Tag: ADD

You might have ADD if…

Db06 Comments

You multitask like a mothafucka.

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I’ve known I have ADHD since i was around 24. I found out by myself by searching online for solutions for my very short attention span, learning about ADD and then going to a specialist on these issues for an actual test. The discovery explained a lot of things about who I am and why I act as I do, and most importantly, knowing what I have allowed me to take the right steps to combat it.

Still, sometimes I keep surprising myself with just how much I need to trivially multitask in order to keep myself focused on my primary task. Trivially multitasking means doing small things with my hands, and feet and whatnot, in order to keep my splitting concentration from doing something even more disrupting. So I chew my fingernails, tap my feet, scratch and pick my nose, squeeze a rubber ball, chew the inside of my cheeks and lips, grind my teeth and so on. I usually do at least 3 of these things at the same time as my main task and I do them subconsciously, meaning that I only realize I’m doing them after I’ve done it for a bit.

However some times, I surprise even myself on the amount of things I need to be doing all the time, like today for example, where I was talking to my wife on the phone. Normally, I really don’t like talking on the phone. I find it boring and a few minutes is enough for me, at which point I just want to hang up and continue doing whatever I was doing before.  This time however, I seemed to be more tolerant of the act and while talking on the phone my mind started working on why this might be and then it struck me on how many things I was doing at the same time at that point. I was talking on the phone with one ear. On the other ear I was listening to music via a ear-set. On my left hand, I was playing with a coin. On my second monitor, I was watching my electric sheep screen-saver (which, if you’ve seen it, is quite enthralling by itself). And finally, I was tapping my feet.

When I mentioned this to my wife (who knows a lot about ADD from her profession), she explained that there’s no way she would be able to do all these at the same time.

I’ve now formed another half-arsed theory on why I especially hate talking on the phone. You see, most people, even without ADD, do something more than simply talk on the phone. Doodling on a notepad is a common occurrence for long talks, and I’d seen both my mother and various other people do that. It occurs to me then that a phone-call is by default a not very enthralling activity. It just doesn’t contain the concentration of most people enough, which makes them want to do something extra while on the phone. Something like doodling is enough for most. However when you combine this with ADD, being on the phone becomes almost intolerable since doodling is nowhere near enough to fill up your attention.

What do you think? Anyone else with ADHD who has similar experiences?

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Gullibility

Db03 Comments

From the Way of the Mind I discovered this little test that at first sight seemed promising. I was initially skeptic of some of the questions asked within and I was pretty certain that one could get a 100% score by answering in a very paranoid/conspiracy therist way.

I was not wrong. I received a mediocre 67 which as the site puts it, make me a

Learner

As a Learner, you’re smart enough to know better, yet you’re still not fully informed about reality. Around 15% of the population are Learners. You have the critical thinking skills to be a truly free individual, but you haven’t exercised them enough yet. From time to time, you’re still manipulated by the powers that be, although you frequently learn from those mistakes and refuse to be exploited again. You buy things because they are practical, not because they’re cool. If you were in The Matrix, you would have taken the red pill, but you would still be in a state of mild disbelief about the nature of reality. You are essentially unplugged, but still untrained. With more knowledge, you could become a true free thinker.

Your architects: You have always been an independent thinker. You rebelled against your parents, schoolteachers and always chose to hang out with smart friends who weren’t necessarily that popular to the “in” crowd. Increasingly, you shape your own world by deciding what actions to take based on your own internal drive rather than what society tells you is right.

Action steps: Learn more. Educate yourself through alternative media and cutting-edge books. Read the answers below to get started.

All well and good, pretty much describes me. I was prepared to ignore the – immediately following – link to the author’s book, as it completely undermines the impartiability of the test. I continued to read though and my worries became true, although he seemed to have some very true points (like the Lying Goverment or the Federal Reserve), some of them were twisted in a way to make them seem so much worse, as in the case of the Carmine which, although it is indeed created from crushed bugs, (nothing wrong with that imho, unless you’re very squeamish) the author then goes on to try to scare people by saying:

carmine also poses the threat of causing a rare but fatal allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock

Well, no shit, Sherlock! As in the case of every person with allergies, you’d better not go near and especially eat stuff you are allergic to. This is not a problem of Carmine but a problem of people with the allergy who should be taking care of what they are eating.

The rest of the test builds results up to more and more dubious claims as in the case of cancer and finally ADHD. In the cancer explanation, I liked the fact that he is trying to move people away from the proven medical solutions into “New Age Cure territory”, to which I want to cry a humongous “BOLLOCKS!”.
I’ve had personal experience of my mother dying from cancer after she preferred homeopathy, new age cures and all that jazz, until her Massage therapist discovered that the pain leg he’d been trying to fix for the last 6 months was an actual tumour that found the time to migrate to her lungs…BOLLOCKS I say!

