I have been encouraged to go public with my Adult ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) challenges. So, I'm going to start telling you a bit of what it's like to have ADD and little stories about how I cope with and win over ADD. At this point I am choosing ways that do not include the aid of pharmaceuticals. (But I reserve the right to recognize when I should use them.) I plan to weave into these stories my research and my observations on how well I apply my brilliant ideas. I don't always see ADD as a challenge. Sometimes I forget I have it.

It's easy to forget I have ADD. I have ADD. And besides I didn't know I had it for 46.5 years. I just thought I wasn't ... enough (fill in the gap with any word you want and I've thought it). I have Inattentive ADD which often goes undetected.

Below this paragraph exists five pages of fairly concise thoughts about how I missed the ADD label for 46.5 years, what it's like in my head a lot of the time, what others see and how they react. There are stories about things that happened even when I was six yrs old that made such a strong impression on me ... things I could not find words to explain because a) I didn't understand why they couldn't understand or b) because I could not explain the disconnect with any word other than "forgot" which no one else believed and it actually did not even begin to express my own internal intense dismay over the disconnect between what I knew should have been Step A and Step B.

Five pages is too much for one blog entry. Even you would disconnect. In writing about it where others could read about it for the first time, I feel so emotionally charged about the subject. I know there are better ways to say what I've said. Worse, five pages only begins to describe the problem without beginning to come near the solutions and adjustments I'm beginning to apply to my life. So, I'm employing one of my ADD tools. I'm going to step back and breathe and actually work on this in small chunks instead of fretting and fretting until I'm over focused. Eventually you would have something very excellent to read. But I do not want to delay this until eventually and there are also other things I want to do in my life at the same time! So ... Let's just lay some ground floor ideas.

I want you to know that not every ADD person is externally hyperactive and, as a lot, we are actually quite smart ... some say brilliant. So don't be dismissing me, and possibly overlooking your own child, just because you don't see a Mexican jumping bean. Best phrase to listen for from school, "Not living up to potential." Best phrase from the kid, "I've figured it out. It's boring."

I personally find it very very easy to learn if I am allowed to learn in my own ways. I, however, will not express what I have learned in ways that make teachers happy. And the learning and teaching of the thing is my fascination. Once I understand something and can then explain it to you (usually in story form), I rapidly lose interest – very rapidly. Life application of my knowledge is very hmmm full of short moments of glory and longer moments of frustration.

At this point is where all the behavioral modification chatter begins. If a person is a good, moral, and/ or God-believing person, then over coming the ADD behavior problems is just a matter of "positive thinking," more prayer, character training, etc. ... Well, yes, all of this is actually very vital. All of this actually improves the brain IF IF IF IF IF the physical nature of the brain is not over looked. Focusing only on the behavior of ADD ignores the real and physical disconnections that are (or are not) happening in the brain.

For example, it would be silly for you wrap a tourniquet around your arm and and then pray to God for Him to remove it (Why should He bother if you can't be bothered?). You can visualize it removed and think positively about how great it will be when the tourniquet is off but that will not actually remove it. You can work on your character model and create an internal system of discipline on how to avoid future tourniquets. But until something is physically done to improve the state of your physical body ... your physical blood flow to your arm is stopped.

Well the brain is a physical bit in the body. Until we start to care for the brain and protect it like it is a physical entity ... we can be as spiritual and imaginative and intellectually/spiritually self-controlled as we want to be and still be wayyy off track. Way off track.

From start to finish and in the middle, I am going to drag you on and on through one doctor's web site and books: Dr. Daniel Amen. His latest book is Healing The Hardware Of The Soul. I do not believe he alone has every answer but I do believe that he is holding an excellent beginning. For that matter he doesn't believe he has every answer.

Actually, I have many people to refer you to. It will be interesting.

The first thing I want everyone to understand is exactly how physically connected our physical brain is to our physical world. For one thing the brain can be examined to see how well the blood is flowing inside of it. (Not all brain scans are created equally.) How well we physically care for our brains with food, nutritional supplements, exercise, water, oxygen, and even our environment really does have a physical impact. We are not just building muscles with all of that care and activity. We are also building our brain. The brain is not invisible. It gets hurt just like fingers get hurt. Just like livers and kidneys can be damaged by poor nutrition and/or impact without ever leaving the body the brain can be just as easily be damaged ... very easily damaged.

The second thing that has to be understood is that the part of you that says "I want to ... (dream a little dream)" is not your brain. Your brain is however a helper and a hinderer to the part of you that dreams. If your brain contains stats and facts that you can be safe and accomplish your dream, it will help you all the way. If your brain has stats and facts that your dream is unsafe, you will hear from it in the most negative and degrading ways possible in order to alarm you and slow you down and keep you safe.

Simply simply simply
you are not your brain but
you and the world around you
will never know you
as you should be known
if your brain is not healthy.

Good news ... you can overcome your brain ... you can take the tourniquet off, you can nourish it and yourself, you can even teach the brain to be your very best ally and friend.

So these entries will be the story of how I am applying little "tricks" and tools to this trade of personal mind control.

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