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Attention Deficit Disorder can often be a hidden problem, unrecognised and undiagnosed, especially its inattentive subtype, the one without obvious hyperactivity. I guess many of you haven’t even heard of non-hyperactive ADD?
Children and adults with this type of attention problem are often seen as ‘dreamers’, irresponsible, messy, forgetful, clumsy, perhaps a little dim (which is far from the truth for many ADDers, who can be extremely bright and creative).
Substance misuse, over-eating, over-working, compulsive shopping and other addictive or compulsive behaviours are some of the very common coping strategies for people with ADD, and when treating or recovering from addiction it can be important to determine whether attention problems comprise some of the underlying reasons for addictive patterns.
Have you experienced all or some of the following since childhood or teens?
• People calling you disorganised, messy, or a slob?
• Forgetting to put things away, without realising it?
• Forgetting appointments, dates or getting things mixed up easily?
• Dropping things often?
• Is your car, room, house, desk always full of clutter that is difficult to get rid of or organise?
• Do you spend a lot of time looking for things like your keys, documents, items of clothing?
• Do you get lost in daydreams?
• Do you get easily bored or overwhelmed with everyday, routine tasks?
• Being easily distracted from a task or activity (unless it is very exciting or new), with your mind (and sometimes feet) wandering off onto other things?
• Difficulties with timekeeping?
• Problems with sequencing or prioritising?
Ritalin prescribed especially for children with ADD is an amphetamine similar to speed, which has many unpleasant and sometimes dangerous side-effects (other drugs have been developed recently which allegedly have fewer side-effects). But those individuals who find it helpful report great improvements in the levels of concentration.
I have worked with many people (especially women) addicted to amphetamines and other stimulants, who described how these helped them to keep focused, gave a burst of energy and motivated them to undertake various practical and mental tasks for which they otherwise did not have enough energy or concentration.
A few of them had been diagnosed with AD/HD, but many hadn’t. And I wonder now how many have been unknowingly self-medicating with stimulants for the symptoms of ADD.
Apart from addiction, common problems associated with ADD include anxiety, depression and relationship difficulties. It is not surprising that these develop, as families, partners and friends of people with ADD do not often have much understanding of these problems, as on the surface there appears to be nothing wrong with the individual.
So the typical conclusion they come to is that he/she ‘can’t be bothered’, ‘doesn’t care’, is ‘irresponsible’, ‘difficult’ or ‘a slob’.
Some of the useful non-drug coping strategies include:
• nutrition for the brain e.g. protein-rich diet, supplements. There is a lot of information in books and on the internet with suggestions in this area
• simplifying your storage to make organising and putting things away as easy and as straightforward as possible e.g. having cupboards and wardrobes without doors (even though it may not be as attractive as you may wish)
• keeping one large and ideally brightly coloured diary or organiser (no point in making all those lists of things to do as you will end up losing them anyway)
• finding an outlet for your creativity (most ADDers are naturally creative, if not necessarily artistic people)
• accepting that you may never be able to achieve the standards of tidiness and organisation that you may have been striving for
• giving yourself some slack when things don’t work out.
A very helpful book is Sari Solden’s Women with Attention Deficit Disorder. Although it is specifically aimed at women who most frequently suffer with inattentive version of ADD, much of the information can be helpful for men, too.
I’ve just written a song about my ADD – and a little bit about quantum physics, with a reference to Schrodinger’s cat – that poor hypothetical creature who exists simultaneously dead and alive in a box, until we observe it, which makes it assume just one of those states.
I should note whilst most of my close family members are nuclear physicists, I have never been able to get my head around any but the most basic concepts, and this is the first and probably the last time I will make any reference to physics in this blog!
I am proud to have broken a technological barrier by uploading this song to YouTube (my first!) – you can listen to it here. I would be curious to know if anyone can relate to the sentiments.
It’s been a while since I blogged on Wired In! It’s good to be back, I’ve missed the community – will try to keep up with it more regularly.
I have been preparing some handouts recently, including one on Seemingly Irrelevant Decisions (SIDs) – these will be familiar to many members of this community – and if not, you may find it useful to get familiar with SIDs as they have a potential to put us, or people close to us, at risk of lapse or relapse.
“Seemingly Irrelvant Decision” is a very common type of self-deception for all kinds of addictive behaviours, including drinking, overeating, taking drugs, gambling, smoking.
