May 28, 2005
So why IS it good to have ADD anyway?
What special gifts has having ADD given you?
For starters, I can stay up working late at night like I am now. How many ADDers out there tend to do their best work late at night? I think lots do.
When my youngest daughter was a baby, my family and I were at some family function and I was mentioning that she had just started sleeping through the night and my father said “Well, you and your brother NEVER slept through the night” I still haven’t!
But I sure can be productive late in the evening. I can also speak in public pretty well. I enjoy doing that! I’ve experienced that many ADDers have a lot of charisma and tend to speak well in public. In general I think people with ADD are funnier. I can be pretty funny. But all the funniest people I know have ADD. It seems to go along with having ADHD for a lot of people.
I can also do two or four or three-hundred-six things at once. I like that I can do that. But I can hyperfocus too. I am very focused with my clients. Also an ADD gift I think.
I also seem to be able to get to the meat of the matter quite easily. I can generally see the core of complicated issues and make them simple.
I’m talking about me but I believe that everyone who has ADD also has a bunch of special abilities that go along with it. I want to try to get people out of their comfort zone. I want you to look for and find the reasons why you’re glad you have ADD.
I hope people will comment a lot on this. I’ve heard ADD (Sorry, I can’t get used to the term “ADHD”) described as “an island of disability in a sea of abilities”. I think that is a great metaphor!
So think hard……What special gifts has having ADD given you?
May 26, 2005
New Online ADD Test
I just launched a new Online ADD Test. It isn’t meant to be a diagnostic test but rather a screening. Of course people should be diagnosed by a physician or other mental health profesional. This test is based on the DSM-IV criteria and will give the taker the likelihood of whether or not they may have ADD/ADHD and suggests that they contact someone qualified to make the diagnosis.
What sets this specific test aside from the very few others on the internet are two things:
1. It isn’t a list or guidelines. The test is actually scored by computer online and gives results right away.
2. It isn’t based on what came out of somebody’s mind. It is quite faithful to the DSM-IV criteria (To the letter) so someone can go to thier physician or mental health professional and be pretty certain that they will be using the same diagnostic criteria.
The test is located at
May 22, 2005
Why are we STILL discussing if it’s real?…
I was watching the Cal Thomas show for a bit last night and the discussion turned to whether or not ADD was a real thing or something made up so therapists can make a few dollars on it.
I was in shock! Of course ADD is real. How else do you explain me? Not just me, but zillions of other people.
Of course some therapists make money treating ADD. I make money on ADD too. So what? Who makes money on it isn’t the issue. Whether it is a real thing or not isn’t even discussable by intelligent people or at least it shouldn’t be. Of course ADD is real. These TV guys just don’t get what it is. They are thinking of it in the same terms as major depression or other forms of mental illness. I don’t think it falls in that catagory at all.
A guest on the show said “If Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were alive today they’d be diagnosed with ADD”. You know, I agree with that since the two of them did (especially Tom) did appear to have some qualities that people with ADD also have. I’d have no problem with that forensic diagnosis except for the fact that Tom and Huck never existed at all. They wouldn’t be alive today because they never were alive. They are fictional characters who came out of the brilliant, creative and wildly imaginative mind of Samuel Clemens who became Mark Twain when he signed his name that way on some travel papers. The guy faked his name as a joke! Jeeze, I’ve done that!
He was also so imaginative that he invented a couple of guys who some people believe actually existed. So I looked into Sam a bit. This is the very first thing I found:
“Growing up in the unusual rivertown of 2000 inhabitants, Twain was a mischievous boy, the prototype of his own character, Tom Sawyer. Though he was plagued by poor health at an early age, by the age of nine he learned to smoke and headed a small band of pranksters, and most of all, he detested school…..
But over the next few years, Twain was unable to save wages and became restless, deciding to leave Hannibal in June of 1853 to take a job in St. Louis. But instead of settling in St. Louis, Twain proceeded to travel back and forth between New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Iowa as a journalist. But after his wanderings, Twain ultimately switched professions after realizing an old boyhood dream of becoming a river pilot….
Under the apprenticeship of Horace Bixby, pilot of the Paul Jones, Mark Twain became a licensed river pilot at the age of 24. Earning a high salary navigating the river waters, Twain was entertained by his own position, travelling from city to city and never settling. But in 1861, Twain’s piloting days ended with the onset of the Civil War….
On his way to Nevada twelve years after the Gold Rush, Twain’s primary intentions were to travel and strike it rich mining for silver and gold. But after being unsuccessful and with resources diminishing, Twain once again picked up his pen and began to write….”
