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Videogames Used to Treat ADHD
deeptrace writes "USA today has an article about a videogame based treatment for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It uses NASA derived technology to measure brainwave activity while playing videogames. Clinical psychologist Henry Owens says 'If they just play videogames on their own, they will zone out. When they play on this system, if they zone out [as detected by brainwave activity], the videogame doesn't respond any more' This is supposed to help the patient increase the ability to focus and concentrate."
That's perfect for
Mabey this will shut up the videogame= hyperactive folks.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
How about encouraging the "patient" to go outside or do something constructive, instead of coercing him into repeating a mindless task for no real reward. Oh, right - because that's what he would have done ANYWAY if he weren't one of the majority who by about age six are infected with an affinity for pointless busywork, and an inability to learn except by rote.
I have no objection to psychotropic drugs and behavioral treatments when used judiciously to relieve real suffering or addiction. But using these tools to homogenize children to the societal norm is absolutely repugnant. How we can get through to these deranged teachers, parents, and psychiatrists?
... everytime the little bastard thinks he can misbehave and not pay attention.
Zoning out is a symptom of ADHD? Dang. I think I need see my doctor.
The potential is huge for training in this field. Maybe good - maybe bad. stay alert, of course, but what singing instructor wouldn't be a little nervous about the new sing sing revolution game that's on X-Box, et al. I saw it 'cause a friends son was very excited to have it and asked if i'd like to play a round.
Anything once, right? (except uh, cyanide and hand-grenades, but i digress)
So what is really neat? As you sing, it shows you a little bar that reveals your fundamental tone (singing pitch) and updates in real-time to get you on key better. Now, i know that's a simple FFT thing (wanna do it your self? go look up csound!) But what is important is that it is an EXCELLENT device to train one to sing. This sort of neural feedback (hey - it's a game - it got crowds yelling approval when you're good, not if your not) is one of the most powerful available, and worthy of philosophical discussion (says I..)
How come not a single technological drop of education tech makes it in the schools. Okay - some parents still probably remember max headroom... but if we acknowledge that neuro feedback is extremely powerful for learning, then we can both use it when it is good for schools and training, and be able to recoginize the "bad stuff" that much better.
Like every single thing on the TV i don't have. Brainwashing is best when served slowly, don' cha' know.
FTFS:
Personally, I find avoiding getting fragged a good reason for concentrating on the game.
But, each to their own, huh?
Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Certainly there's something to be said for focus feedback in video games, but video games perhaps also cause the problem by having participants enroll in polyphasic activities that invite scatter-gather activities in the first place. So much information is put onto a screen, that distraction seems an almost inevitable result.
I find it a paradox that the cure is also perhaps the cause.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Isn't "zoning out" when playing a video game an indication that you're highly focussed/concentrating heavily on the video game in question?
... as this kid testifies? :-)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
sugar pnats!
-mb
This kid needs this new game.
If i get modded down cause I trashed your TV viewing tit-sucking.. ah wait, this is the same group of people who claim to like linux but can't find a better use for a macmini then as a HD receiver.
get off the couch, folks.
... if they zone out [as detected by brainwave activity], the videogame doesn't respond any more' This is supposed to help the patient increase the ability to focus and concentrate."
Sounds like lag to me which is just a cruel joke. The best thing to help me concentrate is... hey look boobies! Maybe if there was a chick in the game who walked by and randomly flashed here and there... PROFIT!
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
. . . booze used to treat alcoholism.
-Peter
That is very disturbing. There must be some more disorders going on besides ADHD. My husband is 34 and has severe ADD and I would crack him on the head if he ever acted like that. My daughter also has ADHD (genetic, i assume) but instead of trying to drug her or break her, we like alternative methods. Instead of watching tv all morning, we will go outside and have a race to rake the yard. When she gets bored with that she will ride her bike, then pick up bugs of the ground. Children need REAL stimulation, sitting behind a computer or television all day does not count.
At first I thought the kid was semi-retarded, then I realized he was yelling in German.
I'm just glad he didn't accidentally hit F8 and boot into safe-mode.
.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I have been diagnosed as having ADHD. I have absolutely no problems with concentrating on videogames (ok, computer games). When I play them, I concentrate on the game 110%, and I forget everything around me, including eating and sleeping.
So how, exactly, would this treatment help me?
So, how is this different from an overheating xbox? It just stops responding after a while too. And if I've zoned out too much, the smoke brings me back to reality...
It's definitely both.
There are people who honestly have a neurological imbalance that causes them to have difficulty completing tasks, and in these cases drugs like Ritalin are a godsend, allowing them to normalize their routines. I know one or two people who have that, and without their medicine, they can make a ferret look like the paragon of focus and concentration.
On the other hand, ADD and ADHD make for a wonderful scapegoat for when children are acting up. Bright children being bored out of their skull in class? Must be ADD. I know from personal experience on this one - when I was a kid I was misdiagnosed with it, and I thank God that I had parents who knew enough to ask for a second opinion. It turned out that I was bored in class and reacting to food additives. Once I got into a gifted program in school and I stopped eating food I was reacting to, I settled right down.
It really does drive me nuts. Back in the 1980s when I was misdiagnosed, the misdiagnosis happened because ADD was "fashionable." Now it's an excuse. Pump kids full of sugar and chemicals and of course they're going to be hyperactive. Make them sit still in a classroom doing boring things and of course they're going to get restless. I just wish more medical professionals would rule out the obvious causes first before doping the kids up for having AD(H)D that they might not actually have.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
For those not understanding what the kid is "going through";
First his game isn't starting, and he's flipping out cause he can't wait to start gaming.
