This seems to have been an unusually "dead" week.
Somehow, though, we have managed to get to the end of another month... and now it's just about May 1st and SPUD — Steem Power Up Day! Check out @kiwiscanfly's post about this month's SPUD!
But, as I was saying, I have felt thoroughly unmotivated and uncreative this week, and have spent most of my days doing random "busy work," tying up loose ends, answering email, and just having an overall "bleh" feeling. Hence my fewer than usual posts... My concentration is really shot to hell, too — I seem unable to focus on anything for more than a few minutes before it just seems "boring," and I want to look at something else.
Meanwhile, my time has been punctuated by yardwork, as we get ready for the annual World Labyrinth Day, which is May 1st. We have a labyrinth in our back yard... everything has to be neat and tidy because we're actually having people over, pretty much for the first time since Covid hit, early last year.
Our backyard labyrinth in the evening sun. (photo by @whitelightxpress)
Anyway, I got to wondering about this whole "pseudo-crisis" we seem to be having with ADD/ADHD in this world of ours. Except for a few extreme cases, I don't even remember this being an issue when I was a kid, or a youth. Now, I don't mean to suggest that there's not a "real" problem in today's society, but it does make me wonder whether we've created the problem, as a result of this accelerated and ever faster information intensive world we live in.
Are our modern day problems with ADD/ADHD basically a product of a shift from a relative "snail's pace" text based society to a more rapidly unfolding electronic image-based paradigm?
Let's face it, with the Internet, email, instant news feeds, 4000 cable channels and goodness knows what else, we're being subjected to a constant bombardment of information overload that simply didn't exist in 1964. I check my email inbox in the morning, and I sometimes have 500 new messages, which I have to screen and sort into SPAM (mostly), business, friends, social media, eBay, "other" and "don't know."
I occasionally watch CNN and RT and the screen is "blocked," with space dedicated to an assortment of tickers, telling me the headlines, stock market, weather, sports news — on top of someone talking. And let's face it, that news is already delivered in 60-second soundbites. Meanwhile, we fill our days with ever more "clutter," in the form of social events, sports clubs, meetings, focus groups, therapy, children's groups and goodness knows what else — effectively cutting the amount of time available to spend on any one thing into smaller and smaller fragments.
When I was a teen, sitting down on a rainy Saturday afternoon and reading for 4 hours wasn't that unusual. Neither I — nor any of my friends — had any trouble concentrating for that long. But there certainly wasn't this huge array of choices offered, either.
Or should I say "forced upon me?"
Because how much of this is actually voluntary? There isn't an Internet where the only email comes from your friends. There's no simplified news. Meanwhile, my physical mailbox is still filled with magazines, flyers and a few mail order catalogs. Yup, those still exist.
So is it any wonder that more and more people have minds that seem unable to focus and concentrate, and appear to process everything in little tiny fragments? Is it any wonder that people appear "hyperactive" as they frantically try to keep up with the constant assault of stimuli?
Of course, there's a certain irony in the fact that I am sitting here, actually adding to that tidal wave of information!
Myself, and thousands of other people. There are literally billions of people sharing their stories, every single day.
Of course, I also have to admit that I am getting older, and I am not entirely a technological native in this world. It just gets to be a little much, sometimes...
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!
How about YOU? Do you ever find yourself feeling overloaded by the "pace" of information? Or are you simply used to it? Do you ever wish you could just "turn it off?" Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210430 23:23 PDT
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In regard to your ADD/ADHD comment. This is a thing that exists and has always existed. In the past, however, it was just called bad behaviour and would be punished as such. I am not saying that is the right response--just that that is how it was dealt with in the past.
High functioning kids with mild cases would learn to control symptoms and work around them. Low functioning kids were sent off to institutions where they would suffer harsh treatments like water therapy and even lobotomy. In retrospect, these were seriously terrible ideas.
We do not do this anymore, thankfully. Now the treatment is medication (mostly). At the same time, certain kids are being overmedicated and they lose out on the chance to self-develop strategies to deal with the symptoms of ADD/ADHD.
Beyond that, there is an argument that the numbers of kids with ADD/ADHD Autism and similar issues are actually increasing. This could be caused by many reasons.
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We do seem to have developed a fondness fo medicalizing everything... I find it disturbing.
To the extent that I am symptomatic with ADHD, I have mostly skated under the radar because mine if the "inattentive" variant rather than the "hyperactive" one. I have always tended to quietly mind my own business, and I was never "that kid" who was eternally fidgeting and bouncing around. I;d just sit there and try to do something... and then drift quietly away.
Pair that with what is now sometimes called "Sluggish Cognitive Tempo" and I was primarily thought to be slow/learning disabled.
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I think if I was in grade school now, I would have been diagnosed with ADD. I had some of the symptoms in grade 1, but it wasn't a thing yet. My grade 1 teacher HATED me and I never understood why. We would have an hour to copy down 4 sentences off the blackboard and I could never finish. She would often make me sit under the sink because I was "bad". :-P
As an adult, my husband likes to joke that I will wander off if I see something shiny--and it's true. After the bump on the head it got worse. It was like I had to start over with the coping mechanisms. 5 years later I am FINALLY starting to feel back to normal.
I will tell you something horrifying. After my accident, my Dr decided to try me on some dexedrine, which is a drug commonly given to children with ADHD. I was taking it because I needed the memory support that comes from increased attention.
I was started on a basic pediatric dose, the same dose they give to 6 year olds. OMG I was high. I was soooo high. I was listening to jazz and doing math at the same time and it FINALLY all made sense. I didn't even know I was high until my occupational therapist made her visit and I suggested it to me.
They give this stuff to small children!
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