The Misery of Attention Deficit Minds

The Misery of Attention Deficit Minds
What to do with the non-conformists. This must be a constant irritant to people whose minds are focused and self directed in tidy and efficient ways. The drivers and organizers (usually supervisory and management players)of the world must be constantly frustrated by people like this. For many such non-programmed individuals, creativity, discernment of unusual patterns, distraction and dreaming (among some of the traits) are qualities that have their uses but then should be easily constrained and put back into their little box when other matters are more important (again in the minds of the drivers and the organizers as example personality types). Too often the individuals in charge have not been people who have ADD or ADHD and prefer that their rules, direction and guidance be obeyed like little tin soldiers all in a row. Individuals who have ADD and ADHD can to some degree - with constant Herculean effort and continuously conscious effort at control repress the creative and distractable curious nature in their minds to follow leads and directions though it is very much like asking a left handed individual to write with the right - it is anything but natural.
Part of the curious paradox is that the drivers of the world love to capitalize and utilize the creative and out of the box thinking capacity of these individuals but using it only as a resource that can be turned on and off with a word and only to the extent desired. Another part of the paradox is that individuals with ADD or ADHD generally can thrive within a structured environment but often this means understanding precisely what the rules of engagement are supposed to be and that these rules apply equally to everyone from the bottom up and top down. This includes having an understand of procedure, policy, consistency of instruction and often having written or electronically documented instruction as to what is to be or not to be done. This reliance of precision of procedure and structure so lauded and used by drivers and other personalities of management, suddenly becomes an undesirable attribute since the rules of accountability suddenly force all players to be equal and held to limits that are often prescribed by the drivers but conveniently ignored when the situation doesn't suit them. ADD'ers then become a problem and a trouble maker because they are attempting to follow those rules to the letter so that no misunderstandings will take place. Consequently, the ADD'ers can fall further afoul of management because in trying to play by the rules, management is unhappy about having to restrict themselves by committing to writing their own accountability.
To further illustrate this point, some of the primary tools of exceptionally intelligent minds (which ADD'ers are frequently known to possess) are the application of logic, reason, rule of law, probability, and a sense of fairness and ethical treatment in the work place, academic environment, and so forth. These tools are fantastic since they have historically been able to root out inconsistencies in policy, behavior, objectives and so forth. These tools can expose someone who relies on the rule by decree policy as inconsistent, irrational and or absurd. Quite often, managers and supervisors become very hostile to the use of these tools as it forces them to intellectually concede that they really are not exercising fairness or consistency or even common sense in their day to day role. In addition, given the creative faculties of ADD'ers it is no secret that new ways of approaching problems can be seen as non-conformist, threatening or irrelevant to the immediate task at hand. While this may be true, to marginalize and fail to recognize such potential contributions only exacerbates any relationship by demonstrating ignorance and intolerance on the part of supervisory or management teams and continued frustration and non-conformity by the ADD'er.
As any workplace situation continues to degrade and sour, eventually it becomes a simple matter of writing up or disciplining a person with ADD due to performance. This can become the single most abused tool by management since it avoids the legal and ethical considerations imposed by the Americans with Disabilities Act. All to frequently, management does not want to work with, accommodate or make any concessions for individuals they cannot control in precisely the way they choose especially if it concerns matters of anothers mind.
To be sure, it is not only supervisors and bosses that fall into this self limiting and often cruel pattern. Large segments of society, medicine and insurance carriers refuse to acknowledge or severely limit opportunities or coverage for such conditions as ADD especially when considering the adult population. The very medicines engineered for depression, OCD, Anxiety and ADD that have proven results are often not covered or limited because of a disbelief in the existence of the disorder itself. How many adults will continue to be labeled as trouble makers, lazy, unfocused, misfit, not a good match, can't perform as expected and so on and so forth when they are unable to obtain medical and pharmaceutical treatment for these same disorders? How long was it that individuals suffering from Melancholy, Dementia, and other organic illnesses and disorders of the mind were simply locked up as degenerate diseased individuals? If diabetes occurs then one takes insulin to help regulate blood sugar; if irregular heartbeats plague a patient, then medicines or intervention is required to stabilize the rate and regularity. Patients generally are not forced to do heavy loads that could exacerbate the heart condition or bottom out the sugar level at the work place, yet individuals with mental non-conformities and disorders are treated as problems at best pariahs at worst.
When I learned that an insurance carrier refused to carry treatment or Rx for ADD in adults I immediately asked why. There is no clear answer to this except that the disorder in adults must be held in a state of incredulity and contempt by decision makers in the industry who choose to disbelieve or ignore the disorder. I have often imagined a stark scenario where a non-believing individual who makes these decision regarding treatment and coverage is put in an impossible situation such as follows:
A panel of decision makers within a given company who denies coverage on the basis of not believing the disorder is real is held against their will in a room and forced to watch a television set. As they watch, they are forced to behold their family members in a room slowly filling with water - something like the movie The Drowning Pool. The individual holding them hostage in his honest but misguided effort to force recognition tells them that the individual responsible for turning off the water in time has a case of attention deficit that is untreated. His daily task includes a variety of duties that take him around and during the day he was told verbally that he needed to shut off the water valve for repairs. He is unaware of the people inside. At the end of the day the executives are forced to consider whether or not the man will have turned off the water in time despite being tasked in different directions by various supervisors. How convinced are they that the disorder does not exist in adults when their own vested interests and loved ones are on the line?
This example, of course, proves nothing about the existence of Attention Deficit from a clinical standpoint and could go either way depending on a variety of factors. It does, however, underscore the undeniable recognition that if someone is distractable, scatterbrained and not given clear direction in writing, that the comfort and reliability factor begin to drop significantly. That would beg the question of why is there a difference between two individuals who are assigned the task - one with and the other without ADD. To be sure, it can also demonstrate the ability of ADD'ers in their creativity to not only think productively and beautifully but to conjure up the darkest of images and torments for those who torment them.
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