ADHD & Publicity

September 2005 - Volume II - Issue IX

ADHD - Publicity- Good & Bad

Statement: My intent in this newsletter is to express as quickly as possible my own beliefs and opinions on matters. I have no problems with people who disagree with my opinion and have even been swayed to rethink my position from time to time. We are still taking book orders for my new book "ADHD and The Criminal Justice System" and you can get my author's discount from the AMAZON.COM or go to this link http://www.addcorridorcoaching.com/book.asp

The first ADHD poster a positive approach to ADHD is also available at this web site
http://www.addcorridorcoaching.com/poster.asp

NEWSLETTER

It seems that not a month or sometimes a week goes by that I don't see an article in a newspaper or on the net that discusses the CONTROVERSY of the increase in diagnosis of ADHD in Adults. Some of these are well written and others I believe perpetuate the typical stereotypes of persons with ADHD as being excuse makers and slackers looking for a reason not to work up to our potential. Anyone that has ADHD and grew up with it from childhood as we all did would know that it would certainly have been easier for us to comply and do what we were expected to do and achieve our potential rather than go through all of the hassles of dealing with others on our ADHD issues. I feel in my life and probably in most of yours that the effort put forward to simply comply and fit in would have been a lot less than the effort it took us to respond to the criticisms, disappointment to others, and not reaching our full potential. Since most of us are above average in intelligence why would we select voluntarily to go through all this pain and suffering. In my opinion we wouldn't and as adults we still wouldn't do this voluntarily.

A few months ago I wrote in my newsletter about the ADHD brain being like a computer screen saver (here is the link to my past newsletters) www.addcorridorcoaching.com/newsletters.asp

I think that it is not a matter of won't do the things we need to do but CAN'T and by this I do not mean its impossible. I simply mean that doing things that are mundane, difficult for us or not stimulating enough has a tendency to shut down our brains, like the screen saver on the computer no data comes in and none is going out. Others perceive this as laziness and unmotivated. I do not. I view it as a frustrating tendency of my mind not to work correctly at times when I sure would prefer that it did. ADHD is ten times more frustrating to us who have it then it is to those we are around (although you might get a convincing argument from those around us). Some of us are also more aware of our impact on situations and other people than others which is an asset.

At any rate back to the publicity issue. I get so upset when I hear Tom Cruise and John Travolta (some of my more favorite actors) going on television with this Church of Scientology stuff about us poisoning our children and the non existence of some well recognized mental disorders such as depression and ADHD. Then you have college professors writing articles like this one about how he CURED ADHD

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050907.shtml

Here is the link to Mike Adams web site he is a Criminology Professor at University of North Carolina, Wilmington http://www.dradams.org/

Then there are some balanced articles like this one
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/Article/112/110271.htm

I would urge those of you who feel you can to speak up and write back to people who write articles both for and against ADHD and try not to get too emotional in doing so as we tend to want to blast away. Take some time do some editing and use some tact. I think any publicity can advance our cause because if you are like me you know that ADHD exist and all the bad articles in the world are not going to change our resolve.

Thanks and talk to you next month

Patrick Hurley
addcorridorcoach@aol.com

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