We can learn to recognise our SIDs by exploring our previous patterns. Below are a few examples relevant for a variety of addictive behaviours (apologies if you find some of these a little flippant – they are intended to offer some useful food for thought):
Have you ever:
a) Chosen a “scenic route” to drive home from work…
…which just happened to by the door of your acquaintance who is a drug dealer [or by a fast food joint, a wine bar, a casino].
b) Went to the supermarket because “The cat wants a different type of biscuits” or “I need a Get Well Card for Auntie Jean” or “I have to use this 25p off washing powder voucher today”…
…and ended up buying a kilo of chocolate [or booze, or a £100 worth of scratchcards].
c) Stopped at a petrol station to “top up with fuel”…
…and emptied their crisp/chocolate counter.
d) Dropped in on an old friend as you felt guilty about neglecting them…
…who just happened to make the best cakes in the village [is generous with drinks, grows cannabis in his attic, spends all the time gambling on the internet].
e) Got yourself over-tired by working really long hours…
…and then said (or thought) “I worked so hard, I deserve a little treat” – with the treat turning into a full-blown binge.
f) Got into a row with your partner (friend, colleague)…
…and later said (or thought) “Look what you made me do”, whilst gorging yourself on junk food [rolling up your 6th joint, opening your 10th can of beer].
g) Went to a housewarming party because you didn’t want to offend Great Grandma Lucy’s best friend’s nephew…
…who just happened to be a big drinker [drug dealer, casino owner, chocolatier].
h) Decided to stock your cupboards just in case friends/ neighbours/ cousins/ Uncle Peter’s green parrot drop in to visit…
… and by complete coincidence including all your high risk foods [drink] on your shopping list.
I can definitely recognise myself in a few of these examples! You can download my pdf handout on SIDs here – feel free to use and share.
I do not consider myself particularly creative as a writer – a few years ago I wrote, and had published a horticultural reference book (that was in my past life as a botanist and gardener), which was rather specialised and dry, though it did receive quite positive reviews from the enthusiasts of the subject matter.
I also wrote quite a few articles over the years, on various topics from tropical fish-keeping, to gardening, mental health and complementary therapies. Whilst it was satisfying and fulfilling to see my work in print, I would not consider those particularly healing or therapeutic pieces of writing.
When I think of writing as a self-help approach, what comes to mind are a few poems and songs that I wrote at the times that were intensely emotional, when I was facing uncertainty or perhaps loss in my life (most of these pieces were in Russian, my first language, as I find it really difficult to rhyme in English!)
Writing down your thoughts, feelings, intuitions – whether in a journal, a story, a letter (including the one that you don’t send), a poem – can be an intensely healing, often cathartic experience. And I will often recommend to my clients that they put their thoughts and emotions on paper, in whatever form.
I personally never attempted a story or a novel – these always seemed an impossible task. A feat undertaken by other people who are far more creative, articulate, inventive, who have a richer vocabulary, more interesting lives and much broader knowledge of a wide range of topics than me.
But a seedling of hope did emerge when I attended a wonderful workshop, Unleash Your Writing Power with Judi Goodwin, a couple of years ago. During that course I found myself writing fluently, effortlessly and surprisingly eloquently. Not on a usual dry technical subject, but on a variety of topics that evoked emotion, memories and touched my deeper self, in a series of simple exercises that Judi offered to the group.
I have not written my masterpiece as yet, though a couple of non-fiction books are ticking along. But I am hoping to surprise myself when I attend a week-long workshop with Judi later this summer, in Missenden Abbey in Buckinghamshire, which is intended for chronic procrastinators like me. The course is aptly called “Don’t get it right, get it written”. From personal experience, I could thoroughly recommend Judi’s shorter workshops to any aspiring or experienced writer, you can get in touch with her through her website
Below is one of my poems which I wrote during my Creative Therapy course a few years ago.
Pearl
Just a grain of sand, insignificant,
Rocked by the salty seas steeped in moonlight,
Sheltered in soft layers of flesh,
A pearl was born.
Unimportant to anyone but the mother shell,
Hidden from dangers and joys, so innocent,
Secretly cherishing dreams of a wider world,
The baby pearl grew.
Months have passed, many years flew by,
No longer an angular speck, but a smooth round beauty,
With her sheen still concealed in a safe and calcareous jail,
The pearl longed for freedom.
And when freedom came with a deafening crush,
And the safe haven of shell was brutally opened,
With a drill through her heart, our pearl glimpsed her dream
Of a wider world… Strung with dozens of others
On a smooth and indifferent neck
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is based on the principle that our thoughts and behaviour affect our emotions, and that changing the way we think and act will change the way we feel.
CBT is the preferred method of treatment for anxiety and depression in the National Health Service in the UK. More research has been conducted into effectiveness of CBT than most other therapeutic modalities, and the National Institue for Clinical Excellence recommends it for treatment of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many programmes for treatment of addictions and eating disorders are based on CBT.
