Saturday, March 05, 2005

The Secret Value Of Daydreaming

'The Capital' of Annapolis, MD brings us an article that may as well have been written with this blog in mind: More adults discovering they have ADD:

Chances are when you think about attention deficit, an image of an out-of-control boy comes to mind.

And while such an image is correct, it could just as easily be a sweet little girl who wiles away her time daydreaming.

..and thanks to modern pharmaceuticals, an America full of sweet little daydreaming girls is a nightmare we can put behind us.

Actually this article is nice and balanced, presenting the case that it's not all about dysfunction:

"Many people with ADD are very creative, and many of us also have the ability to 'hyperfocus' when we're working on something we're passionate about. Some famous scientists such as Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein are believed to have had ADD."

Also:

In his book, "Scattered," (Plume, $14.95) Dr. Gabor Mate, who was diagnosed with ADD as an adult, suggests that instead of thinking of ADD as a disease, think of having it as simply having the less common brain platform - say an "Apple" brain as opposed to a "Windows" brain. You can't follow the Windows instruction manual for your Apple brain and expect to get optimal performance. But used correctly, both kinds of brains can create outstanding results.

The idea of having an Apple (or Linux or BSD brain) instead of a Windows brain is appealing, and makes the idea of trying to switch to a Windows brain pretty repugnant, actually.

From the ABC news site we have: Terms of Impairment: Underperformer or Adult ADD?

The info here is presented in the Q&A format, and it gives some hard numbers about how many people with Adult ADD population are really out there:

According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, ADHD affects 4 percent of the U.S. adult population, or 8 million adults. Yet, 80 percent of those 8 million don't know they have ADHD and aren't treated.

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