacks that AEA/ADD people need to overcome
to live a more effective and enjoyable life. These drawbacks include the
tendency of forgetfulness, the tendency to be over impulsive, and the
tendency to be impatient in communicating with normal people. ADD/AEA
people also appear to have difficulty completing tasks and projects required
by others. They appear to lack control over their desire and ability to
focus. They also have difficulties in remembering names of others. There
are solutions to these drawbacks.
The reality is that “normal”
people far out number ADD/AEA people. Thus, ADD/AEA people are frequently
disparaged, degraded, and criticized because they do not conform to the
way "normal" people think and interact with others. Normal people
apply considerable pressure on ADD/AEA people to get with the program
and adjust to be like everyone else.
First, I want to clarify that in my opinion
having ADD does not require a "solution." ADD cannot be fixed,
because people with ADD are not broken. Yet, people tend to seek "solutions,"
because they feel different. We people with ADD ARE DIFFERENT! And that
is our blessing. But many people, especially parents, want to normalize
their children and they search for "solutions" to do so.
One of the most common "solutions" to "fix" ADD people
is to prescribe drugs (normally amphetamines). Drug companies are
more than willing to promise quick fix "solutions." The profit
margins to drug companies to convince ADDers to take their drugs are astounding.
Drugs are frequently used to convert ADD people (especially children)
into being more "normal" and more controllable. These drugs
generally slow the brains of ADD people down, reduce their tendencies
to be over impulsive, to be fidgety, and they decrease tendencies to be
distracted. There are a number of drugs available that affect ADD people
in different ways. Unfortunately, ADD patients are not always matched
with the right drugs for them. When this happens, ADD patients have frequently
felt that they lose the blessings of AEA/ADD, and that they lose control
over their own minds and turn into less than alive people.
In my opinion, drugs are not the fix all
solution for every person with ADD. Not all ADD people respond favorably
to the drug solution. (I have never used any drugs for ADD, and my
two ADD children voluntarily chose to cease their prescribed medications,
and prospered thereafter). When done right, drugs can appear to provide
some assistance to only some of the drawbacks of ADD, but not all of them,
but at what price? The negative side affects these drugs cause and the
reduction of the brain activity (and hence the brainpower and one source
of the AEA blessings) that they most often force have shown that they
most often create more problems than they help.
Unfortunately, the powerful drug companies
caused at least one high profile Internet supposedly “ADD support
group” (no doubt strongly financed by ADD drug companies)
to demand that I change this section and recommend ADD medications
as the "only solution to the problems of ADD,"
before they would publish this article. (I will gladly provide the
name and address of this "ADD support group, upon request) Yet,
having AEA/ADD is not a problem that needs a solution, and these drugs
are not near as affective as they are so highly promoted. In fact, if
the ADD drug companies were not truly afraid of these truths becoming
public, they would not have been so adamant about censoring me and my
exposure of to the true values of their drugs. I refused to be a pawn
in their hoodwinking of the general public.
These drug companies can easily make a
fortune off the use of their ADD drugs. They look at the overall life
time use of these drugs which will generate serious profits for each ADD
soul they convince to take them for the rest of their life.
There are other very effective ways to overcome the normal drawbacks of
ADD, that especially irk the normals. These include the full understanding
of the behavioral differences of being AEA/ADD, and adjusting behavioral
practices to control these issues at a very practical and desirable level.
As an example, let's discuss a solution to the forgetfulness drawback.
AEA/ADD people need to create a "to do" list that they have
by their side at all times, and constantly monitor and review. Whenever
they come up with an idea or agree to do something (without a time limit)
they must immediately write the key words to each matter on the "to
do" list. The "to do" list becomes their index for action
items. In addition, they want to have a calendar with them at all times
that they also review frequently. Whenever they decide to do something
that is time dependent, like meet someone for lunch, remember a birthday
(AEA/ADD people are notorious for forgetting birthdays and anniversaries)
or turn in a report, they need to put it on the calendar.
Another example of a non-drug based process to is to use a life (or ADD)
coach to accomplish, at least, one coachable goal. Sometimes, using a
life (or ADD) coach is done in conjunction with using the right medication.
By using a coach, AEA/ADD people will discover what their true (and special)
talents are, what their unique self-imposed obstacles (drawbacks) are,
what their true passions (zeal for creativity) are, what their true priorities
are, and what their values and beliefs (spirituality) are. The unique
blessings they have because of their AEA/ADD will also be discovered and
recognized. AEA/ADD people will work with their coach to achieve their
coachable goals around their special unique priorities and characteristics
uncovered in the discovery process. This way the AEA/ADD person will be
able to use their special and unique gifts in a natural way to achieve
their goals. In other words, they create the situations where they achieve
their goals by being themselves. By focusing on achieving their coachable
goals by living and acting on their terms, they basically change their
environment to suit them. (What a concept).
There are other behavioral solutions to virtually all of the "drawbacks"
that do not include drugs and that allow AEA/ADD people to gain control
over their brains and maximize the unique blessings they were given.
Having AEA/ADD places people in a very special and blessed category. AEA/ADD
people can easily enjoy a very wondrous and rewarding life because they
have it, when they understand their AEA/ADD, manage their drawbacks, and
accentuate their unique gifts to reach whatever life and other goals they
set. Just look at the remarkable lives enjoyed by the people I listed
above with ADD and the wonderful contributions they gave us all, because
they had ADD, and I believe not of them ever took any ADD medications.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my gifts from AEA/ADD, and I have prospered
because of what the blessings from AEA/ADD have allowed me to do. You
can too!
and the life of her 23 year old son after reading this article.
(I
want to thank you for this article. It hit home for both of us.
I can tell you that reading that article blessed me beyond words")
Shirley Meek Williams
1. Call us for your Free, No Obligation,
Confidential Consultation to learn more and decide about ADD coaching
for yourself at: 800-887-7214 (toll free in the US and Canada)
or 239-415-1777. (We answer the phone by the fourth ring.)
2. Request that we call you for your Free
Consultation
3. Contact us by e-mail
4. Attend a teleclass
entitled:Is Engaging
a ADD Coach Right for Me?
The Privacy and Confidential promise of The Coach
Connection.
Everything you do with TCC will be private and confidential.
In addition, what goes on between your TCC Coach and you is so confidential
and private that the only way anyone will know about it is if you tell him
or her. TCC guards your privacy and confidentiality to the extreme.
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