Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

By Arghavan Sadeghi, MFT

Ninety percent of experience is perspective. It is a matter of how you see things and the meaning you give it that makes the experience what it is. This is also true of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD, also known as ADD. How you experience it is a matter of which lens you use to view it.

You may have heard some of the horror stories and difficulties associated with having ADHD/ADD. Excessive distractibility and hyperactivity, difficulty following through with instructions or projects, difficulty finishing tasks and home work, short and selective attention span, poor concentration, difficulty reading and staying focused, difficulty staying organized, forgetfulness, porous memory, losing belongings, and impatience are some of the signs of ADHD.

Though I recognize the many challenges that having ADHD/ ADD presents for the child and family, I believe it is time that we also see this condition in a different light, with a new perspective. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to present an alternative way of looking at what traditionally has been presented as a disorder--something gone awry that needs to be fixed.
About five percent of school children have ADHD, and anywhere from three to 20 percent of the general population (depending on what study you look at) have it. So how do we account for such a high and varied percentage? Is it that nature has gone berserk and created so many ill and disordered people?

In order to develop a different perspective, let’s first look at what’s in the name: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The word ‘disorder’ right away conveys that something has gone wrong; something is out of “order.” The word ‘deficit’ tells us that there is a lack or shortage of something; that there is an insufficient, inadequate, scant, flawed or defective degree of attention.

The clinical data clearly show that people with ADHD can hyperfocus depending on their degree of motivation. Children with ADHD, for example, can hyperfocus on their favorite video game or T.V. show. Adults with ADHD hyperfocus on activities they are passionate about. This is often the baffling part of this condition. Parents complain that their child can play video games for hours but spend only minutes reading or doing homework before they get distracted. The reason for this is novelty. ADDers have a low frustration tolerance for routine and repetitive tasks.

ADDers also have an ability to scan the environment and notice details that others fail to see. The ADD child is one who notices the bug on the classroom ceiling, hears the gardener’s lawn mower outside, or complains of too much noise and chatter in the classroom. Is it that he lacks attention or that he has the capacity to scan his surroundings and notice what others tend to ignore? Is it an issue of scant attention or one of shifting attention?

It is precisely this ability to shift attention that has helped many inventors and scientists to discover what others have overlooked. Thomas Edison is a good example. His distractibility and impulsivity helped him to search for world transforming inventions. He said: “Look, I start here with the intention of going there-- drawing a straight line in an experiment, say--to increase the speed of the Trans-Atlantic cable; but when I have arrived part way in my straight line, I meet with a phenomenon, and it leads me off in another direction, to something totally unexpected.” Had Edison stayed focused on his original task, we may not be enjoying the fruits of his discoveries.

Thom Hartman in his book, Beyond ADD, proposes a non-disorder model of ADHD that is exhilarating and innovative. He likens ADDers to hunters living in a farmers’ society. Hunters are people with a unique set of skills necessary for daily survival. To survive and excel as a hunter, one has to be able to scan the environment constantly (distractibility), to be active and persistently on the go, to enjoy dangerous, stimulating situations (hyperactivity), and to make snap judgments and decisions (impulsivity).

For a moment imagine yourself as a hunter running around the bushes or the jungle, looking for your next meal. You are following the tracks of a rabbit when suddenly a deer dashes in front of you. If you are focused on the rabbit tracks you will miss the bigger lunch that just passed you by. Or you might miss the lion in your peripheral vision who is about to make a lunch out of you. So, it is a good thing to scan your environment and to get distracted by every little noise in the bushes. It is a mechanism that helps you, the hunter, to protect yourself and survive.

A hunter also cannot afford to be intimidated or frightened by unknown territories and risky situations. His brain has to be wired so that he enjoys taking risks and scouting new habitats. His very livelihood depends on his ability to face danger. If he likes routine and predictability, he avoids exploration of the unknown, and pretty soon will have depleted his food source and ability to survive. For a hunter, it is essential to like novel, stimulating and exciting circumstances.

Hartman contends that human societies were predominantly hunters until about 12,000 years ago when agricultural societies began to flourish. Today the world is dominated by farming and industrial societies, though some hunting societies continue to exist. Farming societies demand a different set of skills. Remaining stationary, staying in one area, focusing on one piece of land where the crops are tended to, doing long-term risk vs. benefit analysis, avoiding the risky and the unknown, are all necessary for the farmer’s survival.

Now imagine yourself a hunter, living in a farmland and trying to apply your hunting skills to farming. You might feel and look out of place. You might even look erratic and crazed, scanning the crops for predators and prey, and for constantly being on the move, lacking patience to do the repetitive and tedious tasks of a farmer. You may be called disordered, deserve to be locked up and treated in a hospital with medication. The hunter is a displaced, not an insane person.

Similarly, the ADD/Hunter child is placed in an environment where he or she is required to pay attention to one or two tasks for long periods of time. He must pay attention to his teacher and/or do the class work while his brain is wired to walk, talk, listen to music and pay attention to others’ conversations and activities. In a classroom setting where the chairs are set up like rows of crops, and where structure, order, and predictability are necessary for maintaining the teacher’s sanity and the achievement of the classroom goals, the ADDer is lost and bored and is looking to stimulate himself. To others, the ADDer appears as disruptive, inattentive, and problematic.

In short, we are constantly reminded of all the challenges and inadequacies of having ADD, but not of all the creative and successful people who have harnessed and harvested the potential of their ADD mind. We do not hear about people like Mozart, Leonardo Di Vinci, Einstein, Lincoln, and the successful CEO’s, salespeople and comedians of our world. ADDers have numerous strengths, including resilience, a sense of humor, creativity and an ability to think out of the box. It is my goal to give parents and children affected by this condition a different perspective; to help the parent and child look through a different lens, and to see the child’s “differentness” as something unique and special.

Arghavan Sadeghi is a trilingual marriage and family therapist in private practice. She serves the English, Spanish and Farsi speaking communities in her two office locations in Van Nuys and Culver City. Ms. Sadeghi has extensive experience in helping children with anxiety and OCD symptoms overcome their difficulties.

For more information please contact her at 818-398-7090 or at http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/38050