Eli Luber

During my first years of high school, I began to have difficulty with school work. My parents then had me tested for a learning disability after my teachers recommended it. I tested positive for a learning disability in visual motor processing and language processing. After my initial tests, I received extra time and other services that were available to help me cope with my deficits. Those preliminary methods were helpful in my success in high school, but lacked something once I went to college. Upon my entrance to the college atmosphere, I began to notice a tendency to get 'ancy' in lectures, make careless mistakes on tests and had difficulty sustaining attention when addressed. Once realizing these fairly new tendencies, I went online to see what 'answer' could shed light on my symptoms. After researching a little and filling in a self-evaluation disability survey, I discovered that my uncontrollable tendencies were clarified as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder.) "There are over 750 million people in the world today with some type of a disability."1 ADD is commonly known as a neurological disorder to the majority of society, however, studies have shown that people with ADD have unique qualities of creativity, intuition and intelligence.

People with ADD are unique. They possess a characteristic that doesn't pertain to the rest of the world. Being a part of a unique class explains why ADD is so misunderstood to the rest of society. ADD is classified as a behavioral syndrome because the typical symptoms are inattention, distractibility, restlessness and difficulty concentrating on one thing for any period of time.2 Along with these setbacks, people with ADD can be very creative artistically, verbally and in written speech. Also, they have a remarkable intuition to rely on their 'gut' feeling rather than to have actual proof when given a situation. This intuitiveness is such an enormous part of how I break down problems on tests or in real life situations. Intelligence is another powerful quality of many people with ADD. Having ADD doesn't classify people as having a disease or mental problem, it signifies that these people just have a different learning style. They may be just as smart, or even smarter, than the average person. Some people with the most intelligent minds in history have had ADD, and they became appreciated for their talents. Although ADD is known as an impairment to most people, the rest of the world is being educated on how intelligent these so called impaired people are.

Along with all the strengths of ADD, there are also set backs that can diversify the ADD learning style from everyone else. Time is a definite problem among people with ADD; because time is such a crucial factor in the world, it only makes things worse for people with ADD. Handing assignments in on time and taking tests under time restrictions can both be major struggles for people with ADD. Along with time management problems comes the job of completing tasks. To break this down easily, completing tasks involves knowing what steps have to be taken in getting something done. To a person with ADD, there is no set amount of steps because they don't see things as completely finished.3 Everyone has their own method for organization, which usually consists of a nicely kept desk where all important papers are placed in folders. Organization for those who have ADD can appear to be one behemoth pile of papers, although it is their method of organizing. This I can relate to, since my method of organization is a bunch of papers placed everywhere on my desk in no particular order. If ever asked to find a specific paper, I can do so in a matter of ten seconds. However, this method is only full proof if the pile isn't there for a long period of time. Since time management is a deficit it will affect the ability to spend effective effort on organizing.

Focusing is another problematic area for people with ADD; in fact, it's the main characteristic that sets back learning. ADD makes it harder for the brain to focus on one thing at a time, thus making it very easy to focus on many things at the same time, and this can be both good and bad. For instance, sitting still and paying attention to every word the professor says in lecture can be very difficult since there are impulses to pay attention to other stimuli. Although, if you have a job that requires you to be attentive to different machines at the same time, a person with ADD would feel right at home.

Even though there are challenges with ADD, it doesn't imply the individual is hopeless in overcoming difficulties. There are many individuals who struggled with ADD in the past and have learned ways to compensate for the problems associated with ADD. In fact many famous people have compensated for their disabilities all the way to stardom. Harry Anderson from the television show Night Court, has lived with ADD his whole life and has trouble reading even today without getting distracted.4 When rehearsing lines he uses his extraordinary memory to learn the new material instead of reading part by part. Robin Williams, one of today's most popular actors, has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). He currently takes medication called Ritalin, which calms down his hyperactivity, unless it is called for in his usual acting debuts.5 Steven Spielberg, probably the most successful director in history, has been diagnosed with ADD.6 He wrote and directed the movie E.T., which is one of the top five highest grossing movies in history, a considerably an amazing achievement by a man with an impairment.7 These men have all compensated for their difficulties so that they could go on living a wonderful life. With determination, any individual can overcome their problems with ADD and fulfil their dreams.

Lastly, being diagnosed with ADD recently has answered many of my questions about what was happening to me. Like the famous people mentioned, I also have taken extra steps to compensate for my disability so that I can get the most out of my studies.

This society would be less naïve about individuals with ADD if others took the time to educate themselves on disabilities. The best way to explain to ADD to others is to show them what it is like to have ADD. "It's like driving in the rain with bad windshield wipers. Everything is smudged and blurred and your speeding are along, and it's reeeeally frustrating not being able to see very well."8 Being creative, intuitive and intelligent are just a few of the remarkable qualities that people with ADD possess. Incisively, the commonly known impairment called ADD is beginning to be recognized as a 'gift'.

1) Famous People and Developmental Disabilities, n.d.

http://wwwo.delphi.com/disable/famous.html (28 February 2000).

2) "Encyclopedia Britannica", Attention Deficit Disorder, n.d., <http://www.eb.com/bol/search (28 February 2000).

3) Living With ADD, n.d., <http://www.livingwithadd.com

4) Same as #1

5) Same as #1

6) Same as #1

7) "Friends' Like These", Entertainment Weekly, March 1 2000, 49.

8) Edward M. Hallowell, What's It Like to Have ADD, n.d., http://www.add.org/main/abc/hallowel.htm (1 March 2000).