Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

Think of a thermometer and the mercury it contains. If you have ever broken a thermometer, you know what happens to the mercury. The ADD mind is like spilled mercury, running and beading. Structure is the vessel needed to contain the mercury of the ADD mind, to keep it from being here and there and everywhere all at once. Structure allows the ADD m

The procedure of psychological testing involves all three of these “treatments” for ADD. It is done one-on-one, with the psychologist guiding the individual orally through the tests, making it difficult for him to tune out. The subject is typically highly motivated, trying to “do well” on the test. And the testing situation is highly stimulating du

It is easy to set up. You start by making a list of all the regular tasks, obligations, and appointments you have every week—your fixed-time expenditures, so to speak. You then make a grid of your week on a calendar or appointment book and plug each fixed obligation into a regular time slot.

Accident-proneness

subsiding, but always in motion. Such hyperreactivity enhances creativity because it increases the number of collisions in the brain. Each collision has the potential to emit new light, new matter, as when subatomic particles collide.

Explosive temper

phobia. Only if the symptoms are more intense than is normal, if they last a long while, and if they interfere with one’s everyday life, only then can one entertain an actual diagnosis.

Most adults who have ADD do not suspect they have it. They just feel that something is amiss in some unnameable way.

behavior that seems narcissistic. The narcissist, in simple terms, has trouble