Inside the ADHD Mind
"I wish that I could step into his shoes for a few minutes," the young mother said to me. "I would like to understand what it's like to be so impulsive and act so rashly sometimes. And then to feel the relief when it's over."
Many people wonder what it's like to have ADHD. For many years this neurological disorder was a malady with no name. Parents punished their problematic children and employers fired their irresponsible employees. Only recently have we begun to identify, treat and understand Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or AD/HD).
Picture a train speeding down the tracks. It usually slows down at curves, stops at junctions, and proceeds cautiously through train stations.
Now picture a train with a faulty speedometer. Eighty mph is shown as 40 and 100 mph is 50. The engineer doesn't know he's traveling too fast and therefore misses the warning signs and doesn't hear the blast from the other train. He's as shocked as everyone else when his train jumps the curve or crashes into another train!
The engineer is mortified. He doesn't know that his instruments are faulty. He thought he was going a great job before he got into this accident. Yet everyone is blaming him and saying that he's a "bad" person for causing so much damage and harm.
This is a person that suffers from AD/HD.
The child or adult with AD/HD is not to blame for his lack of concentration and/or impulsive behavior. The internal mechanisms that govern his behavior were delivered this way from the "factory." And since there is no "return service," we have to do the best we can to modify the system, enabling one part of the machinery to compensate for another.
The engineer, with a newly modified and updated machine at his disposal, can become the best in his region. He can rise to the top of his profession and eventually teach others how to improve their trains as well.
Many people wonder what it's like to have ADHD. For many years this neurological disorder was a malady with no name. Parents punished their problematic children and employers fired their irresponsible employees. Only recently have we begun to identify, treat and understand Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or AD/HD).
Picture a train speeding down the tracks. It usually slows down at curves, stops at junctions, and proceeds cautiously through train stations.
Now picture a train with a faulty speedometer. Eighty mph is shown as 40 and 100 mph is 50. The engineer doesn't know he's traveling too fast and therefore misses the warning signs and doesn't hear the blast from the other train. He's as shocked as everyone else when his train jumps the curve or crashes into another train!
The engineer is mortified. He doesn't know that his instruments are faulty. He thought he was going a great job before he got into this accident. Yet everyone is blaming him and saying that he's a "bad" person for causing so much damage and harm.
This is a person that suffers from AD/HD.
The child or adult with AD/HD is not to blame for his lack of concentration and/or impulsive behavior. The internal mechanisms that govern his behavior were delivered this way from the "factory." And since there is no "return service," we have to do the best we can to modify the system, enabling one part of the machinery to compensate for another.
The engineer, with a newly modified and updated machine at his disposal, can become the best in his region. He can rise to the top of his profession and eventually teach others how to improve their trains as well.
posted by Dr. Spiegel at
10:01 AM
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