Short Attention Span

While I do think that there are some who actually have ADD or ADHD and can benefit from assistance with that, it is widely over diagnosed now in our society.

I think that in many cases it is a child who does not fit in a little box that we label as what is normal as far as learning or energy. It is easier to label with a disorder and to then medicate so that they then fit in and can sit through a class without "disrupting" the class.

Some children have higher energy levels and instead of burning off the energy that allows them to then sit they are doped so that they conform. For those with short attention spans there are not concessions made for them to learn within the normal class structure. We expect all to fit in with our expectation of learning and the education system is not designed for those outside of the box. The error is ours in expecting all children to fit into that mold.

 

people with adhd CAN pay attention but tend to get bored easily very quickly and wanna do something else.

amphetamines help, a lot of kids diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed amphetamines as children end up speed freaks later tho.

 

ADD/ADHD is a personality trait that was coined as a mental disorder by school lecturers who couldn't do their job good enough to figure out how to keep children interested in boring talks and topics. Then it was later on exploited through propaganda by psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry to drug these kids up on stimulants like Dexedrine for profit.

What I've always found puzzling is how health experts claim to say it's horrible to give children coffee, yet they give the green light to dose up the same kids with Dexedrine.

If an energetic and creative young kid is trapped in the confines of a classroom or church and required to sit in an uncomfortable wooden chair for several hours while listening to a boring monotone lecturer talk about topics that are not engaging or interesting. Then of course the kid's mind is going to wonder off and not pay attention. This is how ADHD was born; by the boring lecturers and the parents of children who are too rowdy and rambunctious. The clinical diagnosis for ADHD is not determined by a blood test, brain scan, or MRI like most diseases and disabilities. It is instead determined by a psychiatrist with a checklist attached to a clipboard. If you were to take that psychiatrist's clipboard, go around and survey people with the same questions, then you'll find that about 29/30 people will have ADHD.

I too can find it difficult to get into a good book when I read the first chapter. But it requires being in a certain state of mind. I cannot go from an energetic state to a calm state of mind instantly in order to get the first chapters read. It helps to meditate and calm the soul before doing a mindful activity that requires having a strong attention span. It is not a symptom of a clinical diagnosis.

 

What's this thread about?

 

I never got diagnosed with ADD in school. At the time, it was considered "an American thing". I've never taken any drugs for it either.

Ultimately, there are "hunters" and "gathers". Most people are the latter. Me and you are the former ie "ADD" people.

Teachers would say "you don't concentrate". And I would think "you explain it too slowly, in a shit manner".

Non-ADD people lack the concentration of an ADD person when handling a VARIETY of things at once. If you watch a modern TV program they flit between topics every 5-7 mins or so. The brain is actually better at learning in a multi-topic, multi-disciplinary way.

Don't try and force yourself to be something you aren't. Identify your skills and YOUR personal abilities/pyschology. ADD people will usually make shit computer coders and accountants. But they make very good ceos - they can scan multiple issues at once, see various tactics, and are good at delegating.

I think ADD people have very fast "pulsing brains". If the pulsing is out of rythm with the task, they have to step back from it. So the challenge is to syncronise it all.

My solution with work is to work 2 businesses simultaneously. I'm semi working on a creative project too. Morning exercise helps. For instance 5 mins exercise every hour sometimes. Try and link verbal, visual, aural, kinaesthetic, colours, intuitiveness, left+right brain etc.
Good nutrition is a big issue too. You might do better with music on, a tv on, or even web surfing for 5 mins in 60.

Its interesting to note that the most cutting edge learning strategies don't actually hypnotise people into the non ADD mindset, they actually embrace ADD type characteristics.

 

I can relate.

 

thing is, I can pay attention if it's something I'm interested in, but I have to be making progress. that means the teacher has to be making progress in teaching and if progress isn't being made i lose interest quickly because I want to learn something new, not the same thing I already know because the teacher thinks I still don't get it.

when I was in school I would be interested at first when a new topic was itrounced but when 2 weeks later we were still on that same topic I wouldn't necessarily feel like doing the homework because I already got it, and it just felt like busy work at that point and I was ready to actually learn something again. I always did well on tests tho.

 

This

And this

You are suspicious of anything in the media, how the fuck is the entire field of psychology any different?

There you have just described 9/10ths of the population, you cant sit through a 15 minute youtube video, neither can the rest of us.

The questions you need to ask is who thinks ADD/ADHD exists, how and why did they come to this conclusion, and what do they get out of it.

Every hard case for a psychological condition has a biological/chemical cause and associated physical effects:

Those that do actually have a physical reason for difficulty with short term memory vs those kids whose parents just want to get them on ritalin

War veterans that are affected by compression waves that do alter the hypothalamus vs those that say they have PTSD cos they got scared by a dog when they were little

Spinal damage when younger that triggers APD vs those that say they are sociopaths because they dont get on with anybody and are so crazy and different

Humans wouldnt have gotten to this stage of evolution if every one of us was super interested in really boring shit

 

maybe they want to medicate us to create the perfect race of mindless slaves, people who slave away relentlessly on repetitive things and never get bored, and never complain

 

I can relate a lot to this part. Not sure it is primarily an attention problem for me, I also 'suffer' from indecisiveness in real life sometimes. For example I like to be able to make conscious decisions in and about my life and getting sucked in the rat race seems often like it would infringe on those possibilities (as I see all the time with others who use the excuse i'm too busy making a living). On the other hand, I acknowledge having a steady cash flow coming in can help making good and influential decisions too. But like I said before you know it you're stuck in the rat race. Life is an awesome ride, unless you get awfully stuck somewhere

One thing about the skimming through books thing you and Rat mentioned: I do not really dig this approach of reading a book myself as you never really know what you are missing. I can understand with some non fiction books that has clear divisions in chapters that it is tempting to skip the ones you think cover a topic you already know a lot about but still....

