The ethics of America. A new article on the usage of stimulants was released today--but not the usage by ADHD diagnosed, rather the usage by non ADHD individuals looking to amp up their brain function.
The thinking behind this idea is simple: if stimulant meds allow a person with ADD/ADHD to operate "normal" then they should allow a "normal" person to be superhuman. Some are asking, "Is performance enhancement restricted only to practice makes perfect?"
We live in a nation of convenience. The easier, the faster, the less personal sacrificed required--the better the idea. We have built empires on quick and easy. Why wouldn't our pharmaceutical companies pick up on this? If they hadn't I would suggest they create a better research/marketing team...but alas...they have indeed followed our hunger for convenience. So it makes sense that we would consider making Adderall cocktails available for those looking to be superhuman. Drugs like this line the pockets of pharmaceutical fat cats and we believe we can fly. Seems like a win-win. Or is it?
Can we manipulate science to enhance what is not maladaptive? Should we even try?
(Read article at: http://bigthink.com/ideas/24201 by Max Miller)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
ADHD Awareness Week
I received an email earlier this week announcing this week was "ADHD awareness week". The email encouraged me to "celebrate my ADHD and find someone to educate about ADHD". As I was reading this email I was driving down the interstate at warp speed because I was late. Not late because I overslept..late because as I woke up so early that I just knew I had plenty of time to edit that paper before leaving, check my email, and load the dishwasher...turns out I didn't, and then I couldn't find my keys....
Celebrate my ADHD. I almost laughed, well...that shouldn't be too difficult.
I told my oldest daughter, C (who is also ADHD) and she responded...are we supposed to wear a ribbon? you know, if I celebrate my ADHD at school....the principle might call you....Nevermind. This sent me into a deep thought process....do we have a ribbon? if we did have a ribbon, could we commit long-term to a color? Would people know what the ribbon was for? If I wore the ribbon would I get those tilted heads that said "oh..I am so sorry, that must be so difficult"?
Turns out...us ADHD people are represented by a color--the color orange. Why orange? Beats me.
Orange is the color of construction zones, prison jump suits, and caution flags. The ribbon is shared with animal protection awareness and self-injury awareness among others. According to google search for the meaning of the color of orange it means: vitality with endurance and the color stimulates appetite and energy....hmmm...interesting.
So in honor of those ADHD brains out there...here's to you: (and for those of you who are not ADHD...read and be amazed....)
*Huh? or I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.... are frequent phrases you say
* you really hate talking on the phone because it is way to easy for you to lose the conversation and to actually listen takes too much effort
* you get out of the shower and you aren't sure if you actually washed your hair
* you make a phone call...and before the other person answers...you forget who your calling and why
* you show up at your doctor's appointment on time (you are so proud)---only for the receptionist to tell you the appointment is tomorrow...or worse it was yesterday and you missed it
* You write post-it notes...and you loose post-it notes.
* Your kid asks for juice or a snack three times before they give up and gets it themselves. In your defense...you have walked into the kitchen all 3 times to get what they want---only to forget why you are in there and turn around and leave
* You sit in your college class, listening to your professor and find yourself counting how many times he/she says "okay"--literally keeping count on your paper instead of taking notes
* You are talking to your spouse, parent, friend and right in the middle of your sentence you just.................
* Your drying machine makes the same sound every time it finishes drying...and every time you think, "ice cream truck!"
* The very nature of housework goes against every fiber of your entire being...but you operate best when everything has its place---ironic
*Even though your diagnosed ADHD...you secretly think that it's everyone else who is a little "off"---I mean really, who wants to be "normal"?
* You feel like you embody irony in every sense of the word: you are outgoing--yet shy, you are a risk taker--yet insecure, you talk too much---but don't say nearly everything on your mind (for fear of what people would say), you have huge dreams---but details drag you down
* You think in terms of linked thoughts...one thought leading you to another...to another...to another...and none of them are particularly related...except for that one word
* There is a person that you see frequently and for the life of you--you can't remember their name...so you wait for someone else to call it and you just avoid it calling it until then. (ADHDers...you know you do this)
I could go on...but I will save it for another post. Just know, although I don't have a ribbon...I am letting my ADHD flag fly with pride. And for those who aren't ADHD...yeah...we think we're cooler than you.
Celebrate my ADHD. I almost laughed, well...that shouldn't be too difficult.
I told my oldest daughter, C (who is also ADHD) and she responded...are we supposed to wear a ribbon? you know, if I celebrate my ADHD at school....the principle might call you....Nevermind. This sent me into a deep thought process....do we have a ribbon? if we did have a ribbon, could we commit long-term to a color? Would people know what the ribbon was for? If I wore the ribbon would I get those tilted heads that said "oh..I am so sorry, that must be so difficult"?
Turns out...us ADHD people are represented by a color--the color orange. Why orange? Beats me.
Orange is the color of construction zones, prison jump suits, and caution flags. The ribbon is shared with animal protection awareness and self-injury awareness among others. According to google search for the meaning of the color of orange it means: vitality with endurance and the color stimulates appetite and energy....hmmm...interesting.
So in honor of those ADHD brains out there...here's to you: (and for those of you who are not ADHD...read and be amazed....)
*Huh? or I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.... are frequent phrases you say
* you really hate talking on the phone because it is way to easy for you to lose the conversation and to actually listen takes too much effort
* you get out of the shower and you aren't sure if you actually washed your hair
* you make a phone call...and before the other person answers...you forget who your calling and why
* you show up at your doctor's appointment on time (you are so proud)---only for the receptionist to tell you the appointment is tomorrow...or worse it was yesterday and you missed it
* You write post-it notes...and you loose post-it notes.
