Hi Quentin,

I was rather blown away by the story as well.  :-)

Cool!  Increased speed due to the fact that there is an external
stimulus with which the brain can interact.  That makes sense.  Kind of
like riding in cars at higher speeds than a horse and buggy doesn't
bother us because we grew up with them.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

WOW.  Michelle,

That brings home the message doesn't it. I was born too late for he
horse and buggy age but my mother wasn't.  Wonder how it affected
here.  

Perhaps none.  It is suggested that computer ibox games are developing
speed that simply weren't there before.  Kids are acquiring higher IQs
as a result apparently.

Although you joked about it IMHO you were close to the truth if not
spot on.  Good on you for having such insight into the vagaries that
make us different.

And warmest regards for the excellent examples you provide.
Quentin.

Hi Quentin,

Interesting about the perception of the jugglers.  As for riding in a
car, my grandfather tells about the first time his MIL rode in a car.
It was going only about 20 MPH, but she thought it was too fast.  She
was used to a horse and buggy.

Besides the intrigue about children developing brains geared toward
speed and dominant thumbs, it begs the question what skills aren't being
developed.  The book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, which explores
the plasticity of the brain, cites many examples in which a skill may
take over neurons that either aren't being used for their original
purpose, such as when a person is blind, the brain uses those neurons
for other skills instead of letting them lie dormant; or as in an
accomplished string musician's (such as violinist) brain devotes more
motor neurons to the four fingering digits of the left hand.  So again,
I have to wonder, when this happens, what skills/functions are going by
the wayside?

We had a very skilled guitartist friend who knew all the
words/chords/single notes to literally hundreds of songs.  (We were
totally blown away one night when he sang and played the complete 20
minute version of Alice's Restaurant.)  As I believe I've mentioned to
you before, this friend had multiple problems coping with life in
general.  We always joked that it was because he didn't have room in his
brain for the mundane chores of living.  I don't know how true that is,
if the neuroplasticity could really be that extreme, and yet it often
seemed that way.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

What an exciting thought Michelle,

 It is thought that jugglers were accused of magic in the past
because people weren't used to the fast pace. The same thing occurs
with people who have lived in forests who are driven in cars. They are
frightened by the speed. Even with kids today their thumbs are
dominant in their brains not their index fingers as was true in the
past.  It comes from text messaging with their thumbs.
So environmental factors determine the way the brain develops.
With exposure to games boxes children are developing more towards
speed than our generation.

Kind regards

I agree, Quentin.  Of course, it could always be both.  ;-)  Actually,
I've been wondering if children's brains are being developed differently
 with our high-paced societies and all the technology that supports it.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

Hi Michelle,

 I've read similar articles. They assume ADD has been around for
ever. Maybe it has. Maybe it is of modern occurrence. Hard to tell
which hypothesis to support.

Kind regards,

Hi Quentin,

I agree.  We call all relate to this type of behavior in some ways.
It's the extremeness of it that is the issue.

I read an interesting article once that hypothesized that a person with
ADD who lived a more primitive tribal existence would be a great benefit
to the tribe.  The fact that people with ADD are highly distractable
would make them the first ones to be alert to danger.  It might also
carry over to the hunt where s/he might be the first to detect the
presence of prey.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

Thanks Michelle,

 Fascinating.

It seems almost normal behaviour but extreme in its execution.
It is easy to imagine being distracted from something boring like
doing accounting but being absorbed in some fascinating new idea.

Once again thank you,

Hi Quentin,

I can't answer for PP, however in my observation of my dad, it's easy to
distract him from mundane things like paying bills example.  A stray
thought, (or an interruption) causes him to lose his place and he has to
backtrack to remember where he was in the process.  (He has a routine
that must be done in order.) However if the thing he's focused on is
novel, then stray thoughts are much less likely.  In fact, sometimes
what I call hyperfocus comes into play.  He can think about a
problem/puzzle/interesting idea for hours.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

Hi PP,

Help me understand this more fully please.
Does novelty distract you or assist you?
I'd like to understand ADD better.

Thanks,
Quentin.

Thanks.  I have the typical ADD ability to focus when there's novelty
involved, so I have that way of assisting myself, too.  A cubicle move
at work helped a LOT, giving me changes in my physical environment to
jangle my novelty detector.  Management's becoming somewhat more rigid
in terms of time reporting is also helping me by forcing me to keep more
lists and notes.  So, it's not all about meds, for me at least.

PP

I hope you're able to find something that works better for you, Priscilla.

Best regards,
Michelle C.

On weekends I often either take only 1 Adderall a day instead of 2 or
just skip it.  My psydoc says that's why I haven't built up a tolerance.  
I don't think I have.  I just need something else maybe.

PP

Peppermint Patootie wrote:

ADD as child--back when no one had a clue about it and just thought he
was incorrigible.  Also highly intelligent.  He remembers his dad
shouting at him, "Your IQ is higher than mine.  How come you can't do
your school work?"  Pretty much describes the whole issue in a nutshell.
 The failure of his family to understand (not that they had any
resources for understanding ADD back in the 50's) shot the hell out of
his self-esteem, which added to the problem.

Starting in elementary school my mother would repeatedly back me into a
corner.  "What do you do these things?" she'd rage, and I had no answer.
 So they concluded I was lazy, irresponsible, obstinate and, yes,
incorrigible, and I had nowhere to go but end up agreeing with them.
It's a horrible feeling, to think you have no recourse but to say it's
your fault you did those things you had no intention of doing.  Wears
out any self-esteem you've got.  Shame city.

Yep, you've described it exactly.

Surprisingly, since my grandparents have come to live nearby (in a house
behind ours), I've realized that my grandpa--my dad's dad--has ADD too.
  He has trouble following conversations, often goes off on tangents,
and frequently fails to acknowledge what was just said, because he's
thinking his own thoughts.  Looking back over the years, I can see that
he's always been this way, but seeing him nearly everyday has brought
this home to me.

Unlike my dad who had such trouble in school, my grandpa did okay
though.  However, his school experience occurred in a one room school
house with 13 kids ranging in age from 1st grade to 8th.  Much less
stressful environment with individualized attention.

My dad's brother shows some symptoms too.

medication until his early 50's.  He takes the Parkinson's med,
seligiline for it.

sometime.  I'm starting to have problems at work again.

Although the seligiline is a long-acting med--he takes a tiny dose every
 3 days--sometimes, he finds taking a break from it helps him "reset".
 Of course, the "reset" period has to occur when there isn't much going
on that requires his attention.

Michelle C.