"Start, bloody game! START! PLAY YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I ask you one more time, go... "
when the cutscreen comes up he's in joy "it worked! Start quicker! It worked! PLAY! PLAYYYYY!! PLAY YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"
To conclude it lives, and flips out until he reassures himself he has to think positive and nearly gets a stroke cause it "worked" and gets carried away in gaming screaming misc things as "I killed him, I will kill them all! MOTHERFUCKER!", "I don't need help",...
Until he appears to be killed in the game and trashes his keyboard (some more).
I think that was probably counterstrike, or something else where you had to wait for the round to end to respawn.
Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
The power of Christ compels you !! The power of Christ compels you !! That kid has a bright career waiting for him in motion pictures.
The funny thing is, he's actually playing solitaire.
The third most important thing I have learned in life: Squeeze anything hard enough and it eventually makes a noise.
Sounds like bleeding someone to cure anemia.
The cake is a pie
This is really starting to piss me off. Why is it that we must label everything that is not perfectly matched to our current society's customs as a disorder? I am ADHD. The main feature of ADHD is a different brain structure where the gap between neurons is larger (which is why only the strongest chemicals, i.e. the most impulsive chemicals, get through most of the time and why stimulants like Ritalin actually seem to calm someone wiht ADHD down). As such the brain of one with ADHD is does not think in the way that most people think. But that does not make us any worse than avg. Joe. It is not a disorder, but an evolution in the human brain. While it is harder for those with ADHD to stay focused in many environments put in front of us today, we have the uncanny abilities to: 1) be able to notice many different facets of our environment in a very short span of time and 2) we can hyperfocus. Hyperfocus is the concentration on a subject so intense that the rest of the world completely fades out (many programmers, such as myself, know what I am talking about). From TFA, it seems that scientists are trying to "cure" this "disorder". But why? How about focusing an creating teaching environments where people with ADHD can thrive and harness th advatanges ADHD gives them while minimizing its disadvantages? It has been said that some of the greatest forththright thinkers and creative minds of out time have had ADHD. Albert Einstein is theorized to have had the disorder. Also, the owner of Kinkos has ADHD and Dyslexia. It is not a disease, but a change. I hope someday the scientific community will realize that.
I find that although many people are liberal in beliefs, they are conservative in actions.
maybe? or perhaps they are not reacting food addivites cause they aren't in their diet, or perhaps nobody has gone looking for it?
I find this very interesting. I have a friend who is diagnosed with ADHD and he plays video games quite often. I often play them with him. He often plays video games when he's at my house too. I've never seen him "zone out." The only time he "zones out" is when he's on the medication they give him which restricts him to concentrate on the task at hand, disabling him from multitasking (i.e. if he "walks and talks" he will either mutter or trip...). So now I'm a little confused. Is "zoning out," as described in the article, a symptom of ADHD? If so, then I'm sure this "method" would not be effective on many kids/people with ADHD.
The current focus is teaching children and adults to modify their behavior. We should be teaching them how to adapt their lifestyle to meet their cognitive needs while itegrating into society. Being married to and having a child both with the "disorder" (I hate to call it that.), is very frustrating. Sometimes I wish their were a magic pill that would make them normal. But then I would miss out on the wonderful things that a person who thinks "alternativly" has to offer. Our life is exciting most of the time.
By adapting your lifestyle, not training the person to be something else, you can maintain a level of creativity. Case in point, ADD people can forget menial tasks. More than once our lights and water were turned off becasue my husband forgot to put the chack in the mail. Easy solution, I set up everything to be paid online twice a month. More than once he has forgot our aniversay, but the surprise vacations in the middle of the year make up for it.
What I am trying to say is that I would rather be married to unpredictable, creative man than a man who has lost all personality from taking medications. The same is true for our child.
There could be many reasons why it is "unknown". But before you explore that, perhaps you mgiht want to state your evidence that it is even unknown. Personally, if I have never heard of any Thailand music artists before, I am not necessarily going to assume that Thailand does not have music artists.
I find that although many people are liberal in beliefs, they are conservative in actions.
Success, government criticism, freedom of religion, and hygene are pretty much unknown in the Arab or African worlds also.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
This article doesn't mention how this can relate to what is known as "hyper-focusing." Maybe this is what they mean by "zoning out" since the medical information is scarce, but there is a phenomenon observed in ADHD sufferers that shows while playing video games (and some other activities) they focus to the exclusion of all other stimuli, often for extended periods of time. I'm not sure if this is the same thing or a seperate symptom than "zoning out" but it might be worth looking into a bit more.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Shouldn't they stick with safe approaches like putting people on speed before they let people play video games?
Poor Spyro...
Anyone who wanted to name their game zone-out is screwed.
I don't think yelling in German prevents one from being retarded...
Although, it would sort of fit. Hitler, and now this kid. For a good amount of time in my life, I lived in Germany. Germans can seem fairly blunt to those unfamiliar, but this guy tops all of them. Him murdering the keyboard was funny, though.
It depends on what you define success as. On the other hand freedom in America has brought about cases in which mothers compete with daughters for men! Hello Jerry Springer!
The patient should be taken to a society that tolerates no such behavior. In these societies, such behavior is met with punishment. Over time, the so called ADHD is made to get extinct.
Actually, physical punishment, or aggression of any kind, exacerbates ADHD to a large degree. Every wonder why hyper kids who are beaten stay hyper?
May the Maths Be with you!
Has anyone asked themselves why ADHD and other disorders are unknown in the Arab or [black] African worlds?