* Your kid asks for juice or a snack three times before they give up and gets it themselves. In your defense...you have walked into the kitchen all 3 times to get what they want---only to forget why you are in there and turn around and leave
* You sit in your college class, listening to your professor and find yourself counting how many times he/she says "okay"--literally keeping count on your paper instead of taking notes
* You are talking to your spouse, parent, friend and right in the middle of your sentence you just.................
* Your drying machine makes the same sound every time it finishes drying...and every time you think, "ice cream truck!"
* The very nature of housework goes against every fiber of your entire being...but you operate best when everything has its place---ironic
*Even though your diagnosed ADHD...you secretly think that it's everyone else who is a little "off"---I mean really, who wants to be "normal"?
* You feel like you embody irony in every sense of the word: you are outgoing--yet shy, you are a risk taker--yet insecure, you talk too much---but don't say nearly everything on your mind (for fear of what people would say), you have huge dreams---but details drag you down
* You think in terms of linked thoughts...one thought leading you to another...to another...to another...and none of them are particularly related...except for that one word
* There is a person that you see frequently and for the life of you--you can't remember their name...so you wait for someone else to call it and you just avoid it calling it until then. (ADHDers...you know you do this)
I could go on...but I will save it for another post. Just know, although I don't have a ribbon...I am letting my ADHD flag fly with pride. And for those who aren't ADHD...yeah...we think we're cooler than you.
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Flip Side of ADHD
It is no secret that I am a lab rat. I love the process of research. Given a topic of interest my curiosity races ahead of me and I become a hermit. I pull information from scholar search banks, published journals, and the most random remote areas to piece together a puzzle--then I get to go out and test my idea. I get to ask the question: am I wrong? Absolute thrill of a lifetime is to find out that I am indeed right...or...that I am wrong and I have discovered something entirely new. Ooooh to be that researcher!
ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is a one of my research passions. I do not share the opinion of most of my clinical counterparts that every part of this "disorder" is evil. I know the stats, the data, the life outcomes, the information on medication, performance, scholastic achievement, depression and overall impairments of ADHD. I live behind stacks of studies on my desk detailing every one of these impairments. Yet, I still believe that ADHD can be a conduit of many, many advantages: Creativity, risk taking, ingenuity, charisma, perseverance, hyper-focus, resilience, observant, the ability to make complex ideas simple, the ability to piece together fast moving theories and multi-task like nobody's business.
Why would I think this way? Especially considering the countless details of information that tell me otherwise. Because I am ADHD. And as an ADHD woman, mother, wife, student, and researcher, I have learned that there are countless ways to do things....and then there is a way that lends to creativity, perseverance, and multidimensional thinking...I prefer that way. I came across this article: ADD in the corner office: Five Top executives discovered that an LD can be a capitalist tool. This article shares the story of five execs who prove that limitations are often in the eye of beholder:
"If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADD, I would take ADD....I'm afraid of taking drugs, blowing a circuit, and then being like the rest of you...I knew I had strengths that other people didn't have, and my parents reminded me of them when my teachers didn't seem them....I can distill complicated facts and come up with simple solutions. I can look out on a industry with all kinds of problems and say, 'How can I do this better?' My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things." (www.greatschools.org)
I am in the midst of my newest research endeavor. I am dreaming up constructs and methods of research. I am reading about all the ways those before me have tried. Statistics show that a child with ADHD is lucky to make it out of school without failing a grade--but my history tells me that a girl with undiagnosed ADHD can graduate in the top ten of her high school class, honors in college, and now what?? The sky is my only limit--regardless of the statistics.
Even with all of the challenges and the cross eyed looks I get when someone in my field finds out I am ADHD...given the chance to be normal or ADHD...I will take my ADHD any day of the week.
www.greatschools.org article quoted by: Louis Gilman, ADDitude Magazine
ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is a one of my research passions. I do not share the opinion of most of my clinical counterparts that every part of this "disorder" is evil. I know the stats, the data, the life outcomes, the information on medication, performance, scholastic achievement, depression and overall impairments of ADHD. I live behind stacks of studies on my desk detailing every one of these impairments. Yet, I still believe that ADHD can be a conduit of many, many advantages: Creativity, risk taking, ingenuity, charisma, perseverance, hyper-focus, resilience, observant, the ability to make complex ideas simple, the ability to piece together fast moving theories and multi-task like nobody's business.
Why would I think this way? Especially considering the countless details of information that tell me otherwise. Because I am ADHD. And as an ADHD woman, mother, wife, student, and researcher, I have learned that there are countless ways to do things....and then there is a way that lends to creativity, perseverance, and multidimensional thinking...I prefer that way. I came across this article: ADD in the corner office: Five Top executives discovered that an LD can be a capitalist tool. This article shares the story of five execs who prove that limitations are often in the eye of beholder:
"If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADD, I would take ADD....I'm afraid of taking drugs, blowing a circuit, and then being like the rest of you...I knew I had strengths that other people didn't have, and my parents reminded me of them when my teachers didn't seem them....I can distill complicated facts and come up with simple solutions. I can look out on a industry with all kinds of problems and say, 'How can I do this better?' My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things." (www.greatschools.org)
I am in the midst of my newest research endeavor. I am dreaming up constructs and methods of research. I am reading about all the ways those before me have tried. Statistics show that a child with ADHD is lucky to make it out of school without failing a grade--but my history tells me that a girl with undiagnosed ADHD can graduate in the top ten of her high school class, honors in college, and now what?? The sky is my only limit--regardless of the statistics.
Even with all of the challenges and the cross eyed looks I get when someone in my field finds out I am ADHD...given the chance to be normal or ADHD...I will take my ADHD any day of the week.
www.greatschools.org article quoted by: Louis Gilman, ADDitude Magazine
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