Monday, March 31, 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana

Are you edgy? Do you have trouble concentrating? Are you constantly distracted in the middle of an activity? Have these tendencies caused you problems in school and at work? If you don’t already know it, have you considered that you may have attention deficit disorder? Or perhaps you may be hyperactive?

Most of us have heard these labels, ADD or ADHD and usually applied to children whose behavior is difficult to control. Millions of children have been diagnosed as ADHD given their behavior at home or in school. The label is controversial because it is not alway reliable distinguishing between a child that is pathologically distracted or merely undisciplined. This becomes especially consequential when the treatment for the diagnosis is the use of a drug to control their out of control behavior.

Nonetheless the diagnosis has become very popular over the past two decades. Today, about 5% of the population is believed to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That’s 1 in every 20 people. And as the name suggests, the main characteristic of the diagnosis is an inhibited ability to control mental focus and behavior. Children with ADHD have difficulty sitting still and remaining calm in many situations. It has obvious consequences for school performance.

Science tells us that the cause is principally genetic which means ADHD does not disappear in adulthood. The difference is that adults generally find more adaptive ways to cope with their distractibility. Is this because their impulses abate with age? That’s less likely. It is more probable that adults are willing to conform to the boundaries that are set for them in their jobs and their family life. In other words, adults with the tendency to attention deficit submit to the external demands in their social environment. And this is what gives skeptics pause that ADHD might be a misused diagnosis, failing to distinguish between kids who are chemically unable to focus and those whose parents will not demand that they focus.

See if you can related to these symptoms:

1. Inability to sit still

- While seated, you cross and uncross your legs several times every minute
- All your slacks are shiny and rubbed-out at the seat
- You have made yourself nauseous in a rocking chair

2. Ignores details & makes careless mistakes

- When in a parade you cannot march in step and turn in the wrong direction when ordered
- You have unopened items in your home because you are incapable of following the assembly instructions
- When writing with a pencil you use the eraser in equal amounts to the point

3. In constant motion, often running inappropriately

- You need new shoes every three months
- The only time your heart rate is normal is when you are asleep
- You routinely run up the aisle at church

4. Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities

- You cannot identify more than three objects that you have owned for more than one year.
- You do not own any tools
- When cleaning your house you discover several “lost” items that you subsequently replaced

5. Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly

- Making eye contact for more than five seconds makes you physically uncomfortable
- You often yawn in the face of people speaking to you
- You cannot remember why you are answering these questions