Perhaps because they refer to not conforming to a social norm as not conforming to a social norm, and not as a disease?
Yup.. we're all fucked up in America.. but at least we have the freedom to be fucked up. I feel like I'm appropriately fucked up and the government should not get to decide how fucked up I want to be. So, if mom wants to fight daughter for a boyfriend, let them.. It's between them.. not you and them.. so why do you care?
--- We need more Ron Paul!
You want an ADHD game?
Play one written by somebody that has it and that truly understands the ADHD mind: http://www.tqworld.com/
Let natural selection take its course.
... too long.
I think it's a brilliant idea, actually - hopefully the portions of the brain dealing with attention are plastic enough to be retrained in this fashion.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
...NASA technology ! That must be good right ? Just like the:
NASA mattresses
NASA Chiropractors
NASA food
NASA Anthrax detectors
NASA Waterheaters
NASA shine
NASA golf clubs
etc. etc. etc....
Heck, just write NASA in front of your name and your all of a sudden a brilliant, top performing (name your profession here).
NASA thrill12 (uses NASA technology).
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
You know, the thing is, if you turn on the webcam on at the right time, I'm sure you'd catch most programmers acting that way at least once a month towards the computer when things don't just go right.....
No, it's ut2k4. I recognize the music.
You people with your attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder think you're the big shit with your ability to annoy the teacher, jump off walls, and forget what you were saying. It's not like that anymore. Enter Asperger's syndrome, the new heavyweight added by the American Psychiatric Association to their bible of mental conditions in 1994. Now you hyper freaks have true competition!
We aspies have an inordinate amount of interest in obscure things (for example, French phonology has been one of mine); we are utterly oblivious to our social environment; and we can be downright obnoxious for no good reason. Many of us are hypochondriacs who seem to have a lengthy list of other neurodevelopmental and even physical problems (not me, however). You just can't compare to us for patheticness and a sense of entitlement--needing to have the NeuroTypical (NT) world to adapt to our idiosyncrasies.
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
This seems like an ok idea for helping children develop longer attention spans. It will probably be effective in those kids who are diagnosed ADHD for simply being normal children.
A lot of children are now being diagnosed ADHD simply for doing what children do. Namely running around, being active, jumping from one interest to another, etc. Children (under 10) do not have the same brain activity as an adult, and it is unreasonable to expect them to behave as adults do. Parents seem to not want their children to act like children, and are turning to chemicals to make them be what they want them to be. Children who are diagnosed ADHD, when if fact they are just normal kids, will eventually settle down as the brain develops.
For children who actually are ADD, the attention span problem does not go away with time. They will struggle their entire lives with tasks most adults have no problems with. For them, these excercizes will do nothing but frustrate, as their brains do not have the capacity for developing longer attention spans.
There are children who are put into classes now that are supposed to extend attention spans, and this is another example of that theory. It is useful, however, only in children who have the ability to develop normally, not in the true cases of ADD.
I use strattera for my adult ADD and I no longer drink 4-6 cups of coffee a day. My heart at rest is 70 bpm and my blood pressure is normal. Strattera has its own counterindications but they are far less severe.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I am german, and at first I thought he was german...
Reciprocality.
Hardly, you just respawn again.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
...nothing like a good game of 'burn the ant with sunlight' to cure a case of ADHD.
This sounds like an expensive peripheral... but it sounds better than GTA: Hey, lets go ride bikes!
Hyper-focusing on interesting things is one of the known characteristics of "ADD", and one of the best proofs that there is no such "disorder". Everyone can focus when they want to, what doctors call ADHD is not being able to focus on something that bores you to death, ie: school, work, chores.
These games have come a very long way from their Pacman days, and even further from their days of moving bar graphs up and down. And as the article reveals, there is now a home version, something I wasn't aware of, that converts any game into a focus training exercise. As the doctor in the article claimed, it is better to go into the office to have the full treatment with the feedback results, but at $50 a session for weeks on end many people cannot take advantage of this technology. Unfortunately, the home kit costs $584, not including medical advisement. 12 sessions (the usual period for neurofeedback) at $50 each costs only $600, including medical advisement. The home kit sounds more like a toy for rich boys or agoraphobics at this point than a viable financial alternative.
Aside from the obligatory "Oooh, shiny" type jokes around here, there has been an awful lot of ignorance concerning this subject. Stating the obvious, people with AD/HD have problems focusing (I cover that in a recent blog entry concerning boredom and the ADHD mind). Utilizing technology to provide a person with attention problems a method to retrain himself is something that should be celebrated, not mocked. Psychotropic drugs, the usual treatment, have dangerous side-effects. I have Chronic Motor Tic Disorder now because I took meds to treat AD/HD. That was 14 years ago, and I'm getting worse, not better. I can assure you I was better off before the meds. Besides, our minds acclimate to the meds so they have limited efficacy before needing dosage boosts. I can't see how learning to train one's mind to think better without medication is a bad thing, especially if it finds positive ways to utilize video games. I'm surprised by the negative comments around here. Perhaps the article should have focused on how this technology boosts GTA stats and fights censorship at the same time?
My only concern about modifying Playstation games to utilize this focusing technology is the problem AD/HD people have with hyperfocusing. AD/HD isn't only about being unable to focus. It's also about hyperfocusing to the exclusion of all other external stimuli, a problem with upsides and downsides. The doctor they interview recommends only 30 minute sessions for adults using this technology, but if one doesn't have will power or a handy mother/wife/girlfriend/buddy to yank the plug, one could simply use the technology as another way to hyperfocus while playing video games. I'm surprised they haven't shipped the controllers with a shell program that launches other games but cuts them off after 30 minutes.
