It's not a disease, it's a functional limitation. Wich for me means that starting and/or finishing projects take way, waaay too long, being distracted easily, probably not paying attention, have a hard time articulating because of a constant chaos or "buzz" in my head, have to read instructions over and over and OVER because I forget easily, losing track of time and sometimes be extremly short-tempered. The fact that you claimed ADHD is just part of "personality", without any reasoning or evidence pissed me off, partly because that's a stupid thing to do and partly because ADHD constantly fucks with my life. ADHD is a neurobehavorial development disorder you know.. you might want to read up on things first before throwing worthless theories out there.
On the upside though, individuals with this kind of functional limitation are often extremly creative and imaginative, so yeah maybe that made me an N.. or just made me a bigger sensotard, I don't know.
From a teaching perspective I have found that engagement and linear vs abstract thinking in the way that students are taught can make the difference in attention being maintained. I have a friend who is ISTJ and had often wondered what relationship functions had on distractability. When the friend refused to come to see The Matrix because he found the abstraction too boring and difficult to follow I realised that Linear concepts are boring to Abstract thinkers who learn in leaps of association driven by relative imperatives, and Abstract concepts with no deliberately scheduled purpose are boring to Linear thinkers. Each scenario increases distractability.
When we eliminate the distractability caused by poor nutrient intake, and situational distractability, we are left with a much smaller portion of the population with true difficulties. One of the problems with medicating these distractable people is that many have unique creative capacity and, like many who suffer from bipolar disorder, there is a tradeoff in reducing the distractability with meds.
I have a reported, but not memorable, history of being hyperactive and my mother put me on ritalin sometime in my toddler years. I must not have taken it for long, because I have no memory of it, but she did start having me drink coffee, so she was fairly progressive for the time. My husband's mother says he had it too, but this is anecdotal, and I cannot be sure if he really did, although he has some signs of adult ADHD for sure.
I found my third child to be extremely difficult to manage when he started getting close to the age of 2. Having practiced positive and attachment parenting from my first child, I still found my patience constantly tried and put to the test. I also homeschooled all my kids from the beginning. Before I realized my son was ADHD, I found coping mechanisms for myself, namely some deep well of patience I didn't know I had. I tapped into this by using a calm, slow voice (which actually sounds kind of psycho, but, hey, it works because it slows me down) and really focusing in on direct physical and mental contact with this child. Whereas my other children could be given verbal instructions, and could follow through with chores or activities with verbal interaction, my ADHD child needed actual hands on guidance to do the simplest tasks, like brush his teeth. The transition to bedtime hygiene every night involved a temper tantrum and I had to physically guide him into the bathroom and 'help' him brush his teeth until he was like 7 or 8.
I still remember a homeschool friend's shock when I also had to help him blow his nose at the age of 5 or 6. For me, it was normal to have to stop everything and guide this child. Because he was home with me, I could do this, and did it gladly. Somewhere along the way, I looked up ADHD with impulsivity and he easily fits the diagnosis (this from some google search). My son has, or had the bolded:
DHD is a problem with inattentiveness, over-activity, impulsivity, or a combination. For these problems to be diagnosed as ADHD, they must be out of the normal range for the child's age and development.
Symptoms
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) divides the symptoms of ADHD into those of inattentiveness and those of hyperactivity and impulsivity.
To be diagnosed with ADHD, children should have at least 6 attention symptoms or 6 activity and impulsivity symptoms -- to a degree beyond what would be expected for children their age.
The symptoms must be present for at least 6 months, observable in 2 or more settings, and not caused by another problem. The symptoms must be severe enough to cause significant difficulties. Some symptoms must be present before age 7.
Older children have ADHD in partial remission when they still have symptoms but no longer meet the full definition of the disorder.
Some children with ADHD primarily have the Inattentive Type, some the Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, and some the Combined Type. Those with the Inattentive type are less disruptive and are easier to miss being diagnosed with ADHD.
