> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Reggie Bautista
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> Have you ever considered the possibility you might have Attention Deficit > Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or a learning disorder?
With all due respect to those who truly have problems in this area, I think that if ADD/ADHD diagnosis had been as much in vogue 40 years ago as it has been in recent years, I would probably have received such a diagnosis. I was generally bored all the way through elementary and high school, even in so-called "accelerated" or "gifted" classes (I was not kidding at all when I said that (1) they jumped me up to the second grade after a week and a half in the first grade and (2) they would not tell my parents what my IQ was, only that it was the second highest they had seen), and so tended to be rather restless go over something I had already long since understood. So I was a bit of a "behavior problem," and I suspect that some teachers wish there had been a drug that would make me sit still, and I have to wonder how many of those kids diagnosed with ADD/ADHD today are really just like I was then: bored out of their minds and restless.
Again, I recognize that some people, both children and adults, have genuine problems which may be helped by these medications. Based on my own experience, though, I have to wonder if there are not a lot without a genuine illness who are being medicated to get them to "behave."
A couple of years ago, after a friend was diagnosed with ADD and his descriptions of the characteristics of it sounded so familiar that I started reading quite a bit about it. The books all read like the story of my life, down to a really surprising number of details.
So far, mine hasn't.
Some important things to know... ADD and ADHD describe a spectrum of symptoms/characteristics. We *all* have them to one extent or another. The important things are the degree to which you have them and the degree to which they interfere with your life.
And it depends on what you call "interfering."
When I was in high school during the late sixties, I went to summer school in order to get some of the required courses (mostly social studies) out of the way so I could take more electives during the regular school year. By that time I was a little less restless. During one such class, I spent much of my time working on my designs for unmanned probes to land on the Moon, Mars, as a follow-up/supplement to the _Apollo_ missions which were going on then. The teacher knew about it, too, and what's more, approved. I still passed the course.
-- Ronn! :)
Almighty Ruler of the all, Whose Power extends to great and small, Who guides the stars with steadfast law, Whose least creation fills with awe, O grant thy mercy and thy grace, To those who venture into space.
(Robert A. Heinlein's added verse to the Navy Hymn)
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