FSP was describing her recent experience with a person with Attention Deficit Disorder:
After I was finished editing, I glanced over to see what my companion was doing. He had said that he was going to work on a manuscript, but when I glanced at his laptop, he was reading a political blog. Seconds later he went back to his manuscript, wrote a sentence, then checked some news headlines — then he went back to the manuscript to write another sentence or two, then he checked the weather online, then he went to some journal websites to scan the tables of contents, then he wrote a sentence, then he jumped up to get something to drink, came back and wrote a sentence, and so on. It was amazing. In the course of a few hours, he made progress on the manuscript, and entertained me with pieces of information gleaned from his internet expeditions.
A number of these symptoms describe my behaviour too. For example, when I write a manuscript, I always have a browser open with blogs, news and video sites. As soon as I finished writing the first sentence of this post, I got up from my chair, circled it and sat back to writing. I have a habit of pacing up and down every time I need to think… I do not seem to be able to think while being seated at my desk. And I have difficult time listening to someone, and this is true even on one-to-one chats, if there is a TV playing or someone else also talking.
The question is when do these symptoms resemble “normal distractibility” and when they resemble ADD, which requires medical attention. Well, to the best of my knowledge, I didn’t exhibit distractibility or hyper-activity as a child, the behaviour has not significantly affected important areas of my life and I am able to work with much less distraction closer to deadlines* (though, you will always find a browser window open on my computer). So, essentially my behaviour amounts not to ADD but to one requiring a better discipline and incorporating some of the behavioural aspects of coping with distractibility.
* Funny that just as I started writing this sentence, I stepped out of my office to fill my water bottle and haven’t yet taken a sip from it.
Feb 09, 2008
My first experience with someone sufferring from ADD was in 2003. J was a fellow graduate student at Georgia Tech. We interacted for a very brief period and I reckon we met not more than 3-4 times. Meeting him and interacting with him was an experience in itself. His brain would process the next train of thought while he spoke. Initially, discussing things with him would be very odd. Every now and then, it would seem that he wouldn’t be listening.
I remember our second meeting. It was raining and we were planning to go grab some dinner. We were contemplating whether to go to the restaurant or order in. His response was something to the effect “temperatures fall when it rains.” What he really wanted to say is that he didn’t want to eat pizza and by the time sandwiches arrive from the restaurant at Tech square, they would not be warm enough.
His coping strategies were amazing. First of all, he was “comfortable” with his condition; he mentioned once that this was the most difficult thing he had to face. Another interesting thing was that he did not blank out the objects of his distractions. Much the same way as FSP describes, he would switch between various activities and get back to the work at hand. Even if he received no email, he would still log on to his email account, check email, log off and continue with our work. Any work would be split into “bite size pieces” and he would stick to some schedule. There was an amazing structure and pattern to his life… something I believe he built as a coping strategy.
I remember him specifically not only because he is the only person diagnosed with ADHD that I met but also because we met during a lean portion of my graduate school. Spring 2003 was a particularly difficult time as my research was not going anywhere, my advisor was to spend the summer in Korea and he (advisor) actually had to speak to me about my distractibility. To add to the stress, my parents were to arrive in Atlanta to spend the summer with me.
Thankfully, things got back on track that summer. My parents’ presence helped a lot, so did the discussions with my colleagues (especially, Jong Min Lee) and in some way, knowing J.
Tags: General, Personal by Niket
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