ADD Frustration

The other day, on ADD Moms, I wrote about the frustration that sometimes comes with the territory when you have ADD.

At the time, I had spent a few pleasant hours re-designing my site (like this one) only to have it all disappear due to a minor glitch. I spent four additional days working on restoring things - four days to replace a few hour’s work.

The problem was that I suddenly couldn’t remember how to do the things I had done a day or two before. I became more and more confused the more I worked with it, and increasingly frustrated.

This is a very common thing with ADHD, and not one that is often understood, especially by parents and teachers.

You think if you know something, you know it. But that’s not always the case.

A better way to understand it might be to think in terms of wiring and storage. ADD brains are “wired” differently than non ADD brains - they work differently.

Non ADD brains work in a linear fashion. Orderly and logical - sort of a Mr. Spock kind of brain. Non ADD brains take information and store it in a logical, reasonable way. They almost always find it easy to retrieve the information because they have stored it in a logicial, predictable place. They can have trouble, though, if someone asks them to think creatively - “outside the box”.

Creativity is part of the ADD brain, because ADD brains work in a non-linear fashion. That’s what makes us so great at seeing connections between things that others miss. Because we don’t work in an orderly, linear manner, and our brains work very fast, information can get stored in a different kind of way.

We store according to connections, ideas, associations, but sometimes that can make it very hard to find the information again. In addition, environmental factors like diet, sleep, and even what’s going on around us can make things more difficult because our symptoms are more evident.

There isn’t a lot you can do when you have ADD frustration. I find the best thing is to take a break if I can and do something else. Also, if I can see that outside influences are aggravating my symptoms, I change what I can and see if it helps.

I hope this has helped you understand a little more about how the ADD brain works, and also helped you understand your child and his frustrations at times.

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How the ADD Brain Processes

Recently I wrote about how I am learning some new and old things again, and how it surprised me that going over the same material a second time yielded new insights.

Although I haven’t studied any additional material in the last day or so, I am continuing to put together ideas, see relationships I didn’t see before, and just gaining even more insights.

I think that most people assume that you sit in class, listen to the teacher, and leave the class having learned something new.

Not everyone’s brain works that way. In fact, most ADD brains probably do not.

There are differences in the way each person absorbs and embraces new information.

Some people need to sit back and just listen without trying to take notes. Others need time to absorb what they’ve learned, and will be more comfortable with the new information once their brain has had some time to process it. Just like me - a day or so later, I’m still learning despite having studied anything new.

Still others need to see relationships between things. If they can relate the concept of what they’ve learned to something in their life or something that they already know, they find it easier to grasp.

I suspect that your ADD child may be a combination of a few of these styles. Let your brain process that for a while and see what it comes up with.

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Learning Over and Over Again

Learning never stops, no matter how old you get or what you already know.

I’ve recently been concentrating on learning internet marketing, something that I studied very intently when I first became a website owner. I’ve found out that covering the same material I covered 18 months ago still taught me new things and reinforced things I already knew.

It’s kind of like when you re-read a favorite book, or see a movie for the second or third time. You always notice new things and get greater insights.

Learning can always be that way, no matter who you are or what you’re learning.

Maybe this is a technique you can use with your ADD child for things that are especially hard to grasp. Let them study it once, and then re-visit it a day or two later to see if you can add to, or reinforce what has already been learned.

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