Attention Deficit Disorders: The Myths, the Facts

Myth: ADD is just a lack of willpower. People with ADD focus well on things that interest them; they could focus on any other tasks if they really wanted to.

Fact: ADD looks like a willpower problem, but it isn't. It's a chemical problem in the management system of the brain.

Myth: ADD is a simple problem of being hyperactive or not listening when someone is talking to you.

Fact: ADD is a complex disorder that involves impairments in focus, organization, motivation, emotional modulation, memory, and other functions of the brain's management system.

Myth: The brains of people with ADD are overactive and need medication to calm down.

Fact: Underactivity of the brain's management networks is typical of people with ADD. Effective medications increase alertness and improve communication in the brain's management system.

Myth: ADD is simply a label for behavior problems; children with ADD just refuse to sit still and are unwilling to listen to teachers or parents.

Fact: Many people with ADD have few behavior problems. Chronic inattention symptoms may cause more severe and longer-lasting problems in learning and relationships for those with ADD than behavior problems do.

Myth: Those who have ADD as children usually outgrow it as they enter their teens.

Fact: Often ADD impairments are not noticeable until the teen years, when more self-management is required in school and elsewhere. ADD may be subtle but more disabling during adolescence than in childhood.

Myth: Unless you have been diagnosed with ADD as a child, you can't have it as an adult.

Fact: Many adults have struggled all their lives with unrecognized ADD impairments. They haven't received help because they have assumed that their chronic difficulties, such as depression or anxiety, were caused by other impairments that did not respond to the usual treatments.

Myth: Someone can't have ADD and also have depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric problems.

Fact: A person with ADD is six times more likely to have another psychiatric or learning disorder than most other people are. ADD usually overlaps with other disorders.

Myth: Medications for ADD are likely to cause longer-term problems with substance abuse or other health concerns, especially for children taking these medications.

Fact: The risks of using appropriate medications to treat ADD are minimal, whereas the risks of not using medication to treat ADD are significant. The medications used for treating ADD are among the best researched for any disorder.

Myth: ADD doesn't really cause much damage to a person's life.

Fact: Untreated or inadequately treated ADD often severely impairs learning, family life, education, work life, social interactions, and driving safely. Most of those with ADD who receive adequate treatment, however, function quite well.

By Thomas E. Brown

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Things Only a Mom Can Teach

My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION:
"Just wait until your father gets home."

My Mother taught me about RECEIVING:.
"You are going to get it when we get home!"

My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE:
"What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you... Don't talk back to me!"

My Mother taught me LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why."
&
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to
The store with me."

My Mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE:

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

My Mother taught me to THINK AHEAD:
"If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job."

My Mother taught me ESP:
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you're cold?"

My Mother taught me HUMOR:
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT:
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
...............
My Mother taught me about SEX:
"How do you think you got here?"

My Mother taught me about GENETICS:
"You're just like your father."

My Mother taught me about my ROOTS:
"Do you think you were born in a barn?"

My Mother taught me about WISDOM OF AGE:
"When you get to be my age, you will understand."

My Mother taught me about JUSTICE:
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. Then you'll see what it's like."

My mother taught me RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL:
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

My mother taught me FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

My mother taught me IRONY:
"Keep crying and I'll *give* you something to cry about."

My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY:
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: Don't Exaggerate!!!"

My mother taught me about ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"