I wish that would work for me too But it only works when I am already into something. When I am not really into something (because it is boring and an obligation or something) I can focus better on it sober.

 

I've also noticed that people who are diagnosed with ADHD can sit still, and can pay attention for long periods, if the topic or activity interests them. So can ADHD be turned on and off? Or, do we live in a culture of instant gratification where things that don't provide immediate reinforcement aren't worth pursuing? If it doesn't feel good right now, it isn't worth working for, I see that message relayed a lot in popular culture, the media, and by parents. And then we expect kids to sit in class for 6 hours a day and learn about topics that aren't of immediate use to them? Something has to change. I would make the case for ADHD behavior is being taught (there are exceptions),

 

ADHD, omg I AM YOU!!! Lol especially at night until 2am, looking up anything and everything, right then it's so interesting, but next morning, I'm like WTH?, 64 tabs open on my phone.It makes no sense. I'm on adderall 30mg ir, which isn't shit, I need about 65mg to really be still. Daytranas have been best for me.hey when you're reading or etc, do you start getting bored, pissed, irritated &all that?? Anyways I'm the same way! Good luck

 

Oops this was for PRessed Rat

 

okay, after thinking about this a bit im gonna say that there probably is something similar to ADD but that most people diagnosed with it are probably misdiagnosed.

i was diagnosed with ADHD as a five year old because i didnt always like to follow rules, not because of an inability to learn. i never did take the medication (ritalin) for more than a few weeks then my parents took me off of it, because they found that it did NOT make my behavior better but instead made me even more hyperactive. What else would you expect amohetamines to do to someone ... theres a reason its called speed and ive never known a speedfreak that was calm. i always excelled in school, made straight A's without really trying or having to study and generally was at the top of my class.

i can get bored very quickly ... if im not interested in it. History class was super boring for me, but i think it was mostly the way it was presented. heres the thing, if i AM interested in something i can spend countless hours on it. Fuck if i havent spent upwards of 18hours in front of the computer on my keyboard writing code and trying to find out what was wrong, and when i get like that, involved in something thats interesting TO ME a bomb could probably go off next to me and i wouldnt even move because im so focused and i really cant stop, not even to get something to eat until i solve the problem ... and when i find it, i have to write the solution then. if i dont do it right then i will bug me (no oun intended) for the rest of the day and i wont be able to concentrate or care about anything else because thats all i can think about. i probably wint be able to sleep that night if i dont get it done before going to bed and will probably dream about it. of course after 18 hours of this my eyes feel like theyre gonna bleed, my ass hurts from the computer chair and i worry a bit about developing carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists.

im not a slave or a machine ... im only gonna be focused and diligent when its something i actually care about personally.

i think how kids get diagnosed with adhd is theyre parents tell the doctor "my kid is hyper and wont sit still" ... and the doctor says "oh that sounds like ADHD, give him a small shard of crystal meth and that'll calm him down"

 

does adderall really calm you down ... because for me, higher doses just make me anything but calm in a dose dependant fashion. like i said in my previous post i was diagnosed as a kid, but the meds just made me even more hyper so my parents took me off it and never really took it after that until much later when i tried them recreationally. even 30mg adderall id probably be awake for 2 days even if taken at 9 in the morning ... especially the XR version which seems to be popular these days.

i have heard that a person that really does have ADD reacts differently to these meds, and it actually has the opposite effect. i always had a hard time believing that though because honestly i cant imagine how amphetamines could calm ANYONE down ... they are the opposite of calm.

 

yea if you don't get addicted. Its very easy to.

amphetamine and dextroamphetamine are in Adderall.

dex is a brother of meth, amp is its sedative.

The Dex fucking winds you like a top and you can do anything tell the top stops.

Avoid the college paper two days tell its due, that's when you get Adderall.

You'll turn it in and it will be great, or hopefully passable.

Adderall is a awesome drug, so I suggest you avoid it before you get addicted and find other of its out lets.

 

Huh?

 

I am similar in that I feel more comfortable in writing than I do in speaking. I am a decent speaker when it's like a 1 on 1 conversation with me and another person but I get anxiety when surrounded in groups.

I have noticed, as often being more of an observer in group discussions, that discussion in groups rarely resembles written discussion, like we have here on the forums. Spoken group discussion is of a different pace and flow than written discussion. For instance in a spoken discussion an individual can get cut off or spoken above in the middle of an assertion. Furthermore body language, eye contact, voice projection, etc. often constitute as much of the charisma of a good speaker as the content of what they are saying. Group dynamics and social hiearchy seem much more pronounced in speaking in groups. I like how in written discussions how an individual can contemplate, organize and state their complete thought.


Without really delving into if there is a correlation between specialization of interests and ADD, I do think that specialization is a symptom of the culture for the general population. There is so much more information thrust onto people now than at any other time in history and most fields of interest that a career can be made out of, are becoming exceedingly cookie cutter and competitive in the qualifications necessary to enter the field.

Based on your op, I hope you made it this far...


You mentioned skimming books to get the general idea but gloss over many specifics... I notice quite a few people tend to do that on here, in regards to replying to articles, papers, videos, etc. Many people do not seem very adept at rhetorical analysis and attempt to cherry pick certain arguments, statements, evidence out of a more thorough statement. This often leads to a distortion of the original source and often, does not really improve the individual's arguments, because the same source will usually contain information which contextualizes or expounds on cherry picked statements.

 

lol

 

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