The guy wrote at least 14 books, did at least 20 different things for a living, got bored easily. It seems to me like it is quite likely Mark Twain had ADD. He sounds like a hunter to me!
Thom Hartmann’s theory is that people with ADD are the prehistoric hunters who evolved over millions of years to do something good and useful which helped assure the survival of the human race. The other people are farmers. They do good and useful things too. I have believed Thom’s theory since I first heard it. I still do!
I just wish these idiots on TV would start thinking about how the bizarre statements they make effect people. Now there will be people with ADD who will have to defend themselves again
because some idiot made authoritative statements about something they knew nothing about while portraying characters who never existed as real people.
Aren’t these the same guys who just got 16 people murdered by making up a story about the US military throwing copies of the Koran in the toilet at Guantanamo? I believe in a free press as much, if not more than the next guy. I’ve fought for it and was once part of it. My baby brother has been a newspaper reporter with the New Haven Register for 25 years. By the same token I also believe that the press has an obligation to be responsible. Cal Thomas and his guest were quite cavalier in the way they made these statements of “fact” . Thats my “opinion” anyway.
But it is still amazing that they gave us yet another example of what an especially brilliant ADD mind can do. I’m not saying that we are all that brilliant but some of us are. Mark Twain has people believing that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were real people and that Samuel Clemens never existed (he did), but that Mark Twain (Just a made up name) did exist. Not bad for a guy who’s been dead for 95 years.
source of quotation: http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/About_Mark_Twain.html
May 20, 2005
I added a link to “Focused Distractions”…..
I added a link in the sidebar today to Terry Matlen’s blog which is called “Focused Distractions”. Terry is a therapist who I consider to be expert on ADD. She is on the board of directors of ADDA (Attention Deficit Disorder Association) and plays guitar and sings real well.
I like Terry. I like her blog. It has a lot of good information.
May 18, 2005
To medicate or not to medicate…
What do you think? Should people with ADD take medication or should they not?
I have heard, and could make a pretty good case for either side.
I’d like to see what sort of opinions on medication and ADD people have.
So I’m Back from ADDA…..
The ADDA conference was fantastic! Great people, great time, great food (I like food), great resort.
I got to spend some time with Mike Charest, David Giwerc, Sandy Maynard as well as a bunch of other new and old friends of mine.
I wish I could come up with a general theme or idea which was running through the conference in Tucson. But there wasn’t.
One thing that I found that was interesting to me was that there appear to be several groups interested in a seperate certification for ADD coaches.
I am generally quite in favor of this as long as it isn’t a “trick” for someone who wants to “control” ADD coaching to thier own end.
I believe that the ICF credentials (ACC, PCC and MCC) are certainly very meaningful and I think I would generally oppose ANY movement to credential ADD Coaches which didn’t first require the coach to be ICF Credentialed before being able to be ADD Coach credentialed.
What I’m saying is that even though a Life Coach and an ADD Coach are different things an ADD Coach is a coach first and THEN becomes an ADD Coach. For that reason I think that credentialing ADD Coaches prior to, or independent of ICF credentialling would be counter productive and in general bad for the profession.
May 7, 2005
Name this Blog Contest!
I keep changing the name of this weblog because I don’t seem to be able to think of a name I like. So I’ve decided to abdicate the responsibility of naming it. YOU can name it.
Whoever comes up with the best name for this blog will receive fabulous prizes!
Please enter by posting your suggestion as a comment to this post.
This is the place!
This section is where people can ask questions about ADD (and get them answered 
)
It’s starting to look okay…
It’s beginning to shape up. It actually isn’t bad as brand new blogs go. Now I have to actually write things. Useful things about ADD and about coaching. The point of this is to actually help people. People who are my clients, and just people out there who need help.
There are a couple of other categories that you can’t see yet. There is “About ADD” and “About Coaching”. There is also a surprise category that I’ll tell you about later. They will all appear when I post something in them.
Beginning on Wednesday May, 11 through Monday May 16 I will be at the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) Annual conference in Tucson. I’ll be speaking there on coaching couples. That will be Sunday morning. Also on Saturday I will be co-presenting with Patrice Lynn, PCC (A great coach in Oregon) on “Coaching For The Action Progression”. I’m sort of “pinch hitting” because Peggy Bonsee, PCC (another great coach from Virginia) who was supposed to run this session with Patrice is ill and can’t make it. I’m sorry for Peggy, but I’m excited about presenting that program with Patrice. It should be fun!
I’ll try to post in this blog about the conference while I’m there. Maybe I can share some interesting information.