Through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, the government has put in enourmous resources into training thousands of new CBT therapists, to treat hundreds of thousands of people diagnosed with the most common mental health conditions (depression, social anxiety, generalised anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, health anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, specific phobia), so the waiting lists are getting shorter now in most areas. In the past you could have waited for 2 years or more for your initial appointment (which was clearly not terribly helpful if you were suffering from panic attacks, PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder or other distressing issues).
There is still a controversy raging regarding whether CBT is indeed the most effective treatment for the array of psychological and emotional difficulties, and therapists in other modalities are often critical of the apparent CBT monopoly in the NHS. Some believe that its effects are short-term.
However, CBT does offer a wide range of self-help approaches and tools, and I remember using it when I was 7 years old to treat myself for a spider phobia and later for my social anxiety. Obviously I didn’t know that I was doing CBT – but that is just an example of how common sense the cognitive behavioural approaches can be!
The internet is brimming with resources and information on CBT, and some of the most useful in my opinion are:
Computerised CBT self-help programmes, including Beating the Blues, are becoming available throughout the UK. In Greater Manchester they are provided by Self-Help Services and some Primary Care Trusts. If you are suffering with anxiety or depression, you can get a referral to your local Primary Care Mental Health Team or Psychological Services via your GP.
I recently attended a two-day course on EmoTrance, which is a simple self-help and therapeutic technique. I was initially sceptical, as it seemed to resemble some of the other approaches I am familiar with (e.g. self-hypnosis) but appeared too easy, too simplistic. But after the two days I was impressed with the results I was getting myself, and by observing others I could also see how they were benefiting.
EmoTrance is based on the concept of energy healing – it doesn’t really matter whether you believe in such a thing, you can still use the technique anyway, i.e. I myself sit on the fence. I use many of the ‘energy therapies’, but on the other hand I am a scientist (originally I was a biologist), and need to see something with my own eyes (or at least see a respectable scientific paper on it) before I believe in it.
As I have never seen any meridians, chakras etc, I don’t know whether such things exist. However, it is a fact that our nerves do conduct electricity and perhaps this is the ‘energy’ that we are referring to.
Anyway, I don’t really mind how something works as long as it works – e.g. I use my mobile phone every day, and whist I can’t even begin to imagine how I am able to speak to someone some thousands miles away on this little thingy with some buttons, it certainly doesn’t stop me from using it.
The basic procedure of EmoTrance is as follows:
When we feel a negative emotion – e.g. if someone says something unpleasant, or we recall a difficult memory – we will usually experience this emotion as a physical sensation in our body (a few people find it difficult to identify bodily sensations in relation to emotions, but most of us can do it quite easily – e.g. “butterflies in my stomach”, “heaviness in my chest”, “lump in my throat”).
Now, in EmoTrance we assume that these bodily sensations are simply ‘stuck energy’. The theory is that the energy is supposed to flow, but when it gets stuck for whatever reason, we experience a negative emotion.
Once we identified the bodily sensation – we focus on the area where we feel this ‘stuck energy’, and set an intention for that energy to ‘soften and flow. Normally the area of ‘stuckness’ will feel quite hard or solid, and the task is to, gently, without trying too hard or forcing it, to allow that sensation to begin to soften, as if to melt (like an ice cube beginning to melt round the edges), and allow that energy to flow.
As it begins to soften and flow (and again, for sceptics among us, we can treat this as a metaphor rather than the actual energy flow) the assumption is that this energy will find the pathways for it to flow down (or up) through.
There are no ‘formal’ energy pathways in EmoTrance, unlike in many other therapies (including, of course, acupuncture, where it is assumed that the energy flows through meridians), so the sensation of the energy flowing could be in any direction. The trick is not to try too hard, with the only instruction to gently repeat to yourself “soften and flow, soften and flow..” every now and again.
It is surprising how quickly a hard, unpleasant sensation inside the body can begin to literally melt, using just a simple reminder of “soften and flow”. It is important not to force it. So if the sensation appears to be stubborn and is not softening enough for it to be flowing and liquid, just keep your attention on the sensation and just allow it to soften a bit more and more.
It can take a little while, but eventually most people will experience some kind of flowing sensation, feeling of movement, with the energy (or whatever you like to call it) moving through and out of the body. Often, though not always, through arms and hands and out of the fingertips, through legs going down out of the feet, or coming up and out through breath.
Though it isn’t part of EmoTrance training curriculum, I suspect that this technique could be used successfully with physical sensations associated with addictive cravings, as well as with negative emotions. I have tried it with some promising results for urges for junk food and one or two instances of compulsive shopping :-) If anyone tries it out for themselves, I would be curious to know how it works for you.
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