I don't want my AD/HD eliminated. I rather like how quirkily creative I've become because of it. But having the ability to focus my creative energies for my own projects, business, etc. could only be a good thing. Meds are not an option for me anymore, and frankly, are being pushed on people like magic pills. Any tool we can utilize to develop coping strategies to deal with AD/HD and utilize it as an attribute are good tools in my opinion.
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
I think this would work great with Desert Bus.
Joel Lubar at U.Tenn.
http://psychology.utk.edu/people/lubar.html
It's hardly unusual for NASA to be involved in "breakthrough" science that they had no idea already existed.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
i had this treatment which lasted a little over a year about 5 years ago. it helped a lot and really does get results, but it is expensive. search biofeedback eeg... its really nothing new. maybe they are adding new games, but when i did it at the time there was already mazes and math games you could do. its not playing them with a controller, but rather with your mind. they have also used this same thing with older people to stimulate the mind, and people have regained memories.
You, sir, represent the type of ignorance I have to deal with on a daily basis. So I'm going to address your comment as if you are the head of the local "ADHD is a figment of my government's imagination" chapter, a subchapter of the "ADHD people are just lazy lusers who don't try hard enough" national organization. I realize you haven't personally attacked me, but in the spirit of an open exchange of ideas in our society I hope you realize I'm not personally attacking you either.
First, to those that think that AD/HD is a fabricated malady providing yet another way for "the Man" to enforce conformity in the youth of America, pull off your tinfoil hat. Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are unfortunate names that describe a small percentage of our population that have attention consistency problems. That means that their brain is either unable to focus on something, constantly drifting off even without them realizing it, or their brain is hyperfocusing on something, closing out all external stimuli to their detriment. From personal experience I can tell you that it is quite involuntary and extremely disruptive to learning, though the hyperfocusing aspect has its upsides. All aspects of society are exercises in conformity, and the person who can't pay attention or pays too much attention to the wrong things will miss every relevant cue they need to fit in or be productive. Since I could care less about fitting in, I focus (as best as I can ^_-) on being productive. I think being accomplished is fairly important to a person's self-esteem.
Second, to those that think that helping people fit in and be productive is repugnant, try NOT being productive 24/7 for a decade or two and get back to me. The fitting in part is up to the individual's desires, but being productive is important. Forget "the Man". If one can't focus and follow projects through to the end, then one is at the mercy's of one's own misfiring brain. Last time I checked, that wasn't fun or desirable.
Third, to those that suggest that psychotropic drugs and behavioral treatments judiciously applied are acceptable but video games attempting to train people with AD/HD to focus is wrong, with all due respect I think you folks are a pinheads. What behavioral treatments are you people referring to? Electroshock therapy? Spankings? How is a game that trains one to focus not a behavioral treatment? Or worse, an exercise in conformity?
Fourth and final, I recommend you learn what it's like to have troubles focusing with ADHD. Visit my blog on ADHD. I write about it almost every week. Heck, visit my blog anyway even if you don't want to know. I welcome dissenting viewpoints there, but really I hope you ADHD Doubting folks might learn something. Not only do I attempt to humorously cover the topic of AD/HD (as well as other neurological disorders) with a sense of humor, the comments attached to every column are filled with various viewpoints of people who struggle with AD/HD. IMO, these comments prove that this isn't just a fictional malady invented by psychologists for profit (the Scientologist angle), or schools to have a reason to medicate the masses (the tinfoil hat angle). Just because some psychologists (alright, MOST psychologists) are shameless snakeoil salesmen shilling for the pharmaceutical industry by taking advantage of a mental condition doesn't mean that condition is fabricated. And just because some educators believe conformity is best produced by heavy medication doesn't mean the entire school system wants to medicate all children to be happy members of the new working class.
In the meantime, I would like to see more critical analysis of this technology, not dismissal. Are the changes in the ADHD mind real? Or is this an expensive placebo for rich but gullible people? Assuming the changes are real, are claims of cured ADHD minds overstated? Did the changes last over time? Is there a benefit t
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
When doing a thesis on retirement homes, one of the staff workers I interviewed said something that has stuck with me all of these years.
"We used to call it 'getting old.' Now we label it the Alzheimers disease and throw money at it and push sick people away. Somehow, people were more accepting of it when it was just 'getting old.'"
The ______ Agenda
Years from now, the ADHD kids will be looking back & talking about how their video games used to lock up on them at the worst possible times for seemingly no reason.
Hey, wait a second, my old computer used to do that all the time !
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I have ADHD. You are wrong. Allow me to help you understand. The mistake you make, which is a common misconception, is that ADHD is actually a deficit of attention. That's not exactly correct. ADHD is more like an inability to control and regulate your attention. Most people with ADHD have the ability to hyperfocus. That is, when you will focus on something to the point of being unable to focus on anything else. Unfortunately, this isn't something ADHD can trigger at will. As I said, ADHD is the inability to control attention.
There is quite a bit more to ADHD than just short attention spans. It has many other far-reaching effects beyond the stereotypical loopy behavior most people think of, such as persistant problems with time management, task prioritization, motivation, and other executive brain functions.
Sugar and caffine are not the causes of ADHD. (In fact, before methyphenidate, caffine was used as a treatment for ADHD). Dietary treatments for ADHD have had mixed results at best. Medication for ADHD is not a cure, by any stretch of the mind, but it can dramaticaly help. Please do not dismiss something just because of what you have heard on TV. Just a little bit of research would teach you a lot, I think.