And then of course he goes around the say that ADHD does not exist and it’s all made up to feed the drug industry etc. Seeing as I am a person with this annoying disorder, it is extremely irritating for me to read him claiming that it’s all due to bad nutrition. Especially since my mother was completely against all the “pop” food and she kept feeding us organic products and stuff like that (Seriously, I did not eat white bread until after she passed away). Not that I’m complaining or anything but once again this completely undermines it, at least for me.
Then, after coming just one step before claiming that all [tag]ADD[/tag] people are “just lazy and need some firm guidance“, he goes on to link to a friggin’ Scientology site which, for me at least, just completely discredited almost anything he said up to that point, excepting the ones I already knew of…

Becoming extremely curious at that point, I started Googling around and I came upon a StumbleUpon review in which a user, having had the same suspicions as me, goes on to say:

I just spent several hours looking up Mike Adams, the guy who runs this web site and dozens of others. Why? I guess because I was bored. Also, because I found a Scientology link on this web page. The whole page seems to be some sort of Dianetics/Scientology ad, so I was convinced that this Mike Adams guy was a Scientologist. Well, despite all my searching, I couldn’t make the connection, though Google did give some somewhat interesting results. The most interesting result was a page that revealed Mike Adams has incorporated all his companies in Taiwan! Now, that’s a red flag. Why didn’t he incorporate in the U.S.A., where he lives and operates his businesses? Well, let’s go further. It also turns out that he’s a known internet scammer.
Here’s the evidence:

Lots of good information on him, if you do a google web search for “mike adams” scam (or scammer).
Please, people, don’t submit links like this.

Unfortunately I could also not find any link between Mike Adams and Scientology, although I’m positive there is one. It is a shame that he lumped this crap along with true stuff as it will lend discredit to the true.

So to all people that are extremely paranoid, take care to be paranoid on this kind of crap as well…

Παυλιδοτέστ

Db01 Comment

Έκανα το τεστ του Παυλίδη σήμερα και περιμένω τα αποτελέσματα. Περιλαμβάνει ενα τεστ στον υπολογιστή όπου ακολουθείς με τα μάτια μια κουκκίδα και μετά διαβάζεις ένα κείμενο αλλα πρέπει να κάθεσαι ακίνητος.

Η μαλακία είναι οτι επειδή η καρέκλα ήταν για παιδιά, δεν με βόλεβε και αποφάσισα να καθίσω στις μύτες των ποδιών μου. Δεν έκατσα όμως σωστα και στην μέση περίπου άρχισα να πονάω και προσπαθούσα να στηρίξω το βάρος μου απο το τραπέζι με το χέρι μου. Φοβάμαι οτι επειδή σκεφτόμουν τον πόνο μπορεί να άλλαξα το αποτέλεσμα.

Μετά καθίσαμε σε ένα τραπέζι και κάναμε ένα, απ’ότι κατάλαβα, IQ test. Αν και είχε μερικές ερωτήσεις γνώσης, μου φάνηκε αρκετά καλό. Τώρα δεν ξέρω κατα πόσο είναι κατάλληλο για ενήλικες αλλα τέλος πάντων. Απ’οτι φάνηκε τα πήγα αρκετά καλα.

Μίλησα με τον Τσολάκη σήμερα το βράδυ. Τον πήρα να τον ρωτήσω εαν ο πατέρας μου είχε δυσλεξία ή διάσπαση προσοχής και μου είπε οτι δεν είχε τέτοια προβλήματα αλλα αναρωτιέμαι κατα πόσο μπορούσε να το προσέξει. Όταν του ανέφερα τις σκέψεις μου για το [tag]ADD[/tag] μου είπε οτι απλά δεν έχω προσπαθήσει αρκετά.
Προσπάθησα να του εξηγήσω οτι δεν είναι οτι δεν προσπαθώ αλλα οτι δεν μπορώ και οτι συνέχεις αποσπούνται οι σκέψεις μου αλλα δεν φάνηκε να πείθεται. Τουλάχιστον ήξερε τον Παυλίδη και είπε οτι μπορεί να τον πάρει τηλέφωνο να μιλήσουν. Ελπίζω να μην το δει ο Παυλίδης σαν κάποιο είδος “μέσου”. (Αλλα τι μέσο, αφού έχει ήδη συμφωνήσει να με δει)

Διάβασα και αρκετά αυτές τις 2 μέρες για αυτό το θέμα, και να φανταστείς οτι ξεκινησε η όλη ιστορία απο την προσπάθεια μου να βρώ tips για το την μικρή διάρκεια προσοχής μου που δεν μπορώ να ξεπεράσω. Τελικά, αν είναι όπως δείχνουν τα πράγματα, είναι πιο σημαντικό και έξω απο τα χέρια μου, και νιώθω και λίγο ευθυνόφοβος που το λέω αυτο. Σαν να ψάχνω για λόγους ωστε να ρίξω την ευθύνη αλλού.
Απλά απο ένα σημείο και μετά…δεν ξέρω…τόσα πράγματα έχω ξεκινήσει και έχω παρατήσει στην μέση, απλά δεν είναι λογικό να μην μπορώ να συνεχίσω τίποτα ως το τέλος. Ακόμα και εγώ έχω σιχαθεί αυτήν την πτυχή του εαυτού μου…

Τώρα περιμένω την Παρασκευή. Είμαι και περίεργος να δω τι IQ έχω τελικά (ελπίζω όχι ραδικιού). Στο μυαλό μου έρχονται όνειρα απο ξεπέραση του προβλήματος αυτού και μετά μια super εκτίναξη καριέρρας…όνειρα θερινής νυκτώς δηλαδή.