ADHD - Some Info

Hi all,

I was hoping to get some more feedback from the couple ADHD threads I started, but I guess that goes to show that many don't really have an opinion on it or perhaps don't really understand what it is, so here's a little info.

To understand Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder, you really need to first understand the aspects of what "Attention" really is.

To some, ADHD (or ADD) is just a reason parents use to pass off their children's bad behavior. To others, a diagnosis of ADHD/ADD is a wake up call to a condition which could explain childhood or a lifelong set of counter-productive behaviors. It's said that 80% of children who have ADHD will bring that condition into adulthood and manifests as underachievement, bad performance, lack of ability to motivate or follow through and messiness, piles in one's house, countless hours of online time and any number of other comorbid conditions.

Today, you will often hear people differentiate between ADHD and ADD, with ADD folks lacking the Hyperactivity component.

Most people believe that ADHD/ADD merely manifests as hyperactivity. "My hubby doesn't have ADHD/ADD...he can sit and focus on something for hours without being disturbed.' Or maybe you hear, "My wife is completely successful in her life and career, how could she have ADHD/ADD?"

Attention is comprised of the following aspects:

1. Ability to be attentive and focused
2. Ability to have one's focus changed by outside stimuli
3. Ability of one to be able to differentiate between outside stimuli and choose his focus of attention accordingly.

Many people with ADHD do have problems focusing and being attentive and often switch from priority to priority. These people are often able to multitask fairly well, after a lifetime of doing it, but often have problems carrying all those tasks to their completion. Their lives may be a series of tasks and projects begun, but never completed. They may have started taking lessons in this or that, but have never finished. They may be in the middle of 1,000 projects and often find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of things they have that are undone.

Hyperfocusing, is something that the uninitated might not associate with ADHD. These people often focus on projects and things to the exclusion of everything going on around them. They are able to work no matter what distractions are around and are able to handle long term projects well and follow them to completion. They aren't as adept at multitasking and find frustration when faced with multiple goals with multiple priorities. In their case, their inability to switch attention between stimuli is how their ADHD/ADD condition manifests.

Still others, may be interrupted in something they were doing and are unable to return to the task they were doing prior to being interrupted. These folks are frantic because they are at the whim of every sight and sound around them. They are the folks who are exhausted at the end of the day and realize that they didn't accomplish anything that they had intended. And worse, this happens day after day.

In reality, we ADHD/ADD folks can experience most of the above with some regularity but find that we tend to have more problems with one or two of the areas.

As it turns out, online gaming, in partiular, MMORPGs and the Internet provide perfect escapes from those above conditions. While playing online, we can control many aspects of our attention. We can choose to sit and hyperfocus doing repetitive things like tradeskills, or we can multitask and get some "juice" by playing a support class character on a raid. Or we can simply wander around our cartoon realms doing whatever we want, controlling all aspects of our avatar...something we often cannot do in real life.

If you have grown up with the condition, as I have, you do not really understand how your life can be different. In fact we often compensate for many of the symptoms of ADHD/ADD as we get older which makes it that much more difficult to competently diagnose. It wasn't until I began a regimen of medication that I finally knew what it was like to be able to hold my focus and burn through my projects and to-do lists.

Now for my issue, it's more than just not being able to focus my attention. We all go through that, but there are times when I am completely incapacitated by my inability to focus on or remember what it is I am supposed to be doing. The outside stimuli used to affect me so much that the only thing I was able to do was to escape to the online world of Norrath. It wasn't just an escape, it was a mental break. Even now, there are times when a super stressful day makes me want to do nothing other than hang out online. In those cases, even TV won't cut it because my mind still wanders. Only interacting with the online world can help me relax on some days.

Now I'm not saying that everyone who plays excessively and compulsively has ADHD/ADD, but I can say that the the online realm seems to be a haven for folks like me.

ADHD has to be diagnosed by a competant physician who has extensive experience in dealing with the condition, and treatment will usually require medication and therapy/counseling and/or coaching. It is not a condition that can be cured, but it is one that can be treated and controlled.

There are a few diagnostic tests that can be done including brain scans and a test called OpTax which is currently available for young children and adolescents. The adult test is still being developed from what I understand.

Anyway, I wish I was able to provide more information, but adult ADHD is starting to see more mainstream research and recognition. I know my diagnosis was a wake up call and knowing that I have it has helped me approach tasks and projects differently. In my case, it has been empowering...not something to blame my shortcomings on.

I hope this has helped a bit.

Ron

Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
On-Line Gamers Anonymous