Let's get this straight, I hate the way the U.S. thinks it can solve all it's problems with guns, pills and suing the crap out of each other. But that doesn't mean ADD isn't real. People dislike the idea that there are common ailments that cause us to loose control in that manner. People are used to blaming people. How many people will argue that fat people are fat purely because it's there fault, with no evidence or logical backing to boot? I myself do have attention problems. Perhaps it is diet, but perhaps it isn't. I think we also have a problem to put down most of our problems to what our eat, or rather it's popular in the media these days. There are so many other factors. I think the reason we need conditions like ADD is because all our brains work differently and are good at different things and bad at others, and the Blame crowd won't accept this, either through malignity or stupidity, so there needs to be an official piece of paper presented to them before they'll even consider it. And now of course, they're saying that's not enough. What IS enough, honestly? The sooner we learn to accept our limits, the sooner we can work around them. Convincing ourselves we're just lazy just gives us the notion we can change with ease, which only frustrates when we find we can't. Weight loss is a great example of this, overblown worse-case-scenario statistics and media guilt trips are hardly helping.
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
Where'd you go to school? The ghetto? I forgot they had medical schools in the ghetto.
ADD / ADHD is not just limited to lack of attention. It also involves periods of long and extreme bouts of intense concentration. So just because a person has ADHD does not mean that he will zone out. I was diagnosed with ADD. And my parents were smart enough to not let me know about it and also to not pump me full of chemicals. I am now 22 and frankly if you can say I am 'cured' it is only because of good parenting and pure discipline. I am doubtful about the success of this project for one main reason: Parents will rely on everything besides themselves to help their kids, when the most important and successful madication to the best of my knowledge - is parenting.
Virtual nuns with rulers. The pope probably holds the patent on that.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Yeah...I'm chicken...I'm going to post this one anonymous...
I have severe ADHD. Is it diet? Well, my diet consists mostly of fresh, raw, or lightly steamed fruits and vegetables along with broiled salmon. I suppose there might be some bad chemicals in the veggies but I rinse everything well before eating it. There are no additives at all in my diet, very little dairy, and almost no processed sugar. I get protein from soy and take various supplements.
Perhaps it is a lack of exercise? I did a mile on the treadmill this morning in 11 minutes, 44 seconds, followed by ten minutes on the exercise bike followed by another mile on the treadmill in 10 minutes 14 seconds. I do that every morning, 30 minutes cardio, so I don't think it is lack of exercise.
Or maybe it is too much television? I don't think so considering I never watch television or play computer games other than occasional solitaire.
Or maybe I was just misdiagnosed with the latest fad diagnosis? I have never been diagnosed with it. I can look back and see the symptoms clearly in my elementary school report cards. Every year, different teachers, same problems. But this was before most people had even heard of ADHD. I ended up dropping out of the eighth grade after flunking the fourth and skipping most of the fifth, sixth and seventh grades.
I finally figured out for myself from extensive reading that I have ADHD and it is the result of a traumatic head injury when I was two months old. Skull fractures to both sides of my head. I am 53 now and still struggle with it. Drugs are not a good long term solution to this problem. They are like fertilizers for your lawn. They make it look nice and green quickly, but in the long run they are an ecological disaster. There are no short cuts to real mental health.
There was an article in CHADD about this at least 5 years ago.
On seeing the headline, I knew there'd be all sorts of opinions flying around in the comments. And there are. As someone who's dealt with AD/HD all my life (but only recently diagnosed), I think it's important to bring up the International Consensus opinion. Because I work hard enough dealing with myself, to have to also deal with the cloud of aspersions and rumors and misinformed crap that follows it around.
These are great points. I find that I have some advantages by virtue of having ADD. Fortunately, my wife doesn't hold it against me that I also have shortcomings due to ADD.
However, living in a world where meetings, deadlines, and paperwork are so important, I find that I my struggle with these things would be much more difficult or impossible without medications.
That said, I think it is quite possible that children are being over-diagnosed and over-medicated. Choosing to medicate a child is very different than adults choosing to medicate themselves.
My ex girlfriend was diagnosed with ADD and was prescribed Adderall which is a mixture of different amphetamine salts. When I first tried the stuff I was AMAZED at how incredibly clear my mind became.
It was as if I became a mental superman. I could focus for hours and hours on work and enjoy every minute of it. When finals came around I could focus on my studying without distraction and instead of being depressed and irritated with studying I was hungry for it.
Mathematician Paul Erdos was addicted to amphetamines. During a month long break from the drug he said "Before, when I looked at a piece of blank paper my mind was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece of paper."
This shit is scarily addictive. It's a good thing we broke up or I might have become an amphetamine junkie. I would think long and hard about giving speed to my kids for ADD.
And of course, when our whole lives must revolve around office work, there's something wrong with US, not society, oh no. Strangely, NONE of nature's creatures are suited to the insanely inhumane treatment humans force on each other, and yet we see lack of ability to adapt to our little cubicle-housed concentration camps as a deficit. Damn nature, didn't make us Borg enough!
Have you considered that maybe you're actually just fricking brilliant, and if you took some of those advantages and put them to work for yourself in the career you always dreamed of having instead of the one you have now, that your "disease" might turn into a "gift"?
Why is it so hard to understand that people are different?
ADHD is a name we put on a combination of attributes common in some portion of the population which gives them specifically different ways of processing information. I am one of them.
It is not a disease, nor is it "made up to sell drugs".
Its a difference in what the brain considers INTERESTING or IMPORTANT.
