We do not live to extenuate the miseries of the past nor to ac­cept as incurable those of the present.

 

- Fairfield Osborn

 

    

PREFACE

        

I was inspired to write my memoirs after read­ing an ex­cerpted letter in An­swers to Dis­trac­tion (Hallo­well & Ratey, 1994b).  Written by a clinical social worker with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), it mentioned the ADD links that she shared with her father and great-grandfather. Her story struck a chord.  What a coincidence I thought, I am a clini­cal social worker also, and, I too, can trace the etiology of my own ADD through my father to my great-grand­father.

The purpose of this book is to provide families of children with ADD and mental health professionals with a ba­sic un­der­standing of ADD through the lifespan. The book is illus­trated with the case study of my own life, both as a per­son with ADD, and as a men­tal health profes­sional who diagnoses and coun­sels children and adults with the disorder.  However, the reader is cautioned:  “This is only one story out of thousands.” 

 

* * *

 

In 1966, as an 18-year-old college student full of lingering adolescent angst, I be­gan to ponder the na­ture of my personality. At times, feeling like a slow-witted Bi­zarro,[1] sev­eral con­fusing personal traits per­plexed me.  I won­dered,

 

Why do I have trouble organizing my thoughts?

Why do I grope for words?

Why do I have trouble concentrating?

Why is my short-term memory poor?

Why am I shy?

Why do I rapidly lose interest in pro­jects?

Why am I constantly bored?

Why do I procrastinate so much?

 

These questions would plague me until age 46, when I dis­covered that I was born with ADD.  This revelation in­stantly explained what years of fruitless con­templation and self-analysis had not.  My behav­ior was not so much the re­sult of nurture as I had believed, but instead was more strongly in­fluenced by my bio­logical in­heritance.

One of my favorite quotations is, "To a bad be­gin­ning a good ending" (Plautus, Trinummus, c. 194 B.C.).  Fortu­nately, the undiagnosed ADD symptoms that were problem­atic for me in childhood became manageable in adulthood.  Al­though I had some dif­ficulty academi­cally in my early school years, by the time I graduated from college I finished ahead of most peers—like the tortoise who won the race with the hare.

Compensating for my ADD symptoms per­haps drove me to succeed in college and con­trib­uted to my later professional achievements.  Because of being a "lazy" child­hood un­derachiever, my in­satiable thirst for recognition never slaked in adulthood, no matter how much I accomplished. I strug­gled with self-esteem is­sues until I learned how the neu­robiology of ADD shapes my cognitions, emotions and behaviors—in­sights shared in this book.

There are no cures for ADD; it must be managed. My own effective man­agement of trou­ble­some ADD traits in adulthood gives me a good under­stand­ing of how individuals with this disorder and their families can cope with it effectively.  Unfortu­nately, many of my profes­sional mental health colleagues per­sist in trying to remedy ADD with unproven treatments: traditional psychotherapy, special di­ets, herbal sup­plements, etc.[2]  Just talking about feel­ings does not cor­rect ADD neurobiol­ogy.  Diet has little, if any ef­fect, on it. 

What ADD is: its symptoms and its diagnosis and treat­ment, are the topics of this book.

 

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