Simply Special!

Excerpt from Ben's new book, Simply Special:

"There's a book by Thom Hartmann, called ADD Success Stories. In this book, Hartmann shares a great theory about where ADD characteristics originated. He also explains why these characteristics get such a bad rep in our modern society using a theory he calls the Hunter vs. Farmer. After reading Hartmann's description of "the hunter" and "the farmer", it was easy to see which group I fell into. The ability to notice everything at once, the impulsivity or being able to switch my focus at a moment's notice, the desire for excitement and stimulation, the restlessness, all these qualities would have gotten me a lot of food and leather way back in the day. I'm definitely a Hunter! But, within the regimented, organized and scheduled confines of the modern American school system these characteristics as well as my Dyslexia lead to a diagnosis of LD (and later ADD). Unfortunately, in school, all my Hunter characteristics worked against me.

Isn't it interesting that the clash between ADD qualities and the behavior expected from a school child became a list of symptoms that is now collectively known as ADHD? Let's just say that today's society likes to reward people who work within the system, rather than those whose primary goal is to go out and fetch their own meat!

Thom Hartmann's theory got me all riled up. I was a Hunter!! How cool is that? Here again was another confirmation that ADD is not just an ordinary disorder where everything about it is negative. It's clear, that given the right environment, ADDers can minimize a lot of their struggles and make full use of their "hunter" qualities in order to lead successful and productive lives.

When I got my official diagnosis in my 20's, I decided to pick the doctor's brain;

"If someone asks me what ADD is, what do I tell them?"

He thought about it for a moment and said,

"Tell them that it's a neurological syndrome that causes things like distractibility, impulsivity, restlessness, procrastination, disorganization, and impatience..." He went on for a bit, but by then I had already tuned him out. All I remember is that he used big words like prefrontal cortex, neurotransmitters, neuroreceptors, and polypeptide bonds. (Okay, I threw in the polypeptide bonds just for fun. It is one of the only words I remember from science class. What can I say? It's a cool word!)

Anyway, those words may offer insight into the science behind the workings of an ADDer's brain and lead to all kinds of stimulating discussions...but only among scientists and doctors. What do those words mean to you? If you're like me, not a heck of a lot! They are just weird sounding words. And what about the summary of symptoms? Being defined by those qualities didn't exactly make me feel like a winner. Is there anybody out there that really wants to be known for being an undisciplined, disorganized, unreliable bobble-head who has a major foot-in-mouth disease? I think not!

Still, I knew deep down that there was more to ADD than what the scientific community had made of it. I got tired of hearing the same cliched explanations and words and took matters into my own hands. (Watch out world!) After I read Hartmann's Hunter vs. Farmer theory, I knew that the Hunter characteristics were great to have...just not in the suburbs of modern America. What bothers me more than anything is that so many of the people I come across - kids, parents, teachers, business professionals - have a lot of misconceptions about ADD. Most people appear to be focused on all the ways that ADD made life difficult for an ADDer and those around them. Very few people recognize that those same qualities, given the right environment and with the right approach, could be an asset to the ADDer and the people closest to them. That's when I started sharing about my ADD more and more.