Some people are "wired" to notice things like movement, change, differences, instantly. They're hyper-aware of these things. It prevents them from ignoring those things they someone who is wired more toward the opposite end of the spectrum.
Want to know what it is like?
Telling a child who happens to think this way that has been placed in a busy classroom with big windows that she shouldn't look at the bird landing on the branch outside is like telling you not to blink execpt once every 20 seconds, exactly on the 20 second mark. You have control over your blinking right? Assuming you were told it was REALLY important that you not blink -- that you would be in TROUBLE and LOOSE RECESS if you fail -- you could control EXACTLY when you blink. As long as you remembered to CONCENTRATE on that 20 seconds you could do it. After about a minute, it would become extremely onerous to keep up. After as little as two minutes, you would become angry at anyone who started talking to you because it would make your job harder. With practice, you could get the timing right -- as long as something didn't interrupt you. You would become very irritable, probably frustrated and depressed as well. If you found that drugs helped you, you would take them.
That, exactly, is what school can be like for someone who's brain works in a way we classify as ADHD.
ADHD is NOT an inability to pay attention. It is a very big difference in what the brain considers important and interesting. The classic reference is hunter/farmer in developing societies. A farmer needs to be able to ignore the woods, the sounds, the noises, and plant his crops for weeks at a time. Routine, hard work day after day. The hunter needs to be automatically aware of EVERYTHING without having to look. When something is spotted, the hunter has to just REACT without thought and take action. The skills each have are valuable -- and would cause each to fail at the job of the other.
So, kids who have genetic tendancies toward this kind of brain focus, are poorly suited to sitting in classrooms and learning. Its not how they (we) learn. Your making a hunter into a farmer and it doesn't fit. So, here's the real deal on what happens to kids who are not treated as they are being forced into a role they are ill suited to:
A high incidence of failure in school, as well as a high incidence of drug addiction, early pregnancy, criminality, risk taking, depression, and violence. Why? It is INCREDIBLY frustrating. Drugs HELP. Why? Damn if I know why drugs that that would hype you out the to moon, calm me down and let me get started. Its a brain chemistry thing. Nicotine works too -- but not as well. Caffine works -- poorly -- if you take enough of it. High grade speed works perfectly. Its best, however, if you have perspription for it in one form or another. If you like, I can describe the differences in detail between the various sorts.
As to video games, sports, etc.. -- ALL THOSE THINGS that require a lot of focus? Guess what? HYPER-FOCUS is another KEY indicator of this syndrome. You see, the brain in this case is fined tuned to notice things QUICKLY and constantly until it finds something that it considers important. Typically, these are activities that require intense concentration and focus to the exclusion of all else. Again, the common metaphor is hunting. Once that rabbit pops out the bushes, the hunter will give chase and will run headlong through brambles, jumping logs, wherever the rabbit goes. Its hyper-focus.
Sometimes, its called emerency focus.
Where do you find the adults who's brains wo
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Uhm, is it just me or did they get it backwards? I mean, the idea is to help them become more normal, yes? But, instead, it encourages "zoning out" by the game essentially just pausing and waiting for them when real life doesn't pause. While they should be learning how to fight the "zoning out" or at least how to cope with it, this technique allows them to "zone out" without any consequences.
Normally, I agree with anybody who says that a drug problem is the fault of the drug user and nobody else. After all, nobody forced the user to start using drugs, right?
In the post above, the poster actually *was* forced to start using drugs, and now has a drug problem.
Save your moral clarity for a problem you understand.
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
As for the article,
"When they play on this system, if they zone out [as detected by brainwave activity], the videogame doesn't respond any more' This is supposed to help the patient increase the ability to focus and concentrate."
So when the test subject begins to lose focus, the game pauses. If the test subject lost attention he/she probably doesn't care about the game anymore anyway. Sounds like an opportunity for powersaving.
btw, just FYI, I lost concentration halfway through the article. I think I need to water my plants.
hitler was from austria
anyway, if you can understand german you can see that this video is clearly staged
Conservatism: The fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is your inferior is being treated as your equal.
Has anyone asked themselves why ADHD and other disorders are unknown in the Arab or [black] African worlds?
Have a better one: how came 7 out of 10 posts here are personal stories of being diagnosed with ADHD?
I think the diagnosis of ADHD is very subjective, and therein lies the
danger. The further you distance human decision making from reality
feedback, the more errors tend to occur. People come to inappropriate
conclusions all the time, in government departments, in court, in
science. Unfortunately unlike in computer programming, decisions
interpreting something as complex as human behavior don't cause a crash
to occur that notifies the decision maker of a flaw in their
interpretation.
I have come from a disadvantaged life and have seen many people diagnosed
with ADHD where it would in hindsight seem inappropriate. One kid I know
suffered a stroke at birth which seems to have contributed to serious
behavioral problems, and its obvious the kid seems "out of tune" with
the social context of many situations. That kids was diagnosed with ADHD
and put on a high dose of Ritalin. What offended me is the stroke at
birth was attributed to the mothers heavy use of methamphetemine during
pregnancy. Treat the damage cause by psychostimulant abuse with a psychostimulant? Perhaps but I'd suggest extreme caution.
I have seen kids in entirely chaotic and abusive home environments, -kids
in such bad environments where even at several years of age they
honestly haven't been toilet trained and well I am not kidding what the
house is like- put onto Ritalin or dexamphetemine while the issue of
neglect and abuse at home is not investigated or changed. I especially
find it offensive to so easily put kids who have both parents addicted
to methamphetemine put on the same class of drugs. I have seen this happen.