Inattention symptoms:
Fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork
Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play
Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
Does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace
Difficulty organizing tasks and activities
Avoids or dislikes tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork)
Often loses toys, assignments, pencils, books, or tools needed for tasks or activities
Easily distracted
Often forgetful in daily activities
Hyperactivity symptoms:
Fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
Leaves seat when remaining seated is expected
Runs about or climbs in inappropriate situations
Difficulty playing quietly
Often "on the go," acts as if "driven by a motor," talks excessively
Impulsivity symptoms:
Blurts out answers before questions have been completed
Difficulty awaiting turn
Interrupts or intrudes on others (butts into conversations or games)
Actually, in writing this, I realize my eldest has the inattentive type, but I missed it, as he was a frustrating and stubborn child and student, but functional overall. (and he just aced his SAT!)
I think the key is totally as insatiable curiosity said,
environment control is essential for these kids. I never thought of putting him on meds or even having him officially diagnosed. I knew that with extra effort on my part, we could function, and we have. He is easily my most creative child, playing secret imaginative games for hours on end in his room. He is now almost 12 and he still has all the symptoms he did before, including impulsivity, but he has learned how to control himself, and the difficulties have been conditioned out of him, resulting in such a low frequency that now it really isn't a problem anymore, and nobody really notices he's even got ADHD.
I am an adherent to nature>nurture, but
conditioning works.
I used to not even be able to go to friend's homes because he would climb in their cupboards looking for cookies, despite all kinds of discipline to the contrary.
He was definitely a hands-on child from the ages of 2-10. How could I ever expect a teacher with 20-30 kids to manage that? I barely managed him with 4. It would be awesome if there was a class for these kinds of kids, a really small one, say no more than 6 with a trained teacher. But, alas, it is just easier to pop a pill, as with so many other things.........
And he is one of the only ones where I
struggle to figure out his type. I've tested his functions and he is off the charts for Fe,Ne,Ni, and has high Fi as well. Suffice it to say, he is highly intuitive, and people love him, and always have.
On another note, I recently stumbled across this new diagnosis:
Executive Functioning:
The term executive function describes a set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors. Executive functions are necessary for goal-directed behavior. They include the ability to initiate and stop actions, to monitor and change behavior as needed, and to plan future behavior when faced with novel tasks and situations. Executive functions allow us to anticipate outcomes and adapt to changing situations. The ability to form concepts and think abstractly are often considered components of executive function.
Description
As the name implies, executive functions are high-level abilities that influence more basic abilities like attention, memory and motor skills. For this reason, they can be difficult to assess directly. Many of the tests used to measure other abilities, particularly those that look at more complex aspects of these abilities, can be used to evaluate executive functions. For example, a person with executive function deficits may perform well on tests of basic attention, such as those that simply ask the individual to look at a computer screen and respond when a particular shape appears, but have trouble with tasks that require divided or alternating attention, such as giving a different response depending on the stimulus presented. Verbal fluency tests that ask people to say a number of words in a certain period of time can also reveal problems with executive function. One commonly used test asks individuals to name as many animals or as many words beginning with a particular letter as they can in one minute. A person with executive function deficits may find the animal naming task simple, but struggle to name words beginning with a particular letter, since this task requires people to organize concepts in a novel way.
Executive functions also influence memory abilities by allowing people to employ strategies that can help them remember information. Other tests are designed to assess cognitive function more directly. Such tests may present a fairly simple task but without instructions on how to complete it. Executive functions allow most people to figure out the task demanded through trial and error and change strategies as needed.
They must be testing with the game Scattergories here. And I know I personally SUCK at Scattergories. I always attributed that to my weaker Ne, but who knows.
Now, if this just isn't totally a weakness of Te, Ne, or Si or other various preferences, I don't know nada. Perhaps adults tend to forget that children are NOT well-rounded, and using a typology framework, they really only have a good grasp of ONE, maybe TWO (with one being much weaker), cognitive functions at a young age.
Lack of executive functioning also corroborates the seeming existence of P types typically having ADHD (ADHD seems to be diagnosed frequently along with lack of executive functioning). P types are not Te dom or aux. Makes you wonder if there IS somewhat a personality basis for some of these disorders.
I really tend to think of these disorders as a problem in our environment more than a problem with individuals. We take individuals and cram them into one homogenous environment, which is the suburban home, daycare, institutionalized education, and expect them all to behave basically the same.
Why can't anyone see that this the biggest disorder of all?