Mental health and guns...

be very careful when you say you want stronger restrictions on the mentally ill owning firearms.

Did you know that ADD and ADHD are considered "mental illnesses" by the so-called experts?  Think about the hundreds of thousands of kids who are given dangerous drugs rather than teaching them in a way that is compatible with how their brains function. 

My guess?

None of them will ever be able to purchase a firearm.

I have ADD.  I do not have a mental illness.  I do not have a disability. 

I would, however, be much more interested in that little green ball while my friends were lined up like little boring trolls. 

Eleven Year Old Arrested...

for being an eleven year old?


Everyone seems to be all up-in-arms (ooops - is that too violent of an image?) about this eleven year old kid being arrested for drawing threatening stick figures advocating the killing of teachers.

"The picture, however, was the product of instructions from the boy’s therapist, who told him to draw instead of act out in class when his attention deficit disorder flares up."

 Before going further, allow me to say that I have ADD, and spent several years teaching 4th grade in a private boy's school.  ADD (my preferred designation over ADHD) is a real biological condition.  ADD's location in the brain can be seen in imaging studies, and the neurochemistry of ADD can be described.


Without going into great detail on the medical aspects, one thing is quite apparent to those who study people with ADD; we lean heavily toward the visual learning side of the equation.  Very heavily.  There were several boys in my classrooms, who in my opinion, had ADD.  They were all exceptionally bright and were very good artists.  One of my tactics to help them focus was to allow them to doodle while I was teaching - something the administration of the school did not like one single little bit.  One of the boys loved to draw battleships with big booming cannons.  I never viewed this as a threat, but only as something boys do. 

When tested the following day, the doodling boys would ace the test on the subject being taught.  The doodling (visual) helped them to focus on what was being said (verbal), because in most cases, words are a waterfall of sounds washing over us ADD'ers that flow into some distant lake with no boat, let alone paddles for the boat.

I don't think any of us can comment on this story without having all the details, although it appears that to arrest him for drawing a "threatening" stick figure drawing is a bit over-the-top.  Particularly in our current culture where violent imagery is everywhere - not just in the halls of the state capitol of Wisconsin (couldn't resist that.)

We also don't know if this boy was on medication, a "solution" that in most cases, in my opinion, is highly inappropriate.  People with ADD have a different way of learning, and it is much more profitable to "teach to their strengths", of which they have many.

I might add that the student perpetrators of every school shooting was on medication of some sort - usually some form of anti-depressant.  We indeed live in a strange world where we line our children up en masse and force dangerous chemicals into their bodies as a way to cover for teaching deficiencies.

Oh yes - find me at a lecture and you'll find me doodling...

Adults with ADD - Unite!

This morning I read an interesting review of a book over at the von Mises Institute.  The book, A whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink made me sit up and take notice. 

To quote the article:

In his bestselling book, A whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future,  Pink argues that the future belongs to those who can recognize patterns, empathize with others, be creative, and provide meaning to peoples' lives.

The left hemisphere of our brains handles the logical, sequential, and analytical heavy lifting, while the right hemisphere is our intuitive, holistic, and nonlinear side. The job market has put a premium on left-brain work and, to the extent that education trains workers, it focuses on left-brain thinking. Pink contends that technology, globalization, and material abundance are now sending simple paper-pushing white-collar professions the way of the buggy whip.

Now I'm sure you're wondering what ADD (I prefer ADD to ADHD) has to do with this book.  Since I am an adult blessed with ADD, I recognized an almost perfect description of this "condition."

People with ADD operate the majority of the time from their right brain.  Growing up and being educated at a time when little was known about this was a bit dicey, but I survived and in many areas, actually flourished.  In my early years I heard the litany of, "if she'd just buckle down and work" or, "she's so smart, if only she would focus"  blah, blah, blah.

Well, guess what?  I may not have been able to memorize my multiplication tables, but I could always see the patterns in math.  The world just wasn't ready to recognize this fact.  And while the left brain folks are having a meeting, forming a steering committee, or nitpicking a subject to death, the ADD'ers are asking, "what's the simplest and best way to get something done" - and then they're doing it.

Those who can tell or write stories will thrive, according to Pink. With all the world's facts and figures a click away at virtually no cost, the storyteller's ability to provide "context enriched by emotion" is what will be prized. Success in the "Conceptual Age" will mean understanding the connections between diverse disciplines — what the author refers to as "symphony ."

One of the important elements of symphony is the use of metaphor or "imaginative rationality" to see relationships, communicate ideas, and understand others.

Once I tried medication for my ADD.  It helped, but as I liked living with a symphony in my head, I quickly stopped the meds.  I learned to sort out the notes (most days),  and tend to enjoy the "shiny object syndrome."