By BECKY BELL
Texarkana Gazette
The term ADD—Attention Deficit Disorder—is used a lot these days.
If
someone finds him or herself daydreaming during a business meeting or
forgets about a lunch appointment because they have something down on
the wrong date, they may joke that they have ADD.
But for people with ADD, it is no laughing matter, said Peter Freer, a former teacher in Asheville, N.C., who has spent the past 20 years researching how it affects children and adults. Adults who have ADD usually struggle in childhood as being the students who just can’t concentrate on just what the teacher is saying because they are paying attention to everything—the child doodling beside them, the bird outside the window, the tick-tock of the clock. When these children grow up, they most likely have trouble finishing one task and sometimes are labeled lazy or stupid because they may start 20 things and never finish anything.
Most
adults don’t realize they have an attention problem until they are
taking their children to the doctor to try and get some help for them,
Freer said. This appointment can be an eye-opener and answer a lot of
questions about why so much struggle has went on in the past.
One of the most important first steps and adult with attention problems can do is to pick a career that plays on their strengths and weaknesses. For example, a person with ADD may need frequent breaks to keep his concentration piqued so a job that is totally in an office for eight hours each day may not work for this person at all. Instead, the person needs to select a profession that gets them out and about and gives them an opportunity to focus and refocus attention on projects to keep his or her interest.
It
is important for adults to understand however that just being
overwhelmed with a schedule or incoming information does not mean they
have an attention problem. People these days tend to multi-task—drive
while talking on the cell phone, exercise while reading a novel or cook
while talking on the phone and studying for a test. Doing too much at
once does tend to make some people feel that their attention is
diverted because it is, he said. But studies show this goes against
what the human brain prefers.
“People that try to multi-task two or five things generally take twice as long. The brain does not operate as well when trying to multi-task,” Freer said.
People who are trying to get a task completed should follow a linear approach and will accomplish more.
Another
fact that sometimes makes it hard to determine if an attention deficit
disorder is the overwhelming amount of information that is thrown at us
each day.
“In one Sunday issue of the New York Times,
there is more information than a person in the 1700s got in a
lifetime,” Freer said. “The way that we receive information is greater
than any other time in history. So we find ourselves distracted from
one thing to the next.”
If someone truly does have ADD as
an adult, approaching it with some basic time management skills may
help save a work situation. By something as simple as using a cooking
timer to set aside allotted time periods for work on certain projects
might be the difference in completing the work and coming up short.
Adults with ADD can fall victim to hyperfocusing attention on
unimportant matters such as e-mail. An intent to go in and clean the
e-mail box out can turn into a whole day wasted as attention is
bombarded from one box to the next.