Attention Deficiency What???
Recent experiences with people who are at a higher intellect to compete at the same level as other mortals and their will power to succeed have reinforced in me the concept of faith in human sprit. One such recent exposure of mine was to friend of mine coping with ADD. Yes Attention Deficiency Disorder.
Having ADD doesn’t make a person any different. It is important that when going through ADD we need to be aware of certain special requirements when it comes to having a focused mind. Our medical science people did discover some drugs to benefit recovery from such phases, however the side-effects of these drugs are much complex. A simple Google search can result in about many pages that explain this phenomenon. It is important that we understand this and embrace our friends with ADD rather than ignore or much worse don’t let them IN.
This is my take on the ADD. Assume that you are viewing a web page and continuous pop-ups are disturbing you. It is hard to concentrate on the work at hand. And worse, assume that these pop-ups are related to your weaknesses or strengths. Then it is very likely for these pop-ups to catch our attention. In other words, they take your attention away from article you are reading or the original work that you are supposed to do. For most part we are equipped with Spam ware and a Pop-up blocker mechanism in our minds that prevents us from other distractions when focusing on certain work. However having ADD compromises our system and the pop-ups keep grabbing attention too frequently. Its more like opening a commercial site offering ridiculously popular items for FREE, which then takes you to pop-up land. On a normal functioning day we abandon those sites and try stay focused on our intended purposes. As mentioned earlier, having ADD makes us more vulnerable to these Pop-Ups. In combination to our pervious experiences that these pop-ups are not good we tend to develop a sense of insecurity in our thought process. Consequently, we are confused, and due to the overload on the brain start feeling dizzy. The worst of the feeling is not having the ability to control these pop-ups.
Now the important question is how to deal with ADD. One way is to have good friends/company when going thru these periods. It is more likely not to get distracted in a good company. It is essential for the friends not to force you to focus rather try to instill confidence in us with assuring words. Is it the real cure, may be not but at least gives them the comfort/pleasure of a worthy companionship.
There could be days when ADD tends to “zone us OUT”, i.e. sense of insecurity creeps in and makes us feel not so social. During periods like these we want to spend time in our own empty space. This is open for discussion. Please feel free to post your suggestions.
If it were to be me to deal with my friend with ADD, I would encourage them to work on things that they tend to like or have liked in the past. Be patient to recognize the behavior patterns and gently suggest them my observations. The important thing is not to create an unsafe learning experience, and understand that they have been hurt/scarred with those pop-ups before and largely believe that they will come back. I hope not to force them to face themselves too often, for they might tend to repel our presence. “One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world.” – Ann Radcliffe