I was put on Ritalin when I was a teenager. I was told by more than one
doctor that I have severe ADHD. I went well on Ritalin for 1-2 years and
it seemed to completely have changed my life, but after a year or so the
effect seems to be reducing. The doctor increased the dose. Eventually I
started getting very "paranoid" and odd thoughts. I started having
severe panic attacks. I started thinking things like "the theoretical
speculations between the gaps in my thoughts are allowing demons from
alternate dimensions to invade my mind" and hearing "babbling insane
voices" inside my head. I am serious. Yet this was not all the time and strangely often only lasted an hour or so at the time, and the doctor didn't seem
to believe me. I havn't been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. I just had "weird" effects, and they REALLY spooked me out. I went off the medication and have never had such symptoms since. I was also on antidepressant medication (Aropax) at the time. I keep away from psychiatry these days. Keep people away from them unless they believe they are jesus christ or are in the most severe crisis.
Many of the kids I have seen who are hyperactive and put on medications
have behavioural problems which seem to respond better to affection and
understanding than stimulants. I am not saying the case for putting kids
on psycho-stimulants doesn't exist, I am saying be very cautious. It is
a dangerous world out there.
It was 50's-60's folklore that Speed Kills... People would drop dead latest around 50 years old from too much of life too little rest.
Now think how much the government would save if this begun happening in large scale. Like mass prescription of Ritalin... Big Brother gets to keep all the pension payments and save $$$ on Medicare. When speed would be given as a medicine the negative issues of counterculture would be avoided and people would conveniently 'expire' just when their productive working life would be over.
Paranoia? Scifi? Reality?
I've been wondering lately if TV and it's constant jumping from picture to picture is a cause of attention loss (especially in kids) and even perhaps exacerbating the symptoms of people with AD(H)D. What do you all think? Especially those who know about the physiological aspects of ADD. Also, wanted to point out a really good book called "Last Child in the Woods". The basic premise is that the loss of time in nature and unstructured play are causing a problem that the author with tongue-in-cheek calls "nature deficit disorder". He points to many studies showing that nature calms people down, increases concentration, and increases creativity. Unstructured play is when a kid goes out to the playground or an empty lot or out in the woods and just does whatever comes naturally- make up stories and games, run around, whatever. This is not to say that structured activities are bad. They're great! However, unstructured play is also necessary to a child's development and it very rarely happens anymore. Another issue is that kids are allowed so much less space to roam now than in the past. Most kids don't have a big open space, a forest behind their house anymore. And parents are afraid to let them go farther afield than their own front yard. There's a lot more in there too. Highly reccommended. The author's name is Richard Louv. "Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depend upon it." --from "Last Child in the Woods,"
This is just one of the many neurofeedback systems that use some kind of game to keep the patient involved. How is this unique? The whole article seems to be just a press release from the company in question. NASA technology? This stuff is being researched all over the world for years. In principle, it is the equivalent of whacking somebody when their eyes stray, only more precise, faster and more humane. Pavlov anyone?
I too was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. My parents had the same knee-jerk reaction as yours: it's the drug companies cooking up a "disorder" that describes normal childhood behavior, then selling the "cure".
However, it turns out that there actually WAS something different about the way my brain was working. So my academic life was a nonstop trail of failure all the way through 5th grade, when my mom (the voice of reason) convinced my father to stop expecting me to "buckle down" and let me actually get the ritalin prescription.
Well what the hell do you know? The next grading period I was on the damn honor roll. The ritalin didn't make me smart, it gave me the tool I needed so that all my other efforts would be fruitful: the ability to really concentrate.
I had a good doctor and over a period of years she reduced the dosage gradually, so that I was able to "train my brain" to concentrate on it's own without the artificial chemical.
ADD Medications are not "mere sedatives", and you sir are full of the rottenest kind of horse malarkey to suggest that they aren't doing anyone any real good.
They call it "science", sir, because it's based on facts.
Videogames "USED TO" treat ADHD...
And I "USED TO" have a girlfriend.
sig
Until they start putting these brain monitoring headsets on the staff at work, now how am i supposed to doze off!
The problem with all ADHD treatments is that ADHD is a subjective problem. e.g How disruptive a pupil is in class is dependent on too many variables: other pupils behavior, the nature of the class, the teacher, and how the teacher perceives the child. See this ADHD Diagnosis: The Role of Parents [myomancy.com] for how parents and teachers can have very different ideas about their child's behavior.
So when talking about treating ADHD you need to say what you are trying to achieve. In the Smart Brain Games technology mentioned in the article the system 'rewards' improvements in the ratio of beta to theta brainwaves. Does this reduce ADHD symptoms? Well maybe.
The only study on the actual Smart Brain Games technology ( Comparison of Videogame and Standard EEG Biofeedback With AD/HD Children: Results of the First Concept Study ) consisted of 22 children split into 2 groups. One group received normal biofeedback and the other the Playstation based system. There was no non-treated control group, a serious flaw in the research.
After 40 hours of treatment the researches check the children's brainwaves and found both groups to have change in an identical manner. Subjective appraisal by the parents was more positive for the Playstation version than the other group. However this undermines the whole idea. If ratio of beta to theta waves is important to ADHD then how can the groups, who both had same quantive changes in brainwaves, be assessed differently by their parents for behaviour changes?
It is sad that what is a promising area of treatment is undermined by companies who do poor research and put a misleading spin on the results.
Disclaimer: One or more of the links above points to Myomancy, a blog I run about the science of ADHD and similar problem.
