Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which has become pervasive in today’s society and is mostly diagnosed in children and adolescents, has been also diagnosed in adults. The behaviors associated with Attention Deficit Disorder in adults manifest as a kind of maturation through time of those identified in children. For example, children identified with ADD/ADHD often have difficulty remaining seated, beginning homework, making eye contact and attending to tasks requested by teachers and parents.
Adults will often exhibit behaviors such as: (1) Straying from completing a project or task once the challenging parts have been completed, and before beginning the next task. In effect, it is not uncommon for such an individual to have several projects going at once, none of which is finished. Life becomes a “work in progress.” (2) Organizing work and activities in a particular order is reportedly difficult, in contrast with performing tasks seemingly “at random.” (3) Forgetting to attend scheduled appointment or obligations is common. This is someone who you don’t want to let out of your sight when it’s time to go to the airport, if you are planning to fly someplace together. (4) Procrastinating instead of beginning activities. (5) Fidgeting or squirming when seated for long periods. A library can be a personal Hell for such an individual; better off building his own at home! (6) Something often referred to as, “hyperfocus”, or acting in ways that indicates a kind of vigilance or adherence to tasks; feeling compelled to do things without stopping as if driven by a motor.
Adults who exhibit behaviors classified as, “Adult Attention Deficit Disorder” reportedly crave stimulation, just to feel “alive.” As a result, they often are high risk-takers, seek thrills and have an affinity toward developing addictions to drugs and alcohol that needs to be recognized and controlled.
Primarily, the identification and treatment of Adult ADD occurs within the framework of the “problem state.” This is an inhibitory state in which one sorts for what is not working in order to make life better. Accordingly, this collection of behaviors is viewed as a disorder based on what is not there instead: For example, remaining still in one’s seat for extended periods, completing tasks before starting others, remembering appointments on time, and so forth. Not surprisingly, the consequences that follow are in service of making things better and called, “treatments.” The most common, again, is stimulant medication. The danger in prescribing stimulants for Adult Attention Deficit Disorder relates to the many potential and possibly harmful side-effects and the possibility of cultivating an addiction.
Another framework from which to view and facilitate those identified as having Adult ADD is inherently positive. This is an “excitatory” state which is organized, both somatically (within the body) and semantically (the identified thoughts and feelings) in terms of what is possible for someone. From this framework, one can decide at his absolute “best”, what behaviors, typically representative of Adult ADD are a “match and fit” for who he is becoming as his life unfolds. Interestingly, because of their ability to place attention on more than one event or thought simultaneously, such individuals are often very creative, energetic and charismatic people.
Leonardo Da Vinci—arguably the greatest artist and inventor in history—clearly had an adult form of ADD, but he used his ADD temperament to propel himself to greatness. Similarly, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, who also exhibited many of these behaviors and were ridiculed by their grade-school teachers as being “problem students”, were able to operate from this excitatory state to achieve major accomplishments. In a similar way, there have been artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and rock stars who have manifested many of these traits and managed to propel themselves to greatness.
The point is that in contrast with viewing Adult Attention Deficit Disorder as a “problem” that must be addressed with medication, among other things, for the benefit of the individual afflicted, it can also be approached from a positive framework. In the latter case, the individual would first be led into the excitatory state, and then the various behaviors would be evaluated for being a “match and fit” for that particular state. For example, at your absolute “best”, would multi-tasking be useful? On the other hand, would forgetting appointments work for you? Such an individual would then be taught to place his attention where it is most useful in terms of the outcomes he wants. In the excitatory state, expressed both somatically and semantically, he would be taught to “anchor” (reinforce) the performance of those tasks that are a match and fit and otherwise ignore those which are not. In so doing, such an individual can learn to distill the better parts of him and make “attention deficit” relate only to what he does not want in his life!