I suspect that you are correct. I have ADHD, one brother definitely does, and another brother very likely does. My brother was diagnosed when his son was; so was I.
In cases where ADHD has a genetic/biological component, medication seems to be very helpful. Whatever the reason, we're "wired different" and the right meds can help our minds become more balanced. The right meds (Wellbutrin in my case) don't take away the creativity and ability to see tasks through that are the positive side of ADHD, but they do help you become more socially away and deal with less interesting tasks.
As for ADHD fathers not sticking around, sometimes that because our wives don't want to deal with us and would rather run away from our "problem" than work with us. Since the divorce and going on Wellbutrin, I have become more connected with my children than ever and try to help the two with ADHD better understand how it impacts their lives.
DJ
Well said. ADHD is a difference with both positive and negative aspects. Hyperfocus is wonderful in its place, but it can also make one prone to addictive behavior (video gaming, for instance). The fact that the ADHD brain is wired differently means we tend to be creative people and good problem solvers. I took full advantage of ADHD for decades in design work, writing, and troubleshooting computers.
The reason that ADHD is seen as a disorder is that there's a price we pay for hyperfocus and otherwise being overly aware of our surroundings - we're easily distracted and can have a hard time bringing focus to things that don't fascinate us. If the topic isn't engrossing, our minds wander.
In my experience, the greatest downside of having ADHD was never developing the social skills needed to thrive outside school and the workplace. Medication has helped me immensely. I'm no less creative, no less able to focus, but I am less distracted and better able to sustain social relationships.
It's the best of both world without being "normal" - and I really appreciate the benefits ADHD has given me. The right medication (and they are not all right for all ADHDers) can balance things out nicely; the wrong one or wrong dosage can completely remove your edge.
DJ
Great post! Sounds like me in a nutshell, and I'm going through ADD investigation right now.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
Here is an example of how old it is.
Imagine my surprise when I saw him whip out the PlayStation at our family reunion and then strap on the goofy-looking helmet...
Seriously, he's got adult ADHD, and he's pretty happy about the treatment. Basically, the helmet is part of a special controller, which you can hook into a normal PS2. The more focused your brain waves show you to be, the harder the controller presses the X button for you - so it's ideal for racing games. And if your attention drifts, the controller outputs randomly so your car spins out or crashes. He plays on the long, boring timed tracks, and tries to beat his time records. (He sure as heck didn't get a new high score when we were all watching him and pestering him about the system!)
He says the most expensive part of the whole thing is the sterilized water he has to buy for the sponges on the probes. (I'm assuming that hefty price tag for the system itself was covered by health insurance.) He also says that the data researchers have collected on the system shows that after (I believe) six months of regular use, you are able to adjust your brain waves enough that medication is often no longer necessary. Awesome news if it pans out!
(By the way, my cousin isn't just a hyperactive kid. He's a smart guy, and a senior at a good college. He's always had problems with focus and concentration, though, to his own frustration. While I'm skeptical about a lot of reported cases of ADD/ADHD, especially among younger kids, in his case it seems like the real deal.)
Don't smoke pot. Vaporize it or make an essential oil extract of it and eat it. This makes it far less harmful to your body (no inhalation of hot anything, no searing of the lungs, nor any harmful resin deposits/tar left in your lungs) and by far is more therapeutic than just smoking it to begin with. Also, I don't use exclusively pot, but I also make use of tinctures, like skullcap, lavendar, chamomile, syrian rue, and other helpful herbal plants. Got a bad cough? Go make an echinacea tincture and put a few drops in with whatever fluids you're drinking. It works most of the time. I just don't use pharmaceutical stuff anymore unless it's antibiotics. I've had too much damage done to me as it is, and I'd rather trust nature to provide for me. As it was once said, "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
They mention that a better name would be something like "Attention Inconsistency Disorder".
Yeah, but who wants to say that their kid has AID? All jokes aside...
As somebody diagnosed with ADD in college, I believe it's a real thing. My attentional mechanisms are definitely different than most people. I am very distractable, and can also be very focused in certain rare circumstancess.
Same here (except that I was diagnosed as a kid and dosed up on Ritalin). I have a very simplified theory of what ADD is -- boredom. The problem with people like us is that we can't concentrate on boring things. We crave stimulation and seek it out when the thing that we're working on isn't stimulating. When it is, it grips our attention fully and less stimulating things are ignored. Have you ever had trouble concentrating on something that you wanted to do that was interesting?
Is it any wonder then that there is a direct correlation between the number of hours a kid watches TV and the probability that they become ADD? Modern society overstimulates people and leaves them incapable of dealing with long periods of downtime.
This is why I'm websurfing right now instead of working -- my job is too boring to concentrate on, and I haven't tuned into talk radio yet to keep my brain active while I slog through the job. (Oh well, at least it pays well.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I believe it was back in kindergarten/grade 1 where they tried to nail me with the "dyslexic" diagnosis, and later with being the equivilent to ADHD at the time. Ritalin caused me to fall asleep in class or lose concentration on my work, and special lessions for my supposed lower learning level did sweet-F-all. Having two great teachers who actually bothered to get me involved with some good books helped me get off the supposed dyslexic program. Today I have more books on my bookshelf than 90% of the other people I know, and of which I have no problems reading at all.
As for being hyperactive, WTF ever happened to energetic kids? I've seen kids that do need ritalin, they're to the point of being almost insane without it, and tend to have yelling, screaming, and various little other fits without. I see plenty of other kids who are stuck on the magic-behavior-pill who seem like drug addicts, their natural energy and spark dampened by a drug that is far too often overused.